Bear your backpack with pride!

I was looking forward to reading Martha Stone’s article, because I knew I’d disagree with it. As a master’s student, I am creating my own track of study that emphasizes new media and online journalism, in the hopes that I’ll be highly employable when I graduate. In other words, I want to be a backpack journalist—I want to be able to do everything—so naturally, Stone’s article wouldn’t make any sense to me.
But I was surprised that I found some of her points valid. Like when she wrote that it isn’t backpack journalists that can push media companies into the digital age, but “The real changes must take place with top-down management’s support and action… and a reorganization from monomedia silos to integrated multimedia operations and journalism.” I think this is an interesting point: Backpack journalists sure can do a whole lot of cool tricks, but they can’t single-handedly change the attitude, plans and budget of an entire media organization.
I also agreed when she wrote, “The development of multimedia journalism can’t be a bargain-basement proposition. It must be an investment.” The media needs to embrace the multimedia world—and that comes at a price. Fortunately, though, backpack journalists are a not-so-expensive avenue to help discover the Brave New World of multimedia: it’s like 4 journalists for the price of one! Take advantage of the sale, folks.
But I find agreeing too much gets boring, so I must say “Psh” and “Rubbish” to Stone’s claim that backpack journalists are “jack of all trades, master of none.” Please. Quit thinking of it in the old-school categorical terms, and think of backpack journalists as masters of multimedia. ‘Nuff said.