A Hunt for Life: Communicating life and death and the power of hunting as conservation to a liberal campus

 



Over the past couple months, my team and I on the Current, Eckerd’s school newspaper, have worked to create a magazine to communicate stories revolving around the theme of ‘life.’ In its nature it is a broad and large concept, one up for interpretation to the storyteller. For me, meditation on the concept of life holds a similar weight and breadth as ‘environment’ does. It is complex. It is dynamic. It can only exist if things are in relationship and conversation with others. Thus, when I think of life, I think of the environment, I think about death, I think about a frontier of living things existing for and through one another. A story emerged that presented a complex relationship between human and nature, life and death and how we perceive different ways of living. The piece, which was published in the Current’s first ever issue of the ‘Cat. 5’ magazine, was entitled ‘A Hunt for Life.’ 

The article manifested in a narrative of a weekend duck hunting trip to the Everglades intertwined with one man’s experiences reckoning with and experiencing death through follicular lymphoma – a form of cancer that nearly ended his life. It also explored a wider perspective of the culture and community surrounding hunting. As we’ve explored the concept of conservation and communicating issues of the environment in this course, we’ve considered frames of storytelling and how to communicate across the aisle to people and communities that might not be in agreement. On a liberal campus like Eckerd, when you say you’re going hunting for a weekend, you’re not met with the kindest response. “Killer,” “Murderer,” “Insensitive,” and “Conservative” are just some of the things that I was called, and not necessarily in a kind and gentle tone. It was a worthwhile and exciting challenge, however, to attempt to communicate about the ways that hunting can be and is an impactful and effective conservation effort in a state that is growing at an exponential rate.

I personally, despite growing up in a rural Virginia area in which many people around me, including my pastor, hunted, have always struggled with how I viewed hunting. Frankly, I would consider the associations I paired with it somewhat negative. Understanding that some of the people I was close to and had relationships with that I deeply valued actively hunt and have for their whole life, I saw an opportunity to challenge my own perspective for the possibility of perhaps being able to understand hunting through a point of view that I could then communicate back to people who aren’t as willing to do the same. I chose to actively participate in a weekend of hunting, conversations of life, death and nature, and long, early and late hours in order to be an agent of empathy for my friends and community.

The piece was presented through photojournalism – a feature article paired with photos and portraits of hunting. My goal was to provide an alternate perspective on conservation and existing in relationship with the environment to a campus that has a largely liberal perspective on protecting the world around us. This was done by sharing a captivating story then introducing numbers and statistics that help the reader concretely understand the ways that hunting can benefit the environment of Florida. In a campus that prides itself on an archetype of conservation and stewardship, it is my hope that beyond sharing a perspective on life and death, this piece could help people find space to develop a new sense of understanding that they didn’t hold before.

The magazine was distributed on November 9, 2022 to Eckerd College. Within the first day, over 600 copies were passed out to the collective campus community. Instagram posts leading up to and on the day of distribution helped to spread the word and bring attention to the magazine’s launch and the story of it. The team has been seeking out conversations and feedback with members and departments of campus, as well as journalists, editors and publishers outside of campus in the hopes of being able to identify strengths and weaknesses of the publication and of specific articles within it. 

It is with great excitement and appreciation that I have the opportunity to share this story with you and whoever else might find their eyes on our magazine and my article. It has been an idea and dream that slowly came to life… but come to life, it did. I and our team would greatly value and deeply consider any feedback, commentary and questions that you may have. To contact me or reach out for a physical copy of the magazine, email @zpfranco@eckerd.edu or @thecurrent@eckerd.edu.
    To see a pdf version of the Cat. 5 magazine, go here.
 

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