Backpack journalists immersing in disaster zones can collect more personal narratives from survivors of a disaster who feel less intimidated by their use of informal equipment.Ībstract The paper aims at understanding the intersections between technology and the professional practices in some of the new trends in journalism that are using the new tools: multimedia journalism, immersive journalism and data journalism. Drawing on the theories of emotional discourses in disaster reporting (Pantti, Wahl-Jorgensen & Cottle, 2012), media convergence and technological determinism, this article argues that journalists practising the backpack-style are confronted with more technical issues and even higher stress-level working in disaster zones, but being solo provides more opportunities to practise humanistic storytelling. It supports the notion that media convergence adds valuable new elements to storytelling and presentation of news but it only refines and not replaces traditional newsgathering methodologies. The study uses Typhoon Haiyan disaster as a case study and is based on an ethnographic analysis of the author’s backpack news production in post-disaster regions in the Philippines. This article offers an analysis of digital technologies’ implications on disaster reporting using the perspective of a journalism-documentary practitioner.

Inova text to speech for mac