Category: Reporting

Raining

Both figuratively and literally.

If bad things come in threes, how many good things come at once?

I’m working on a NHPR project, a Charitable Fund project, a New Hampshire Grand project and my Reporter work. Several other interesting offers have come up, and USF–Iraq got back to me to explain what I need to do to make the Iraq trip happen. It’s so much I’ve barely got time to write.

But the NHPR piece, which is about the fate of the Cascade mill, makes me take pause. The operation is in limbo, and the solution needs to come quick for the 237 jobs to remain. What will that mean for this area? It means the federal prison needs to hurry up and open.

It’s interesting that the debate is how to keep this facility open. The workers would be in trouble if the jobs go away, but the long term viability of paper-making in the United States is by no means given, even with the proposed improvements. It again comes back to the large scale retooling of the workforce.

But what does that mean for the people left behind? Nothing good, as far as I can tell. For them it’s raining too, but in an entirely different way.

New Tools

I got a new lens the other day, a 35 f1.8. I took it out for a spin briefly while on my porch today, and I’m pleased with the result:

The tools of reporting are changing, and trying to keep up with the times is a big part of 21st century journalism. I tote a camera with me everywhere I go, but I also take an audio recorder, a microphone and the ability to shoot video. Not much else will fit in my little bag.

I sent a followup email to the U.S. Forces—Iraq media office to see where I am with my embed request. They responded everything looked good, but they will be back to me shortly. That has got me thinking once again about what tools I’d shove in a bag to the Middle East.

I’m going primarily for radio, but there isn’t a chance I’d leave behind a camera. But on top of my reporting gear, the list includes a bulletproof vest, a helmet, ballistic goggles and armor piercing plates—that’s a bit more kit than I’m accustomed to.

How do you get the story home? What is the best way tell it? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now. With the Reporter, I’m primarily a writer. I shoot photos as well, but most of my time is spent researching and writing stories, only one of the mediums I love to work in.

Some of the freelance work I’ve been doing recently is audio production, one of the best mediums to tell stories. I’d love to be doing more of that. Much of the motivation for the Iraq trip is to build my radio resume, because reporting from the Middle East is exactly what I’d love to be doing.

But a huge chunk of my recent work has been video, a fuller medium to work in. I just put together my first piece for a new northern New Hampshire client, something that will hopefully help raise the region’s profile in the long run.

It’s great to work in so many mediums—I’m not sure I could choose just one. The way of the future for reporters is to be able to handle it all, as new software and better equipment makes it possible for anyone to create.

But I spend thousands of dollars, on microphones, computers, lenses, cameras, cables and memory cards. I’m ordering new software: $170 and $450; new lens: $550; new audio recorder: $600. It’s a race to keep the equipment ahead of the curve, and at the same time keep my credit card below the limit.

But the results! I just shot a video with one of my cameras and edited it all in a day. I’ll post the results as soon as I’ve given it to the client, but it’s great, particularly how it got used. Running through the woods, jumping over rocks, splashing through rivers, it performed throughout.

But getting shot at in Iraq? That’s a bit more testing. I took $4,000 in camera equipment to Peru, and it made it back fine, but that wasn’t a war zone, literally. Expensive tools plus desert sand sounds like a perfect storm for their demise.

An opportunity like this, however, should it arrive is not something to be passed over lightly. There will always be new tools.

Iraq?

It’s been more than a month since I put my application in to the United States Forces–Iraq to embed with a New Hampshire reserve unit near Baghdad, and I’m still waiting. I’m still hoping.

It’s a weird feeling, to be hoping to see war. I’m not someone who is wrapped up in the romanticized vision of war reporting, but I do see a value in having people there. In this contentious political climate, with candidates vying for votes based on their positions on the Afghanistan War, it’s worth remembering there are New Hampshire soldiers in Iraq, our new “forgotten war.”

How quickly the perspective shifts. Several years ago Afghanistan was ignored, and Iraq was melting. Now it’s flipped, with fewer than 50,000 troops in Iraq and mounting casualties in Afghanistan. How do you focus a nation’s attention on a war with multiple fronts? Ask Truman, I guess.

I want to go there. I want to catch people up on what it means to be a soldier, what it means to still have troops there, even if it’s “only 50,000.” They do not deserve to be forgotten, even if the other war is more pressing.

If I get the go-ahead I’ll have to push the dates back. I had planned on going in November, but then things got hectic. Now I’m looking for somewhere in January.

Why? Because I need $2,000 in body armor, plus shatterproof goggles, Nomex gloves and a helmet. That’s a big portion of my annual income, but as I told my wife, “Don’t worry, I’ll be able to use it to go to Afghanistan.” That didn’t go over well.

I’m still waiting, but I’m no longer on the edge of my seat. I imagine I’ll hear sometime soon, at which point I can toss a bunch of money out the window and get on a plane. Who knows, I just might like it. But most importantly, whether you like it or not, you’ll hear about what is going on there. That’s the most important thing, lest we forget.

Down South

Well, today I went to 14,000 feet to get used to the altitude, and for my trouble I got a splitting headache. Tomorrow we are headed to a nearby rock climbing are to test our climbing skills at altitude, and then we’ll head east to begin our adventure in earnest.
I have to admit, walking around here, climbing seems like a frivolous thing to be writing about. I’m happy to do it, but the poverty, the inequity and the ecological degradation seem more pertinent.
But the market for such stories is limited. Stories about leisure and travel sell, stories about poor people in developing countries don’t.
I’m really interested in this opportunity in Iraq, and I am hoping to maybe leverage that experience into more of that type of work–international reporting of consequence. I get to do that kind of work at the Reporter, from time to time breaking truly important stories. I’d like to do that more places.
Regardless, I’ve got an interesting story here, and it’s great experience. I’ve been able to get a few of the photos I need, but as we are just getting into the mountains I’ve got a lot more to get. Mostly I’ve just got to have a great time so I have something positive and upbeat to write about. That shouldn’t be too hard, as long as I don’t ascend 14,000 feet in two days again.

Packed…

My two bags are packed to the limit, and I still don’t have a place for my cameras. I’ve got ice tools, crampons, a tent and sleeping bag, ropes, a harness, and all sorts of other gear.  I’ve still got to add socks and flip-flops to the mix, but mostly I’m there.

This is a project that might make me a couple thousand dollars, in addition to providing me with a great vacation. Working at the paper is a good job, but it isn’t lucrative enough to convince me to give up other opportunities. I’ve got to chase them just to make it all come together.

In many ways I’m like Berlin: I’ve got to diversify. My staple industry just doesn’t pay the bills the way I’d like it to, so now I’ve got to figure out how to spread myself around to make that work.

I just finished a video project for a nonprofit client, making three short videos aimed at their various demographics. (These are the rough cuts. I just burned the final DVD today, but I’m not going upload updated clips to YouTube before we leave tomorrow.)

These are another example of what working in the modern media landscape means. It pays to have multiple skills, because as newspapers change they are edging out the promise of a secure profession. Having a bit of photo, video and audio skills, plus some design experience and website development, really helps. It makes it possible to live in the most seemingly impossible places, like northern New Hampshire.

I’ll be chasing after another branch of my diversification in the coming weeks, and then again when I head to Iraq (hopefully) this fall. And piecing it all together, if I can make it happen, should be quite rewarding.

It’s like reviving your economy with a prison or two, a biomass plant, a resurgent paper mill and some tourism dollars—not the same as the old model, but it can work if it’s the right combination.

So while my packs are almost packed, in some ways it’s my schedule that’s even more packed. At least every piece is baggage I’m excited to carry.

More Projects…

I am in the process of finishing up everything I need to do before I travel to Peru for three weeks of alpine climbing and work. In reality, those two are one and the same—I’m trying to put together the materials for a feature length article for an outdoor magazine about climbing on the east side of the Cordillera Blanca, the main climbing destination in Peru. Traditionally everyone climbs there from the west, based in Huaraz, but my climbing partner and I will be visiting the other side of the range, which is supposedly remote and untracked.

I’m taking my cameras in addition to my ice tools and crampons, and hopefully I’ll come back with enough material to pull the article together. I’m not much of a travel writer, choosing instead to focus on hard news, but I have a feeling if I can pull together the photos I can make this happen. It is a little disconcerting, however, to be going to South America with $4,000 in camera equipment when I’ll be spending most of my time in a tent.

It been interesting in the lead up to this, because as I’ve been getting ready to leave it seems more and more keeps happening around Berlin. Developments with the biomass projects and the Fraser mill are rapidly changing, and I’ve been trying to keep on top of them while preparing to leave.

I spoke to the woman who will be filling in for me for about an hour this morning to catch her up to speed on all of this. She will working in my stead for the three weeks I’m gone, so hopefully she got enough information to move forward.

I have to say, however, it is tough in an organization like the Reporter, where contacts and institutional memory are limited to individuals. I only have a year and a few months experience, but that has been invaluable recently in making connections that break stories. What the community needs is a reserve of those types of connections, not a shallowing of the well.

But I’ll only be gone a few weeks, which, in reality, isn’t that long. A lot will undoubtedly happen, but at the same time much will stay the same. That last part is unfortunate for the region, which needs so much to change.

More, but Lighter

Here is another look at informing the public, this time from the New York Times:

It’s an interesting model, and they urge people to become involved in local government. They are supporting democracy, using marksmanship as “a hook.”
I don’t have much to add, but this fit with the early post about involving people in democracy and connecting them to the realities of the larger world. Is it a conservative movement? The video implies it but doesn’t explicitly state it. But the program encourages civic participation, even if it has partisan leanings. It’s hard to criticize that.

The Real Thing

Someone posted this as an example of excellent coverage of the Afghanistan war. A brief warning: it’s not for the feint of heart.

This is more combat than I have any real desire to be in, but it illustrates a point I made earlier—more information is better. It’s a hard look at the reality the United States and its partners face around Afghanistan, where today the New York Times reported three U.S. soldiers were killed.

It’s interesting the limited capacity for war the American people have, particularly with two simultaneous conflicts going on. When Iraq was melting into sectarian violence no one asked about Afghanistan. Now it’s Afghanistan, formerly America’s “Forgotten War,” that is erupting into violence. The techniques—improvised explosive devices and suicide bombs—have been imported from Iraq, as have the casualties, which just climbed above 2,000.

This type of reporting is invaluable. It connects the viewer at home with the soldier on the field. U.S. and British citizens (the Guardian is a U.K. paper) can begin to understand what the war in Afghanistan looks like, and they can decide what level of importance they should place on foreign policy when they go to the voting booth.

Will it hurt or help the war effort? I’m not sure. No one wants to see young American soldiers die, but it’s more a matter of your view of the threats posed by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. Would it lead to more terrorist attacks, and is the current strategy affecting it? Those questions aren’t answered by the reporter in the field. They are hopefully addressed by reporters back home consulting with specialists and experts. But the reporter in the field gives context. They make it clear just what those decisions mean, on the ground, for one soldier and one family. They aren’t policies in a vacuum, and it takes people broadcasting or filing from the field to make the true impacts clear.

I’m still waiting to find out if that’s something I’ll be doing, but regardless I think it’s important when someone does it well, from a perspective rarely seen, to share it. This video is intimidating, but it brings reality home.

Time to Wait

So on Monday night, after council and typing up my story, I pulled together the last parts of my application to the international coalition that oversees reporter embeds in Iraq, and I sent it in.

I sent an application in, along with samples of my work, a copy of my passport, a head shot, and a letter from NHPR saying they were sponsoring me. Now I wait to hear back.

It’s a crazy idea, right? Going to a war zone is something of a tradition for reporters, but it doesn’t make it smart. If I go I’ve got to get body armor, so I’ve been shopping around for armor piercing plates and accessories to keep me safe. It’s a little disconcerting to see how many places you can still get shot, but some other reporters assured me things were settled in Iraq.

I’m hoping to embed with the 94th Military Police Company, a reserve unit out of Londonderry. I’m no soldier, and I have no real desire to see war, but the impact media can have on foreign policy and conflict is huge, and I think it’s important people hear what is happening.

Mostly I want to tell New Hampshire residents what their soldiers are doing in Iraq. The war has been winding down there for some time, and most media are focused on Afghanistan. But New Hampshire has a company of soldiers in Iraq, and their service shouldn’t be forgotten.

It’s a little difficult to wrap my head around, what it’ll be like, but it’ll certainly be an adventure. I spoke to a friend who spent 15 months in Iraq as an officer in the army, and he told me he could write a book about his experiences. As a New Hampshire resident and a non-military household, I don’t have frequent reminders about the conflict, or that people are still filling books with bad experiences. As members of a democratic nation, that’s a luxury I shouldn’t be allowed. Our votes affect these decisions and policies, and we shouldn’t make them uninformed.

Granted, my little excursion, should it happen, won’t likely shift voters in one direction or another. Nor should it. But it may add to their knowledge about what their fellow citizens are doing, and when joined with the rest of the reporting from the region create a little bit more complete picture. No reporter is “the media,” but hopefully collectively we can pull together enough vignettes to help people make informed decisions about governance. That’s why the press is protected by they first amendment.

And I get to do it in Berlin, on one scale. Reporting for NHPR is doing the same thing, on another scale. It gets interesting, however, when it’s national and international issues you’re talking about.

So I got an email back from the USF–I (U.S. Forces – Iraq) today, saying they received my application and will get back to me soon. I’m heading to Peru in less than a week to climb mountains, so hopefully they’ll let me know before I go. Then I’ve got to secure a flak jacket and helmet and figure out to fly to Kuwait. It’s an interesting proposition, being a reporter, but I can’t complain it ever gets boring.

Update

After a bunch of work between meetings today (I spent a long time waiting for calls back that never came) I pulled together a new banner for the website. It’s more generic, but clean.

I’ve got a couple freelance proposals out there that I’m hoping to take advantage of, so I’ve been trying to spruce up the site. I never fully finished it when I originally launched it, so now I’m trying to do that.

I’ve got a pitch in with a magazine to do a story on the Peru trip I have scheduled for August. A police officer asked if I was going to write something for the Reporter about it, but I just don’t see how I can make the connection.

For that pitch I updated my resume, which is up on the site as well. It’s important to be seen, I guess, when you’re telling companies you write.

Anyway, I’ve got 300 words to write about tonight’s council meeting, so I’ve got to get going on that. I love the weeks I totally botch my word count estimate for council. The agenda was short, but now I’ve got 1,000 words I’ve got to cram into a couple paragraphs. Awesome. It will go quickly, I imagine.