With just a video camera and web access, Kevin Sites will be covering war zones for Yahoo at hotzone.yahoo.com. According to the NYT:
Mr. Sites intends to visit over the course of a year every place on earth that is defined by international organizations as a war or conflict zone. The list is evolving but is likely to include about 36 countries.
As he travels to these places, Mr. Sites will write a 600- to 800-word dispatch each day and produce a slide show of 5 to 10 digital photographs. He will also narrate audio travelogues. There will be several forms of video - relatively unedited footage posted several times a week, and once a week, a more traditional video report, edited in the style of a network news broadcast.
Mr. Sites will also be the host of regular online chats with Yahoo users who will be able to post comments on message boards. And he will post quick text messages on the site updating his activities throughout the day.
Kevin Sites was one of the amici on the Apple Bloggers brief I drafted. He covered the Iraq war, posting updates and pictures on his blog.
From the brief:
Amicus Kevin Sites is an Edward R. Murrow Award winning journalist who has worked in local, cable and network news, including ABC's This Week with David Brinkley and NBC's Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. He has also published many articles in newspapers and magazines and was the author of a monthly media column for the New Times alternative weekly. He uses portable, digital technology to report, write, edit and transmit his stories from conflict areas around the world. During the Iraq War, while an embedded correspondent for CNN, he published updates on his weblog, kevinsites.net, using text, digital images and audio give his readers a more intimate behind-the-scenes look at the people of Iraq, the war and how it was being covered. The site received millions of visits, and continues to draw an active readership. Mr. Sites believes he is likely to increase the amount of reporting he publishes using the Internet, however he will not be able to do so if he cannot promise sources confidentiality for materials he publishes on the web.
Take a look at the amazing work he's doing and ask whether you think he should be treated as a journalist, or not, and whether association with a 'traditional media organization" should matter, or not. I don't see how where he publishes and for who-- on the web, for Yahoo, self-publishing, or for NBC-- should make any difference. His works virtually screams that it is journalism of the best and most important kind, and he should be able to promise confidentiality to his sources, no matter where or how he chooses to publish.
Good Luck Kevin! And please, be safe.