Weird content cultivates community

Harding showed us how

In 1928, the Infantry Journal published a short play. Professional journals publish few plays today, but our friend, then-Major Forrest Harding, wrote “Morning, Noon, and Night” a “gripping melodrama that depicts with startling accuracy the life along the Chattahoochee” at now-Fort Moore for Career Course students.

Then, just two years later, Harding took the pen at Mailing List. As the editor he argued for a publishing professional content in a variety of forms, “the intimate personal letter, the dialogue, and the narrative”, to hold interest and avoid monotony. As the Army improves archive accessibility, it will unlock a dizzying array of content that editors today could channel to cultivate community in their journals. 

This post explores the range of content in the Army’s journals building on the previous post that counted content. Using the same data as in the previous post, I used a two-step hand-coding process to characterize the content common to the Army’s journals. My first step resulted in 53 types of content that I then consolidated into 29 distinct types in the second step. For example, I consolidated “officer career notes” and “enlisted career notes” into “career notes.” I then broke these 29 types into two categories: (1) common, and (2) community building. “Common” content appeared at least once, on average, per issue. Community building content appeared less than once, on average, per issue. 

Below, I present the makeup of a typical issue, explore why community building content matters, and conclude with thoughts on how today’s journals could renew all types of articles. 

Common content

The most common types of content should be no surprise. As depicted in Figure 1 below, the “average issue” contains a mean of more than 11 articles, more than two notes on foreign militaries, more than two book reviews, one training note, and one career note. Articles are also the longest common form of content at a mean length of 4.5 pages, while foreign notes averaged about 1.5 pages, book reviews about 2 pages, training notes almost 4 pages, and career notes about 1.5 pages. These types are common for a reason: they are the building blocks of successful journals.

Community building content 

Effective editors may also employ less commonly occurring (or “weird”) content to build community. By understanding their audience, editors can build connections with their audiences by publishing unusual content of interest. And even within this category, Figure 2 shows how some types of community building content are more common than others. For example, most issues contain some form of news, short articles, notes from the editor or branch leadership, letters to the editor, and news for the reserve components. These types of content, by explicitly connecting members of a branch to each other, build community. 

Outside great articles or editorials, my favorite types of content are the least common. To inspire future editors to think creatively about their craft, I discuss tactical decision exercises, art, poetry, and music, valor citations, and reprints before concluding with thoughts for journals today.  

Tactical Decision Exercises

Tactical decision exercises challenge leaders to reason through tactical scenarios. Sometimes called “decision forcing cases” or “tactical decision games”, these short puzzles form the basis for many professional development or self-development sessions. In fact, many of the Army’s journals started explicitly as ways to distribute educational materials across the force. These exercises can be especially valuable when the force is pivoting, say from an emphasis on counterinsurgency to large-scale combat operations, or to teach the force about how newly fielded weapons may impact their tactics. When published in military journals, the “school solution” is typically published at the end of the issue or in the subsequent issue. 

Art, poetry, and music

The Army’s journals most frequently publish material directly related to Army or branch issues, but they also often provide a creative outlet. While we’ve previously covered poetry, the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin printed this combination of poetry with a sketch honoring the 533rd Military Intelligence Battalion as part of a profile of that unit. 

As another example, Engineer printed James Duff’s proposed new Army Engineer song “Thumbs Up” in 1980. As no other outlet cares as much about the engineers of the United States Army, publishing “Thumbs Up” in Engineer is a sensible way to build momentum behind a proposal of interest only to a narrow Army community. 

Today, Military Review’s Creative Kiosk and the NCO Journal’s newly launched Creative Domain fill similar niches, but sets creative work aside from mainline articles rather than tightly integrating them as was more common in the past. 

Valor citations

The Army’s journals routinely and rightly include valor citations alongside articles. Publishing valor citations improves the collective knowledge of the possible and provides unifying inspiration. Armor printed the below citation in March of 1952, just six months after 2nd Lieutenant Sudut’s heroic attacks, providing timely inspiration and a reminder of the ongoing sacrifices in the Korean War. While fewer soldiers are earning valor citations today, publishing valor citations alongside more technical articles today can help remind us of the costs borne by those who fight in contrast with the often antiseptic articles. 

Articles of the year and reprints

Recognizing exceptional articles and reprinting timely historical pieces are both effective ways to build community. Authors frequently wonder whether publication is “worth it” so recognition of the best article of the year is an effective way to remind authors and audiences that their work matters, especially if the best article of the year is selected by either a senior leader or a jury of their peers. Below, Aviation Digest printed their 2016 criteria for selecting the best article of the year. 

Likewise, dusting off historical articles can help today’s audiences remember that military problems endure. By understanding how previous generations thought about similar challenges, today’s Army may find inspiration or new ways to tackle tough challenges. Reprinting excerpts from different time periods, as the editors of Armor did in 1952 below, is one method. However, more effective editors could deliberately cultivate historical mindedness by setting a historical article alongside a new piece that tackles similar issues. 

Conclusion

The Army is renewing journals–making them web-first, mobile-friendly and integrating social media. As the Army shifts away from print form, editors must consider how to build communities around their branch issues. Articles, book reviews, career notes, and training notes will remain the mainstay of the Army’s journals. However, branch leaders and creative editors–like Forrest Harding–must remember that content must engage. 

I hope our renewed branch journals will experiment and see what works.