Stephen Quinn writes of reporters who carry nothing more than a mobile phone, wittily coined mojos (mobile journalists).
I reckon it’s a logical extension of citizen journalism (see my previous post for more on this). It’s giving qualified journalists the tools to report on anything and everything as they go about their everyday lives.
I, for one, always carry a small digital camera in my handbag. Several times I’ve passed car crashes on the way home from work and stopped for a quick photo that can be used in the paper (I work for a local Brisbane newspaper, the Albert and Logan News).
But imagine if I could do the same on my mobile phone. One less thing to carry – and I could grab interviews with people on scene at the same time. Before you know it, I’d have enough material for both an online and a print story. Like this guy.
There are a couple of stumbling blocks. Quality of images and video are one. But mobile phone companies – particularly Apple and Nokia – are leading the field in creating smartphones capable of taking photos of HD camera quality.
For Aussie journos, expensive internet charges – and at times a lack of broadband coverage – is another issue. Mobile companies only offer capped data packages at the moment, so exceeding the monthly limit, at a high cost, is almost inevitable.
But this will change. It’s just a matter of time.
– Koren
Frank Barth-Nilsen writes about mobile journalism
and reporting on his blog, Mojo Evolution.
Photo: Bloggerguy.
Holy smoke. I just discovered what a huge technophobic rock I’d been hiding under…
Because how great are RSS feeds? I was inspired to give the “scary” (read: new) technology a go after reading a post by Mindy McAdams. She said:
“There was a time when I used my own blogroll like a daily reading list, but RSS is so much more efficient.”
And I thought: “Hmm, I’m doing the same with my blogroll and I’m incredibly time-poor… could I be missing something?” (Ah duh, I’d even written a post about RSS!!).
If, like me, you aren’t yet into RSS, give it a go. It took me about one minute to set up my first feed using Google Reader, which is amazingly similar to email and sends relevant information straight to me – heaven for a journalist!
This week’s informative blog introduced me to five vlogs of varying worth… and made me seriously question why I put up with crappy commercial television every night (aside from the ABC, of course. I’d never knock my beloved ABC).
I adored the Alive in Baghdad vlog, which puts faces to the statistics bandied about on the news every night. This citizen journalism project is first-class and worth a look.
Likewise, MobuzzTV impressed me with its slick, TV-news-style production. The only difference? The content was actually interesting and not at all predictable like the daily news bulletins.
I thought Ask a Ninja was stupid, Wine Library TV didn’t appeal to me and Rocketboom loaded poorly with stilted images (but interesting and satirical content).
This small taste of vlogs really opened my eyes to the wide variety of high-quality video information out there. It seems online video is gaining speed as a story-telling medium, which I reckon spells good news for journalism. I’m all for an even playing field!
– Koren
PS – I decided to give vlogging a go. In the spirit of mojos, I used my Nokia 61-something. Unfortunately its measly two megapixel camera compromised the quality and I’m sure Jennifer Woodard Maderazo would hate me for introducing yet another crappy quality, not very interesting vlog to the world.
STOMP and OhmyNews aren’t the only leaders in the forward-thinking “now media” market.
The Philippines’ inquirer.net, led by editor-in-chief JV Rufino, has a strong multimedia mindset. Journos are given mobile phones and digital cameras and can file news from on the run, beating Manila’s traffic jams.
The Brisbane Times is the only totally online newsroom in Australia and it beat competitors’ website traffic within four months of launching.
This week I discovered the Straits Times online mobile and print (STOMP) site. In some ways this site, which complements the more serious and staid Straits Times, mirrors the OhmyNews phenomenon (see my Week 5 post for more on OhmyNews).
But STOMP cleverly merges user-generated content with traditional journalism in a different way. It allows ordinary citizens to send in photos, news tips, even whole stories (in almost any format you can imagine), which are then re-worked by qualified journalists/producers.
The STOMP crew even allow the tipster to review the story and make changes if necessary. This idea freaked the hell out of me – in many cases where I’ve allowed someone to “check” my story they have taken it as an opportunity to nit-pick the crap out of it, resulting in tons of emails and phone calls back and forth.
Yet STOMP editor Jennifer Lewis says the initial petty complaints have slowed and the option creates a new kind of power in reporting. I guess it would be nice to know one could achieve 100 per cent accuracy with a little help from citizen journos.
But the truly great things about STOMP is its unassuming attitude about what constitutes news. The ‘about us‘ page puts it simply:
“We want STOMP to become a forum of lively discussion – whether the topics are weighty national issues or where to get the best bak chor mee.”
Now there’s a way to appeal to all.
UPDATE (SEPTEMBER 26): For a more scathing (and rather funny) look at STOMP, check out this post by ALJ301 student Michael.
This week I took a squiz at a comparative study of free online photo gallery editors by the Online Journalism Review.
The information provided was just begging for me to have a go, so I did. But why bother with the duds the OJR identified? I went straight for its chosen star, Google-owned Picasa.
And the process is almost as easy as one-two-three. In fact, the hardest part was finding relevant pictures (which those featured below obviously are not).
The technology – which makes Flash-style photo galleries in minutes – is brilliant, another step towards making the internet an even playing field for all.
