The Defense Information School or How to Become a Military Photo-Journalist in 10 Easy Lessons

While the internet and civilian news sources are proliferated with images of combat journalists risking their lives for the best images that hopefully produce great ratings, the role of the military photojournalist or “PJ” is a little different. Military journalists are an asset – property if you will – and they don’t do anyone any good if they are shot. This is not to say risks are not involved when PJ’s are sent to Iraq or any other location around the world. But the job PJ’s are tasked with is to report the “soldier’s story”. Realism, not sensationalism is the keyword here.

Military photojournalists – whether shooting stills for a base newspaper or video for a local television newscast – also serve a great need in today’s military by covering and providing what is termed “command information”.

Command information can cover a wide range of topics: the importance of wearing sunscreen during the summer, or the need to keep valuables out of your car, or any number of other common-sense topics that the military public apparently needs to be reminded of day after day.

During my many years serving my country I always looked at the PJ’s job as a challenge. Although the most enjoyable part of the job was traveling to some foreign port-of-call and videotaping NATO field-training or whatever, it was just as much fun to produce a television commercial on “the importance of keeping your barracks room locked”.

Making the ordinary “extraordinary” is how I thought of it.

The road to riches as a military photojournalist begins at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland. The Basic Public Affairs Specialist-Broadcaster Course (BPAS-B) provides the knowledge and skills needed for broadcast journalists to support public affairs journalism and broadcast missions throughout the Armed Forces, while training students to assume the roles of military broadcasters in American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) outlets, on ship, post, base or station public affairs office anywhere in the world. The course provides instruction in the theory and principles of external and internal information, release of information to the public, research methods, detailed and complex instruction in radio and television operations, broadcast writing, voice and diction and the use and practical operation of the electronic news gathering system. Whew! And don’t forget – Army and Air Force students must pass a voice audition as a prerequisite for attendance.

Speaking of which�.

Auditions ensure prospective students can be trained as broadcast announcers in the limited time available during DINFOS training. All Army and Air Force broadcast candidates – active duty, National Guard or reserve – must pass a Voice Audition before they can be enrolled in the Basic Public Affairs Specialist-Broadcast course (BPAS-B) or the Broadcast Reclassification Course (BRC). Since the audition is an official academic pre-requisite and cannot be self-administered, you need to get your recruiter to contact the Broadcast Operations and Maintenance Department Academic Director by email or by phone at (301) 677-4370, DSN 622-4370 or (301) 677-3194, DSN 622-3194 for the DINFOS Voice Audition script.

This is an important – although time-consuming step. Many recruiters are fighting the clock in terms of signing someone up for military service. And often they’d just as well convince you to cut grass rather than produce the news. If any recruiter tells you to “sign up now and worry about the voice audition later” they’re full of hooey. (I’m not sure exactly what “hooey” isâÂ?¦but in the military “later” does not exist).

For information on how to submit a Voice Audition, download the DINFOS Voice Audition Letter of Instruction. For guidance on how to record an audition, listen to the DINFOS Voice Audition audio instructions. Please contact DINFOS if you have questions about either.

You don’t need to worry about an audition tape if you want to be a photographer. A “public affairs’ specialist has a little easier road to follow in terms of job fullfillment.

You can record your voice audition in Mp3 formatâÂ?¦on a cassette or even at your local radio station. Assuming you are accepted – THEN you sign up and after basic training you’re off and running. Twelve weeks of learning the ins and outs of becoming a military broadcaster or photojournalist. Check out the DINFOS website and take a look at the different courses available for photographers, broadcasters, illustrators and graphic designers.

If you’re a broadcaster wanna-be, in the weeks that follow you’ll learn about voice and dictionâÂ?¦how to operate studio television camerasâÂ?¦.the basics of writing a script, how to read on-camera with a teleprompter and how to direct a newscast. You’ll be introduced to digital video cameras and how to shoot and produce a news story.

If you’re a photojournalist, you’ll learn all about the AP writing styleâÂ?¦how to write a news storyâÂ?¦how to compose and shoot a storyâÂ?¦how to conduct an interview and how to use the latest software for pasting up a newspaper.

Are you going to learn everything? No. But you will learn enough to be dangerous and at THAT poin
t you’ll be shipped off to your first duty station. A stranger in a strange land performing one of the best jobs in the world.
Of course, the alternative is that you can continue to hang out with your homeysâÂ?¦flipping burgers for medium wageâÂ?¦or lying in your dorm room, staring at the ceiling and wondering how the heck you’re going to pay off that incredible interest-generating college loan you have to deal with.

These days the military has so many incentive programsâÂ?¦.from enlistment bonuses, to college loan repayment programs to delayed enlistments and more, it’s difficult NOT to be enticed by it all.

But don’t kid yourself, it’s hard work. But then anything worthwhile in life is worth working for.