Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Mississippi student serves dual role: Soldier & war-time journalist
By Mary Ford
Daily Mississippian (U. Mississippi)
06/07/2007

(U-WIRE) OXFORD, Miss. — Specialist Dominic McClellan, 27, of Duck Hill will be gaining priceless experience as a journalist while serving his country in Balad, Iraq.

While McClellan lacks only six hours to complete his degree in broadcast journalism, his graduation has been put on hold for his 400 day tour of duty.

However, school is not on the back burner entirely for McClellan.

In order to fulfill his internship requirement with the University of Mississippi while in Iraq, McClellan will be serving as a war correspondent through writing, photography, and documentary work.

In Iraq, McClellan will be corresponding with not only the DM, but with at least 15 local newspapers from the hometowns of other soldiers in his unit.

He believes doing so helps to ease families' minds at home.

"By me doing that, it personalizes the information they get instead of just general information on the unit. The whole town can see what the hometown soldier is doing," he said.

McClellan will be well-equipped, with a Macbook, a Nikon, ND40 and a digital video camera.

"I am going to capture soldier's life as much as possible because we don't see what it's really like on the news. We don't see the humanitarian efforts. We don't see the soldiers playing rugby or swimming with the locals," McClellan said about the majority of current news coverage on the War in Iraq.

"I am going to try to balance it out. There are some bad things going on, but there are some good things too."

McClellan believes this imbalance in media coverage of Iraq is because "Bad news sales."

"If a network is talking about bombs going off or a soldier being killed, people are more likely to watch that than a soldier rebuilding a hospital. I would like to think I am going over there for more than to get killed," he said.

When asked about his boundaries as a journalist among the controversial coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom, McClellan was firm in his convictions of journalistic ethics. "I would not cover anything questionable. You know, I've seen what happened with Jessica Lynch because of the backlash that they got. A lot of those guys can't even get job," he said.

"I'm not going to be unethical as a soldier or as a journalist. I refuse to compromise my soul for a few minutes of fame," McClellan said reiterating his convictions,

However, McClellan does not believe journalists should be heavily censored.

"They should cover everything, but do it in such a way that it is not offensive, it's fair and it's ethical," he said.

While other seniors are enjoying football and wrapping up their college career this fall, McClellan will be serving his country. He understands that his current obligations outweigh his future ambitions involving his college career. "Whatever plans or aspirations I have I have to put on hold," he said.

Claire Campassi, one of his Newswatch co-workers explained the void feeling floating around The S. Gale Denley Student Media Center since McClellan was deployed.

"Dominic is a really great guy with a good head on his shoulders. He is a very talented person.

He is one of the types of people who will be successful no matter what he does.

He has always been a great friend and he will be dearly missed," she said.

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