1. THE ADVANTAGESMobile journalism offers numerous advantages for news organizations.
Thesebenefits, however, will only materialize if journalists are welltrained for going mobile. Mobile journalism savesmoney. A good, state of the art mobile journal-ism kit costs less than USD$1, 000. Also, you don’t need a large crew and you can make savings onproduc-tion costs. 2. MOBILITY Large crews and heavyequipment are no longer needed to report on stories: Journalists withsmartphones can be quicker and can report first during breaking newssituations. Increased mobility also allows journalists to access placespreviously inaccessible, either due to bans on journalism, or a natural occurrence. 3.
SAFETYThe safety of journalists isenhanced. Using a smartphone instead of big and heavy reporting equipmentallows them to be less noticeable and better able to blend in with the crowd. 4. 4K QUALITYThe newest generations ofthe iPhone, starting with the iPhone 6S, allow you to shoot, edit and upload 4Kvideo. Mobile journalism is no longer bound by limited quality. While most TVnews cameras and editing systems are still HD, mobile devices provide 4K quality.
Smartphones are now able to shoot in 4K, aresolution four times higher than HD content. From the ability to conduct athree-camera live interview on location using just a three-person crew withiPads to the ability to add graphics, use drones, or even film in 4k resolutionor ultra HD, apps and accessories are constantly being developed that willenable journalists to leverage the technological interactive features in themini computers that are mobile phones and tablets. 5. LIVE STREAMSmartphones can broadcastlive in a simpler and less expensive way than traditional equipment, and livestream apps have made the process easy. Reaching real-time audiences is a keyconsideration for newsrooms, as is the ability to measure content performancethrough real-time statistics. Live streaming through social platforms allowsjournalists to engage with their audience while broadcasting.
Choose the rightapp based on your broadcasting needs, target audience, and technical costs, amongst other criteria. 6. MAKES THE JOB EFFICIENT Mobile journalists cantransmit direct to the newsroom. One click and the newsroom has a full newsstory delivered by email or shared through the cloud. Also, with the righttraining the journalist can be their own cameraman, editor and designer.
7. THE IMPACTS ON STORYTELLING” It is also thought that mediaoutlets can obtain more videos of unexpected events because Journalist carry amobile in their pocket”: Jokela, Vataja and Koponen, 2009, (page 51). Smartphoneshave opened the door to audio-visual storytelling for millions of people whowant to inspire positive action and create social impact.
One mobilephone. That’s all you need to be a mobile journalist, or a mojo, aspractitioners call themselves. If they have been attracting attention for several years, startingwasn’t particularly easy. As mobile phones’ cameras and audio recorders improved, the internet saw a huge increase in the number of amateur videos uploaded toplatforms like YouTube.
But in some newsrooms, a few tech-savvy journalists sawthe opportunity to use their mobiles as a reporting tool. From capturing and sharing photos, audio and video, toediting content and streaming live, smartphones can complement traditionalstorytelling tools and allow you to reach audiences in new and innovative ways. In principle in today’s digital spherewe tell stories in short and compact mini-formats, which we link and as suchextend. One important finding is: You can only understand and learn more ofthis exciting new digital way to tell stories and link knowledge, if you workwith it hands-on.
You can’t just theorise about it. Short clips and stories, inreal-time, multimedia, produced on mobile only and almost instantly shared onsocial media. After firstly interviewing 11 reporters, FinnishJournalist Panu Karhunen found that journalists were able to physically tellstories that would have been impossible with a large TV camera and multi-personcrew, while capturing more genuine and intimate content. 7. EASE OF HANDLING THE EQUIPMENTWith smartphone cameras becoming ever moresophisticated and with the right apps and strong skills, journalists are readyto start experimenting. To enhance quality and advance the mobile journalismexperience, mobile journalists can use hardware add-ons and adapt the basicmobile journalism kit to a cutting edge setup tailored for any specific need.
(Mobile Journalism, p 17) The smartphone, adevice barely larger than the viewfinder on a professional ENG camera, hasbegun turning the video newsgathering world upside down. It is so small, mobileand easy to use that dedicated videographers are not needed to operate it.(Reporters who shoot their own video are known as VJs—video journalists, andmojos—mobile journalists.) Large crews and heavy equipment are no longerneeded to report on stories: Journalists with smartphones can be quicker andcan report first during breaking news situations. Increased mobility alsoallows journalists to access places previously inaccessible, either due to banson journalism, or a natural disaster. Mobile journalists can transmitdirect to the newsroom. One click and the newsroom has a full news storydelivered by email or shared through the cloud. Also, with the right trainingthe journalist can be their own cameraman, editor and designer.
Mobilejournalism saves money. Also, you don’t need a large crew and you can makesavings on production costs. 8. THE PERFORMANCEThe” all-in-one-device” feature of smartphones can increase thegeographical and physical accessibility.
Due to the new network technology andconstantly developing applications, a mobile journalist can work entirely onlocation. A journalist is able to shoot and edit videos, take photos, writestories and send the finished packages straight from the field to the newsroom. It is also possible to distribute live broadcasts from a smartphone to socialmedia platforms or the media outlet’s own website.
When the bad weather hitsand homes and businesses are flooded we can field five or six times as manycameras as our opposition. We are able to get really close to the peopleaffected and our stories are more powerful as a result. Whenever you pull out a(full-sized) television camera, you become the center of attention. With asmall digital camera, you can get a lot more footage by being discreet (Stone, 2002). The most obvious advantage of mobile is that a journalist can stay atthe location and keep producing edited updates as the story breaks. This willbecome more important as journalists begin to produce more video and theirvideo editors become inundated with media. Think of the mojo as like the Swissarmy knife.
It is useful if you are alone in the forest and have to fend foryourself. Better to have this tool rather than nothing. The same applies forbreaking news: a mojo is perfect for breaking news, for getting multi-mediaonto a web site from the scene of the action.
9. THE FUTURE OF MOJO REVOLUTION Technologicaladvancements in mobiles phones are changing the way journalist report live newsand stories. Improved speed and capacity has provided reporters to share onlinecontent million times more powerful than before. News gathering potential boostup is due to increased mobile phones equipped cameras and it made livestreaming of videos, photos and other content relatively way more easy. Video is expected to accountfor 70% of mobile traffic within the next five years, driven byfaster 4G roll outs and upgrades to LTE-advanced that deliver 5G-like servicesand 1.
3G/second Wi-Fi connectivity. Mobile video (both editorial andadvertorial) is expected to reach US$25B globally in 2021. Audiencesare now authoritative news gatherers, editors, publishers and distributors. They are in the right place at the right time and have, in the palm of theirhands, the technology needed to capture, edit and publish news that appeals totoday’s video-hungry viewers. In addition tosearch and social, which are fairly obvious trends for journalists at thispoint, there are some other noteworthy technological advances for journalistsas well. Mobile is a huge change, and one that advertisers keep in mind. As faras journalists are concerned, the most important aspect of mobile, is mobilesummaries. Whether you use an app to summarize articles for mobile, or havepeople do it, as some publishers have opted, mobile summaries are a must.
Manypeople claim journalism is dying. As someone who has made a living off ofwriting online, I dispute that. While the days of working in newsrooms straightout of college may be over, the internet has opened doors that never beforeexisted. If journalists stay current in digital trends that are transformingtheir field, then they will likely stay working.
10. THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES. Social networks are not justuseful tools for journalists, they are also powerful new aggregators anddistribution networks, which threaten to further disrupt the already uncertaineconomics of the internet. The click and link economy has tended to workagainst traditional publishers, disaggregating content and allowing searchengines and web portals to take a significant slice of the available revenues. Now, social networks like Facebook are becoming the portals of the twenty firstcentury: a key starting point for web journeys and a place where audiences are spendingmore and more time. The popularity and time spent with socialnetworking sites is changing the way peoplespend their time online and the way in which they share and interact in theirdaily lives.
This is creating new challenges for the media and advertisingindustries. Social networks provide competition to traditional publishers forconsumer attention and at the same time they are opening up new ways ofengaging and connecting with audiences. It is important to note that the usageof social sites is highly uneven. A recent Harvard business school survey foundthat 10 percent of twitter users generate more than 90 percent of the contentand most people have only ‘ tweeted’ once.
This suggests that many people areusing twitter more as a one way publishing service than a two way, peer to peercommunication network. There are three key reasons for the growth of news andinformation in social networks: 1. Facebook created a news and activity feed inSeptember 2006, which has become a default setting on a user’s homepage.
Thishas encouraged more linking to mainstream news sites. It has since made iteasier to include links and recommendations from other news related sites. 2. Mainstream audiences are now using social networks and they have brought their interestsand preoccupations, including the sharing of news. Facebook’s dramatic growthin global audience (December 2007–December 2008) came from people aged.
3. Websites have provided icons or buttons to allow easy sharing and linking andotherwise promoted social networks. Audio video integration with YouTube hasproved a huge boon because of the younger demographic; now news sites are doingthe same. Newspapers and media companies have started to establishspecialist marketing groups toexploit and monitor the impact of content in these spaces.
