Update, Feb. 9: The Marines determined that Basetrack did not violate security, but will not allow the team to resume its embedded status with a battalion in southern Afghanistan. The memo is posted on basetrack.org. 2010 Knight Fellow Teru Kuwayama's ground-breaking Basetrack project has abruptly lost its embedded status with a Marine battalion in Afghanistan. Kuwayama, who last spring was awarded a $202,000 Knight News Challenge grant to pursue the project, says he's mystified by the decision and his attempts to reach military officials have gone unanswered. Basetrack was notified in a memo signed by a junior public affairs officer, who said Basetrack was asked to leave because of "perceived operational violations," that include publishing Google maps of friendly force locations. Kuwayama takes strong exception to that, saying his team has been careful not to publish precise maps that include GPS information. The locations mapped, he added, are "highly visible" and publicly known. Basetrack uses social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to tell the stories of the day-to-day experiences of the First Battalion, Eighth Marines in southern Afghanistan. It is a collaboration between a team of embedded journalists and soldiers in the unit, all of whom supply photos and first-hand accounts. Other members of the Basetrack team track regional news and add relevant information to the material being transmitted from Afghanistan. All of the material is published on Basetrack's website, then pushed out to Facebook and Twitter, where the primary audience of relatives and friends of the Marines have conversations about the reports. The disruption comes less than two weeks after Basecamp launched its first media partnership, with PRI's The World. Kuwayama spoke with The World earlier today. You can hear his interview here.

• «Previous Post
• Next Post »

---