Take a mobile phone and a broadcast quality microphone and the world is your storybook.
That’s what multimedia guru Stephen Quinn believes. Quinn, who teaches at Deakin University in Australia, shared a bit of his enthusiasm about mobile journalism at the World Jounalism Education Conference in South Africa.
Quinn calls mobile phones a “Swiss army knife” option for journalists.
“They’re compact, light and discreet,” Quinn said. “Using cell phones forces journalists to think differently. This new notion of mobility changes the way you perceive and operate in the world. It’s all about connection. Reporting involves thinking about how to find WiFi, you have to be thinking about battery power. And ourconcept of news is broadening – if I can get there, it’s news.”
Quinn says these new capabilities also change audience expectations.
“They know we can get there and expect to get the info,” Quinn says. Plus, he believes it will help us reach new audiences. “Mojo appeals to different demos; it appeals to younger audiences.”
Quinn says mojo is part of a change in visual standards, too. He believes people become more accepting of low quality video, if the content is something they find compelling.
Quinn shared a list of free software programs that mojos can use in live reporting:
Quinn says his favorites are Qik and Bambuser for their ease of use. He also likes the relatively inexpensive tools created by Vericorder.
When it comes to its uses and limitations, Quinn says right now the technology has not evolved enough to make mojo useful for long-form journalism. However, Quinn says mojo is great for breaking news as evidenced by cell phone coverge of protests in Burma, elections in Iran, the Jakarta hotel bombings, Haiti quake and the Moscow subway bombings.
Still, Quinn urges journalists not to get all caught up in the “shiny.”
“Pocket journalism is powerful, but needs it still needs a brain behind it,” Quinn says.
Sourced from: Advancing the Story
2 Comments
The other route to consider as well are laptops and/or netbooks with a good HD webcam and Skype. Lots of stations are using such setups to get live video back quickly – especially in weather and other breaking news coverage.
On a somewhat different note – stations should start looking at the rising use of DSLRs in shooting high quality video at a fraction of the cost of traditional camera setups. There are some tradeoffs, but if you can outfit a couple extra crews for 4 to 5 thousand dollars – why not do it? I took a quick look at this in a recent post on my website:
http://www.nomoredeadlines.com/?p=680
True enough, the webcam/Skype/WiFi option has been around for a while, as we’ve discussed elsewhere on the site. But with mobile phones now WiFi equipped, there may no longer be a need to feed via laptop. I’ve seen more than one TV story shot entirely on an iPhone in recent weeks; the quality is surprisingly good.
Thanks for sharing your post on the SLR’s. Definitely worth checking out.