Military and the Media
Greetings from Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
My name is Bryan Dean, and I cover Oklahoma City government, Oklahoma County government and the military for The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com. For the next five days, I am participating in a program called Bridging the Gap: Military and the Media.
The program is run by Kansas University’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications through funding from the McCormick Foundation. The goal of the week-long seminar is to foster understanding between members of the media and the military. There are 18 journalists here from across the country. We’ll be splitting our time between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
Here at Fort Leavenworth, we’ll be talking with U.S. Army majors who are here training. Much of their training is in the classroom, and we will be sitting in on some of those classes to see how and what they learn as they train to lead men in combat and on the homefront.
We will spend much of Monday, all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning at Fort Leonard Wood, where we will be “getting dirty” with fresh Army recruits. We are going to get a taste of everything from obstacle courses to simulated weapons training.
I’ve covered the military for almost the entire seven and a half years I’ve been at The Oklahoman. Covering the military is unlike any other beat a journalist might encounter. I’ve always been interested in the military, and I like to think I know a lot about our armed services and how they work. I’m here with the hope of learning more.
The goal of this program is to foster better working relationships between members of the media and the military. We come from different worlds, and it is certainly helpful when we sit down and try to understand each other better. Ultimately, I hope it helps me become better at bringing you stories about your loved ones and fellow Oklahomans who are in the military.
Over the next week, I’ll be updating this blog as I get the opportunity. I’ll try to describe some of the training we see here, and I’m hoping to bring you some stories from Oklahomans training either here at Fort Leavenworth or at Fort Leonard Wood.
Please feel free to leave comments or email me at bdean@opubco.com if you have questions or if there is something you want to know about the military. I’ll do my best to answer.
- Staff Writer Bryan Dean
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