As a college student, I have experienced a day or two running on high amounts of caffeine and a very low amount of sleep, but I cannot imagine doing that for months straight. However, for some journalists who are only a few years older than me, this is their reality. Fast food, fast driving and even faster reporting is is the crazy and hectic life of the contemporary campaign embed reporter.
When comparing the NBC News campaign embed reporters to Timothy Crouse's "boys on the bus," there appear to be more differences than similarities. Sure, the over all job description is the same: follow the candidate during their pursuit for the presidency. Although, virtually everything else has changed.
The book "The Boys on the Bus" takes place in the early 70s. A time when the majority of reporters "on the bus" piggy-backed story ideas off of big-wig political reporters such as Johnny Apple and Walter Mears. These journalists typically had only one deadline a day and were essentially shown what to write about by other news sources. In today's world of political journalism, this is not the case at all.
Political embeds of today are shown lugging heavy amounts of video equipment, texting sources from various campaigns and typing feverishly over laptops. They want to write unique stories and fight to break news that no one else is covering (video camera or cell phone always in hand). Clearly, the main cause for this split in campaign coverage is technology. Innovative tools such as Twitter and personal editing software allow embeds to follow the campaign trail physically and virtually. However, this increased access to instant information appears to make the field more competitive, more demanding and more diverse.
Perhaps the most encouraging difference to me is that the majority of these "boys" on the bus are now women, according to National Public Radio.
By no means am I saying that political embeds today are much more important and skilled than their forefathers. I have the utmost respect for journalists of the past who helped pave the way to the journalism I now know and love. But I can't help but have an immense amount of admiration for these young people who are literally sacrificing months of their lives for something they are so passionate about. I personally couldn't imagine doing what contemporary embeds do, but given the opportunity, I definitely would not turn it down.
When comparing the NBC News campaign embed reporters to Timothy Crouse's "boys on the bus," there appear to be more differences than similarities. Sure, the over all job description is the same: follow the candidate during their pursuit for the presidency. Although, virtually everything else has changed.
The book "The Boys on the Bus" takes place in the early 70s. A time when the majority of reporters "on the bus" piggy-backed story ideas off of big-wig political reporters such as Johnny Apple and Walter Mears. These journalists typically had only one deadline a day and were essentially shown what to write about by other news sources. In today's world of political journalism, this is not the case at all.
Political embeds of today are shown lugging heavy amounts of video equipment, texting sources from various campaigns and typing feverishly over laptops. They want to write unique stories and fight to break news that no one else is covering (video camera or cell phone always in hand). Clearly, the main cause for this split in campaign coverage is technology. Innovative tools such as Twitter and personal editing software allow embeds to follow the campaign trail physically and virtually. However, this increased access to instant information appears to make the field more competitive, more demanding and more diverse.
Perhaps the most encouraging difference to me is that the majority of these "boys" on the bus are now women, according to National Public Radio.
By no means am I saying that political embeds today are much more important and skilled than their forefathers. I have the utmost respect for journalists of the past who helped pave the way to the journalism I now know and love. But I can't help but have an immense amount of admiration for these young people who are literally sacrificing months of their lives for something they are so passionate about. I personally couldn't imagine doing what contemporary embeds do, but given the opportunity, I definitely would not turn it down.