Credit: https://newsreel.org/video/THE-BLACK-PRESS-SOLDIERS-WITHOUT-SWORDS
Last year, Dr. Stacey Patton, my then professor in a course named Digital Media Literacy, introduced our class to digital media savant Mark Briggs and his 2007 book, Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive. Described as “[a] digital literacy guide for the information age,” this then Howard University sophomore was not so hot on Briggs or his literacy guide. I remember reading Chapter 5 of Journalism 2.0 with amusement, agreeing wholeheartedly with Briggs’ assessment that the word blog “doesn’t sound the least bit revolutionary, technologically savvy, or cutting-edge.” Then, as now, I declared that the only term I hated more than “blog,” was “vlog.”
At the time, I had completed Howard University’s mandatory freshman English composition courses and was more concerned with mastering the intricacies of the APA Guidelines, the MLA Style Manual, the Associated Press Stylebook, and all I had learned my freshman year in a mandatory online grammar curriculum named EGUMPP. I couldn’t pivot to Briggs’ philosophy of “think[ing] of your blog as an email to someone you know.” And for me, a dyslexic, ADHD afflicted, would-be blogger and vlogger, posting everyday seemed like impossible, unnecessary busy work. I understood the potential benefits of using a blog or vlog: they could serve as platforms to share my work, connect with the African American community, and even spark conversations around social issues and policy solutions. But as a sophomore, I saw blogs and vlogs purely through an artistic lens—as tools to showcase the lives of oppressed people through the medium of photography and film.
Then, my junior year rolled around. What a difference a year makes. I watched a documentary entitled, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords shortly after Dr. Patton reintroduced her students to Briggs, blogs, and vlogs. Suddenly, I experienced a proverbial “light bulb moment”! Everything Briggs, Patton, my now Visual Journalism professor, and Professor Sam P.K. Collins, my Multicultural Media History instructor, made me understand the importance of innovation in multimedia journalism, especially as members of the Black press. Today, this Howard University junior and aspiring photo and multimedia journalist is no longer a reluctant blogger or vlogger. Logan Johns 2.0 “gets it.” I now see both blogging and vlogging as critical steps forward in the evolution of the Black press. They are indispensable weapons in the never-ending fight for Black liberation, much like the Black journalists in Soldiers Without Swords who wielded their pens and newspapers to combat racism and oppression.
What if I were to approach my blog and vlog as tools of Black activism, just as early Black journalists used their platforms? In a world where far-right news outlets like FOX News consistently engage in anti-Black media framing, skewing public perceptions of Black America, an interactive, daily blog and vlog could offer an antidote—unbiased, truthful coverage of Black life. I now imagine what my photographs, videos, blog posts, and vlogs could contribute to reframing media narratives around issues like anti-Black police violence.
I thought about former president Donald Trump speaking before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago over the summer, stating that Vice President Kamala Harris, … [W]as always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?
The power of blogs, vlogs, and visual storytelling to combat such racist rhetoric and media framing became clear to me. Images, stories, and reflections on Black identity can serve as weapons against attempts to diminish or distort our experiences as members of the Black diaspora. Blogs, vlogs, and photographs of the Trump interview and different images of Black identity were, and can continue to be, a powerful weapon against these antics.
This year, I will say that Briggs is correct about blogs giving people an opportunity to tell their stories, amplify their voices, and create meaningful connections with others. I can still see the headline for my first photography installation now- “Logan Johns: Chronicling the Black Experience Through Photography.” But even more importantly, today, I see myself as a “soldier without a sword,” armed with my camera, my blog, my vlog, and my voice.
In the spirit of what Briggs calls a “Blogroll,” here is a link to my new favorite blog, “ Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power”.
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