If you can report from a hotel in Baghdad, why can't you report from a building in Swarthmore?

 

This is a revelation from Jim MacMillan, Journalist in Residence at Swarthmore College's Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, who since 2010 has led the suburban liberal-arts college's War News Radio (WNR), founded by students in 2005. Equipped with Skype and other free software tools, they began producing a weekly, 29-minute program that sought to offer more civilian perspectives and balanced reporting on global conflicts such as the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

"It's been incredibly empowering to speak to people oceans away from me and to bring their lives to the War News Radio audience," said freshman Amy DiPierro. 

 

Though Swarthmore does not have a journalism department, WNR and its student journalists have garnered many accolades and awards for its groundbreaking content over the years. 

 

"In 2005, War News Radio was explosively innovative," said MacMillan, who became an adviser and consultant to the organization in 2010. "The economic crisis, beginning in 2008, forced more and more journalism organizations to train more heavily on innovation. In my mind, it became urgent to find new ways to distinguish ourselves."

 

With an extensive background as a journalist and educator - including a 17-year tenure at the Philadelphia Daily News and a one-year stint as a reporter in Baghdad for the Associated Press – MacMillan, who also recently launched guncrisis.org, in its third week of seeking solutions for the city's epidemic of homicide by gunfire-- has brought a wealth of experiences, contacts and other resources to the student-run organization. 
 

"My intention is to support interest in independent journalism, journalism education, and journalism innovation on campus and across communities," he said.

 

Late last year, he oversaw the expansion and transformation of WNR into Lodge 6. The WNR staff decided to stop producing the weekly program, and explore more topics and more media platforms. Named after the building in which WNR's facilities are located, Lodge 6 is now a multimedia reporting lab and journalism community. "There are a number of individual students interested in new projects of their own," MacMillan said. "The WNR community wants to refocus on conflict, but there are also students and projects that don't fit into any category yet."

 

Despite the changes, Lodge 6's content continues to center on social responsibility. "Lodge 6's ethos - rooted in War News Radio's mission - really affirms the idea that ‘human interest' is not an angle, but the story itself," DiPierro said.

 

Over the years, WNR and Lodge 6 have produced feature pieces focusing not only on the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also other global conflicts such as the Arab Spring and the Libyan Civil War. More recently, students have honed in on issues closer to home. Last month, Lodge 6 reporters introduced a video series about Tent City, a homeless camp in Lakewood, N.J. 

 

This semester, students enrolled in Peace Journalism, a course taught by MacMillan, have been exploring both international and national conflicts and producing pieces for Lodge6.org. One student interviewed a Filipino-American veteran and community activist about gaining recognition by the US government for their military service during World War II. Another student reported on the financial crisis that the Chester Upland School District is currently facing. 

 

According to MacMillan, the news outlet's transitions have mostly been pragmatic, responding not only to changing dynamics in journalism but also to economic constraints. Since its inception, WNR, and now Lodge 6, has been largely dependent on discretionary funding from the College. At the end of this academic year, this funding will dry up. "We're a journalism startup," DiPierro said. "Like most start-ups, we're open to the possibilities of rapid and repeated transformation in the next few months."

 

Though Lodge 6's economic future is unclear, one thing is certain. "We'll find a way to keep producing, because we're all united in producing good content on foreign affairs," said sophomore Caroline Batten. An aspiring journalist and prospective honors English major, Batten joined Lodge 6 as a freshman because she "wanted to do something outside the Swarthmore bubble." 

 

MacMillan believes that most of the staff comes to Lodge 6 for this reason. "They're approaching journalism from the most altruistic facet," he said. "They're not trying to build careers here. They're trying to make a difference."