Mobile journalism

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Mobile journalism is a form of multimedia newsgathering and storytelling that enables journalists to document, edit and share news using small, network connected devices like smartphones. [1]

Contents

Mobile journalists report in video, audio, photography, and graphics using apps on their portable devices.

Such reporters, sometimes known as mojos (for mobile journalist), are staff or freelance journalists who may use digital cameras and camcorders, laptop PCs, smartphones or tablet devices. A broadband wireless connection, satellite phone, or cellular network is then used to transmit the story and imagery for publication. [2] [3] [4] The term mojo has been in use since 2005, originating at the Fort Myers News-Press and then gaining popularity throughout the Gannett newspaper chain in the United States. [5]

Some key benefits of mobile journalism in comparison to conventional methods include affordability, portability, discretion, approachability, and the ease of access for beginners. [6]

Use Cases

Editors at AJ+, a digital outlet form Al Jazeera, use mobile journalists in their video news coverage. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Multimedia refers to the integration of multiple forms of content such as text, audio, images, video, and interactive elements into a single digital platform or application. This integration allows for a more immersive and engaging experience compared to traditional single-medium content. Multimedia is utilized in various fields including education, entertainment, communication, game design, and digital art, reflecting its broad impact on modern technology and media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smartphone</span> Handheld mobile device

A smartphone, often simply called a phone, is a mobile device that combines the functionality of a traditional mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multimedia playback and streaming. Smartphones have built-in cameras, GPS navigation, and support for various communication methods, including voice calls, text messaging, and internet-based messaging apps.

Technological convergence is the tendency for technologies that were originally unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance. For example, watches, telephones, television, computers, and social media platforms began as separate and mostly unrelated technologies, but have converged in many ways into an interrelated telecommunication, media, and technology industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports journalism</span> Form of journalism that reports on sporting topics and competitions

Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into the 1900s transitioned into an integral part of the news business with newspapers having dedicated sports sections. The increased popularity of sports amongst the middle and lower class led to the more coverage of sports content in publications. The appetite for sports resulted in sports-only media such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN. There are many different forms of sports journalism, ranging from play-by-play and game recaps to analysis and investigative journalism on important developments in the sport. Technology and the internet age has massively changed the sports journalism space as it is struggling with the same problems that the broader category of print journalism is struggling with, mainly not being able to cover costs due to falling subscriptions. New forms of internet blogging and tweeting in the current millennium have pushed the boundaries of sports journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile computing</span> Human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage

Mobile computing is human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage and allow for transmission of data, which can include voice and video transmissions. Mobile computing involves mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software. Communication issues include ad hoc networks and infrastructure networks as well as communication properties, protocols, data formats, and concrete technologies. Hardware includes mobile devices or device components. Mobile software deals with the characteristics and requirements of mobile applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile device</span> Small, hand-held computing device

A mobile device or handheld computer is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. Modern mobile devices often emphasize wireless networking, to both the Internet and to other devices in their vicinity, such as headsets or in-car entertainment systems, via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks, or near-field communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camera phone</span> Mobile phone which is able to capture still photographs and usually also videos

A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color camera was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic news gathering</span> Technique of delivering the news on television

Electronic news gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape technology in the 1970s. ENG can involve anything from a single reporter with a single professional video camera, to an entire television crew taking a truck on location.

M-learning, or mobile learning, is a form of distance education or technology enhanced active learning where learners use portable devices such as mobile phones to learn anywhere and anytime. The portability that mobile devices provide allows for learning anywhere, hence the term "mobile" in "mobile learning." M-learning devices include computers, MP3 players, mobile phones, and tablets. M-learning can be an important part of informal learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portable media player</span> Portable device capable of storing and playing digital media

A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored on a compact disc (CD), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Blu-ray Disc (BD), flash memory, microdrive, SD cards or hard disk drive; most earlier PMPs used physical media, but modern players mostly use flash memory. In contrast, analogue portable audio players play music from non-digital media that use analogue media, such as cassette tapes or vinyl records.

Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device, typically developed for that purpose. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast standards or special mobile TV transmission formats can be used. Additional features include downloading TV programs and podcasts from the Internet and storing programming for later viewing.

Mobile blogging is a method of publishing to a website or blog from a mobile phone or other handheld device. A moblog helps habitual bloggers to post write-ups directly from their phones even when on the move. Mobile blogging has been made possible by technological convergence, as bloggers have been able to write, record and upload different media all from a single, mobile device. At the height of its growth in 2006, mobile blogging experienced 70,000 blog creations a day and 29,100 blog posts an hour. Between 2006 and 2010, blogging among teens declined from 28% to 14%, while blogging among adults over 30 increased from 7% to 11%. However, the growing number of multi-platform blogging apps has increased mobile blogging popularity in recent years creating a brand new market that many celebrities, regular bloggers and specialists are utilizing to widen their social reach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airplane mode</span> Device setting to suspend radio-frequency signal transmission

Airplane mode is a setting available on smartphones and other portable devices. When activated, this mode suspends the device's radio-frequency (RF) signal transmission technologies, effectively disabling all analog voice, and digital data services, when implemented correctly by the electronic device software author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robb Montgomery</span>

Robb Montgomery is a journalist based in Berlin. He produces prize-winning documentary films with small cameras and is the author of textbooks and certificate courses in mobile journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone</span> Portable device to make telephone calls using a radio link

A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, satellite access, business applications, payments, multimedia playback and streaming, digital photography, and video games. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones ; mobile phones that offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile technology</span> Technology used for cellular communication

Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld gaming console. Many experts believe that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers is becoming more popular. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital multimedia broadcasting</span> South Korean digital TV standard

Digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) is a digital radio transmission technology developed in South Korea as part of the national IT project for sending multimedia such as TV, radio and datacasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops and GPS navigation systems. This technology, sometimes known as mobile TV, should not be confused with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) which was developed as a research project for the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nokia Nseries</span> Discontinued series of high-end phones by Nokia

The Nokia Nseries was a high-end lineup of feature phones, smartphones, and tablets marketed by Nokia Corporation from 2005 to 2011. The Nseries devices commonly supported multiple high-speed wireless technologies at the time, such as 3G, or Wireless LAN. Digital multimedia services, such as music playback, photo/video capture or viewing, gaming or internet services were the central focus of the lineup. The lineup was replaced in 2011 by the Nokia Lumia line as the company's primary smartphone lineup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allissa Richardson</span> American journalist and college professor

Allissa V. Richardson is an American journalist, author, and scholar. She is an associate professor of journalism in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and the founding director of the Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab. She is a proponent of mobile journalism and citizen journalism. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on the use of smartphones by African Americans to document police brutality and other social justice issues, a practice she has termed "mobile witnessing." Richardson is a Nieman Foundation Visiting Journalism Fellow at Harvard University, the 2012 Educator of the Year for the National Association of Black Journalists, and a two-time Apple Distinguished Educator.

Peter H. Martyn is a career journalist and author. He worked at the Toronto Sun (1981–86) and Toronto Star (198-2007) and at smaller newspapers beginning in 1969. He has two children and is married to a lawyer in Toronto. From 1973 to 1977, he and Maria K. de Martyn drove from Toronto to the Northwest Territories and from there to the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego and back to Toronto.

References

  1. Kunova, Marcela (21 December 2020). "Mobile Journalism". Textbook review. Journalism Co UK. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  2. Marymont, Kate (2 October 2007). "MoJo a Go-Go". Quill: 18–21. ISSN   0033-6475.
  3. Marymont, Kate (10 February 2006). "How They Did It: Fort Myers' "mojo" journalists search out news at the neighborhood level, identify community contributors". Gannett News Watch. Archived from the original on 21 April 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  4. Sidiropoulos; Vryzas; Vrysis; Avraam; Dimoulas (2019-07-04). "Growing Media Skills and Know-How in Situ: Technology-Enhanced Practices and Collaborative Support in Mobile News-Reporting". Education Sciences. 9 (3): 173. doi: 10.3390/educsci9030173 . ISSN   2227-7102.
  5. Martyn, Peter H (1 April 2009). "The Mojo in the Third Millennium: Is multimedia journalism affecting the news we see?". Journalism Practice. 3 (2): 196–215. doi:10.1080/17512780802681264. S2CID   142569754.
  6. Podger, Corinne. "Benefits of going 'mojo'". Mobile Journalism Manual: The Guide for Reporters and Newsrooms.
  7. "How AJ+ reported from Baltimore using only mobile phones". Poynter. May 2015. Retrieved 2018-09-03.