John F. Greenman, the Carter Professor of Journalism, has written Introduction to Travel Journalism: On the Road with Serious Intent, a new book that aims to elevate the standards of travel writing.
The book provides independent, public service-oriented journalists with the skills and knowledge they need to cover travel and tourism.
The book is the fifth volume in Lang’s Mass Communication and Journalism series, edited by Grady professor Lee B. Becker. He invited Greenman to write Introduction to Travel Journalism after the two professors discussed Greenman’s frustration with then-existing textbooks.
“I’d just returned from teaching the first ‘Travel Writing in Cambodia’ study-abroad program where I encouraged the students to think and act like independent foreign correspondents,” Greenman said. “They weren’t there to rank backpacker hostels, but to find stories of substance.”
Existing travel writing textbooks offered little guidance, Greenman said. “So, we figured it out on our own,” he added, and the experience became the seed idea and motivation for the book. After two years in Cambodia, Greenman is moving the travel writing study-abroad program to Prague in 2013 and to South Africa in 2015.