• NABJ Convention 2010 San Diego, California July 28, 2010-August 1, 2010

  September 9, 2010

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  public   affairs  

   

  This year, the National Association of Black Journalists celebrated its 35th anniversary at their annual convention. Every year, the organization holds a convention in different cities around the country for professionals and students to network and fellowship and also discusses the future of the journalism industry for minorities.

  I first heard about NABJ through my Army public affairs mentor, MSG Sparks, who is currently the Public Affairs Chief for U.S. Special Operations Command – Europe in Germany. He is an active member in the organization and has attended a few conventions and suggested I become a member. I joined the student chapter of NABJ in 2006 at my university, Florida A&M University. After attending a few bi-monthly meetings I decided to join the national organization to expand my networking opportunities. Since my membership, I have attended the past three conventions in Chicago, Tampa and most recently San Diego.

  The importance of me attending this year’s convention was to educate the civilian media about what it is that the military media does in a combat zone as field reporters and media escorts. I have been inspired to voice the interest in getting the military public affairs to get more involved in the civilian media arena. This year, the U.S. Army had a booth set up and Col. Rivers Johnson, currently the U.S. Cyber Command PAO at Fort Meade, Maryland was the subject matter expert for the military public affairs.

  At the convention there were numerous panels discussing different facets of the media: sports, entertainment, business, etc. To my delight this year, there was a panel discussing the media embedding process overseas in combat zones. I was unable to attend the panel, but I received feedback from Col. Johnson and Chris Lawrence, CNN Pentagon correspondent and recent embedded reporter in RC-South. Many journalists don’t know about embedding opportunities and have misconceptions about the experience of reporting from a war zone. I spoke on a panel also to student members about my military public affairs experience to bring awareness of alternative career opportunities. I may not have sent anyone to the recruiter’s office that day, but I did pique the interest of young, open-minded individuals who may look at career options in government public affairs.

  During my leave, I met with representatives from print publications, websites and news agencies all hungry to hear and see what we do on a day to day basis, not only from the eye of an embedded reporter, but also from the Soldier themselves. People are interested in seeing more about the war than the death toll and remarks from the highest-ranking officer in theater. I would like to see more initiative of engagement to bridge the gap between the military and civilian media to gain support and increase media interest to RC-East.

  Next year, I hope to attend the Convention in uniform to discuss my experiences working in RC-East and possibly create a task-force for members to join who are uniformed public affairs personnel, embedded reporters, members of military-themed publications and news stations and whoever else interested. I would also challenge members of the military public affairs of other nationalities to bring the same attention to their respective organizations: National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian-American Journalists Association and Native American Journalists Association. I know these initiatives will take time to progress, but with support and dedication, the media gap can become smaller.
   

  submitted by Staff Sergeant C Black on Sep 9 2010

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