When I left CNN after 16 years of covering the U.S. military, I knew exactly what I wanted to do next. I immediately enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Maryland to prepare for a long-anticipated transition to academia.
And I would humbly suggest my combination of editorial gravitas, technical expertise, practical experience, demonstrated journalism ethics, and general versatility makes me uniquely qualified to teach aspiring journalists how to employ new media in the craft of visual storytelling. Plus, I'm funny, easy to get along with, and work well with others.
I am an old hand, but one who is young-at-heart, with an infectious enthusiasm for all the ways new technology has made storytelling more accessible. I am a lifelong-learner with a boundless curiosity about the world and how it works, from every perspective – political, social, and technological – and I enjoy sharing that with students.
I'm a teacher. It takes a different skill set to teach reporting, than it does to DO reporting. Currently, I teach multimedia reporting to undergrads and graduate students at the University of Maryland. In my course we use high-definition pocket cameras and Final Cut video editing software to produce web videos. I get consistently high marks from my students for my teaching style and instructional materials, as well as my patience. In the past I have also taught advanced television reporting, radio reporting, podcasting, and still photography.
I'm a journalist. I spent the beginning of my career as a hustling radio reporter, the middle as a TV reporter and network correspondent, and over the past decade I have morphed into a multi-platform journalist, who has shot, edited, and filed my own stories from the field, sometimes from war zones under austere conditions.
I am a practitioner. I practice what I teach. I am a blogger, writing on military and media issues at Jamie McIntyre's Line of Departure (http://lineofdfeparture.com). I shoot and edit video stories for my website, and have written for other publications as varied as The Daily Beast to the American Journalism Review. I also fill in on a regular basis as a news anchor at WTOP radio in Washington, and do occasional voice-over work narrating documentaries. (I was once the voice of C-SPAN, back in the early 1990s.)
I am a thoughtful critic. I think and write a lot about journalism both in practice and theory. In my role as a media critic I have appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources," NPR's "On the Media," The Fox News Channel, and even Russia Today. I argue for the highest standards while appreciating the demands of the 24/7 news cycle.
In short, at the real risk of sounding imprudently immodest, I'm not sure you will find a candidate more perfectly suited to teach visual storytelling at the Medill School of Journalism in Washington. I am the complete package: tech-savvy, battle-tested, expert in video and audio, both in front of and behind the camera and microphone.
Everywhere I have worked I have been considered among the best at what I do, and no boss has ever regretted hiring me. You won't either. I guarantee it!
