Special Report

Empowering the News Publishing Industry 03.2009

The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

A must read for: Managing Director/CEO/Chairman Chief Editor/Editor in Chief/Editor Electronic Publishing Editor

Catchwords: Editorial Electronic Media Information Technology

www.ifra.com/specialreports IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

Author Prof. Dr. Stephen Quinn

Edited by Dr. Dietmar Schantin

Imprint IFRA Special Reports, research reports, study reports on technology and organisation as well as documents for the standardisation of publishing and news- paper printing techniques. Published by IFRA GmbH & Co. KG, Washingtonplatz 1, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany; www.ifra.com; phone +49.6151.733-6; fax +49.6151.733-872. Chief Executive Officer: Reiner Mittelbach, Deputy CEO: Manfred Werfel. Republishing – also of excerpts – only with express permission of IFRA and acknowledgement of origin.

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1 Introduction and overview ...... 4

2 Origins of the mojo ...... 5 Table of

3 Case studies from around the world ...... 7 contents

3.1 Case studies from the United Kingdom ...... 7 3.2 Case studies from Scandinavia ...... 8 3.3 Case studies from Asia ...... 9 3.4 Case studies from Australia ...... 11 3.5 Case studies from the United States ...... 11 3.6 Case studies from Africa ...... 13

4 Challenges to mojo work ...... 15

5 The people formerly known as the audience ...... 16

6 Revenue opportunities ...... 17

7 The future ...... 18

7.1 Changing roles for journalists ...... 18 7.2 Storytelling with the mobile ...... 19

8 Lessons learned and conclusions ...... 20

Appendix A: Mojo tools ...... 21

A.1 Hardware and software recommendations ...... 23

Appendix B: Recommended videos about mojo...... 26

Appendix C: Recommended readings ...... 27

Appendix D: Author biography ...... 28

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1 Introduction and overview

A mojo is a mobile journalist, someone During the past decade digital tech- The arrival of the telegraph from who reports with a mobile phone. This nology has transformed and accelerated the 1840s meant that news could be innovative form of newsgathering has the way journalists work. To do their job reported quickly compared with pre- spread around the world since late 2007 well and quickly, busy reporters need vious forms of delivery: ships, letters and and offers major opportunities for news- the simplest technologies. The history of horseback. Journalism historian Richard papers. Breaking news drives traffi c to journalists’ adoption of newsgathering Schwarzlose maintains that the tele- newspaper web sites, especially news technologies contains a key theme: graph transformed American journalism with video, still images and audio. A reporters will embrace new tools that into a “news-hungry industry” between reporter armed with a mobile phone and accelerate the delivery of news, provided the mid 1840s and the American Civil a fast connection can get multi-media those tools are easy to use. The mojo War of 1861–65: “A craving for the breaking news onto a newspaper’s web represents the latest iteration in this freshest news grew hand-in-hand with site within minutes of an event being evolution. The beauty of the mojo lies the new technologies of steam and reported. in its simplicity and convenience: with electricity.” This report describes the spread of minimal training it is very easy to record Emerging technologies such as the the mojo, details what newspapers can images and sound with a mobile phone mojo are having a similarly signifi cant learn from best practices from around and send content to an editor who can impact on journalism in the early twenty- the world, and discusses the options put it on the web within minutes. fi rst century. They provide new reporting available to newspapers. It also considers History shows that new reporting tools opportunities. The mojo gives news- how some media organisations are have always changed the way journalists papers a way to compete with television attracting valuable content from their operate, and have accelerated the and radio in terms of multi-media many audiences who also carry mobile newsgathering process. News travelled breaking news, particularly as the quality phones (sometimes referred to as audi- slowly in the eighteenth and nineteenth of cameras improves. ence generated content), and ways to centuries compared with today. The make money from mobile innovations. American Declaration of Independence of 4 July 1776, for example, was not reported in Europe until late August that year. People in England only became aware of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar – on 21 October 1805 – on November 2.

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2 Origins of the mojo

In the spoof spy movies of Mike Meyers, if your mojo is working you have sex appeal. You lead a charmed life. With the spread of digital technologies, mojo tools give reporters increased power over their lives. The origin of the word mojo is unclear but its roots appear to have come from “moco’o” from the Fula language of central Africa, where it means a person who works magic. About two- thirds of a million people in Cameroon speak Fula as their fi rst language and another 4 million employ it as a second language. In nearby Congo, “moyo” means “soul” or “life force.” “Mojo” entered the English language during the slavery era in the United States. In the context of journalism, the word Figure 1: iPhone – © Enrico Podda – Fotolia.com “mojo” appears to have been coined in 2005 by staff at Gannett newspapers in The major development since those Blogger and academic Jeff Jarvis the United States. It was the codename for innovations at The News-Press in 2005 says that with mojo technology “all a project at The News-Press at Fort Myers has been the arrival of software that reporters are online reporters now.” in Florida, where reporters were gathering allows reporters to stream live video Jarvis runs the interactive media section and distributing news in new ways. Kate and stills straight from their mobile of the graduate journalism programme Marymont, executive editor and vice phone to a newspaper’s web site. This at the City University of New York. His president of news for The News-Press, report focuses on that development, programme purchased fi ve Nokia N95 said the mojo experiment was designed and suggests ways that newspapers can phones and pays for the data charges to create neighbourhood-focused areas take advantage of these developments. because his school believes it is vital within the newspaper’s website, www. The main software options are discussed that students experience using the tech- news-press.com, and to deliver breaking later in this report. nology for newsgathering. “I have no news throughout each day. On 16 April 2007 a gunman went on doubt that in a very short time, when the Marymont said the message from a rampage on the campus of Virginia next big news story breaks with reports the paper’s corporate leaders was clear: Tech in the United States, shooting coming from the scene and from wit- increase the attention the news staff dead scores of people. A graduate stu- nesses, it will be live,” Jarvis said. That gave to online, to drive traffi c to the dent, Jamal Albaughouti, fi lmed the year would become known as the “year site. “This experiment sprang from two shootings with his mobile phone and of the mojo” as newspapers discovered related beliefs: One, deep ultra-local gave the footage to CNN. Those images the power of breaking live multi-media neighbourhood web sites can be lively attracted millions of hits to the CNN news via some of the tools discussed in gathering places of people online. Two, web site over the next couple of days. this report. we must have the help of residents to Imagine what could have been possible Various studies have shown that build these sites, but they won’t know if Jamal Albaughouti or a journalist had people buy a smart-phone instead of a how to contribute unless we help been able to stream footage live to the regular cell phone because they want to them.” Some Fort Myers mojos spent web from their mobile phone? That is access the Internet. In July 2008 analysts much of each day recruiting and training the exciting opportunity the mojo option Nielsen Mobile reported that almost contributors from the audience. provides newspapers. 40 million Americans (about 16 percent

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of mobile users) browsed the Inter- personal computer as the way they go Sony Ericsson phones, despite the fact net while on the move, almost double online. Upwards of a third of university the iPhone represents a mere 2 percent the number from two years earlier. The students access the Internet via their of smart-phones worldwide. Phones United Kingdom and Italy came a close mobile. Nielsen found that four in fi ve powered by the Symbian operating second and third in the Nielsen study of iPhone owners accessed the mobile system such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson countries with extensive smart-phone Internet. Not only is the iPhone the most make up 63 per cent of the worldwide adoption. A quarter of 18 to 25-year-olds popular phone for browsing the Inter- mobile market. in the United Kingdom use their mobile net, it is also the preferred phone for On 25 June 2009 YouTube reported to check social networking sites such as uploading pictures. that uploads from mobile phones to Facebook. Two in fi ve United Kingdom Flickr, the world’s largest gallery of YouTube jumped by 1,700 percent in mobile owners in that age group surf online images, measures the number the fi rst half of 2009. And since Friday the Internet on their handsets, mainly via of pictures uploaded by each type of 19 June 2009, when the iPhone 3GS unlimited data plans. mobile phone. For the year to September came out, uploads increased by 400 per- For one in fi ve mobile phone users in 2008 the iPhone steadily pulled ahead cent a day. Japan, their handset has replaced the of multi-media-equipped Nokia and

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3 Case studies from around the world

3.1 Case studies from the the word mojo – can be found at http:// Ilicco Elia is product manager of mobile United Kingdom reutersmojo.com/. and emerging media at Reuters. He Reuters and the BBC both pioneered Nic Fulton, Reuters Media chief described mojo as the start of a future the mojo concept in Europe. Reuters’ scientist, said a key component was form of journalism and a new way to tell reporters began experimenting with the Bluetooth keyboard because it stories. “Mobile phones allow journalists mobile journalism in 2007 via a project was much easier to enter text while in to change their heavy camera equipment with Nokia’s research and development the fi eld. “For this we used the Nokia to a smaller device,” Elia said. Mark Jones centre in Tampere in Finland. Reuters SU-8W. This folds up and has a bracket is community editor for Reuters. “My staff visited the centre during the to hold the phone.” Reuters also gave role is to create a bit of identity around summer of 2007. Nokia staff then went journalists a basic tripod to help keep the editorial talent and be more open to the to London to interview journalists about phone steady during video interviews audience. We also want to be open to their requirements for a mobile reporting and a Sony microphone for directional the web including the blogosphere and kit. The result was a mobile client built audio recording. It helped reduce back- build networks around our journalistic on a light version of Flash that connects ground noise during interviews. Nokia expertise. We see huge potential in the to the WordPress software that runs also made and supplied a special adaptor mobile phone for newsgathering.” Reuters’ blogs. to plug the microphone into the mobile Darren Waters, technology editor of Later in 2007 a group of Reuters phone. Because electricity was likely to the BBC, has been fi ling mojo reports journalists were given Nokia N95 hand- be an issue Reuters also employed Power from various parts of Europe since early sets that included software to let them to Monkey solar power units, both basic 2008. “From the BBC’s perspective, if we edit and publish multi-media packages. and Explorer versions. “The Explorer has do not engage in this [form of reporting] As well as the phone, their mojo kit a solar charging system which was par- soon, someone else will,” he said. In mid included an almost full-size Bluetooth ticularly useful in [places like] Senegal,” February 2008 Waters and colleague keyboard, a tripod, a microphone and a Fulton said. Photographs of the news- Rory Cellan-Jones used mobile phones PowerMonkey solar power unit. It was gathering kit can be seen online at to blog and report a mobile phone con- used initially to cover New York Fashion http://reutersmojo.com/2007/10/22/ gress in Barcelona, as a trial of the tech- Week, the Edinburgh television festival the-mobile-journalism-toolkit-contents/ nology. They shot 26 pieces of video. The and the Gadgetoff 2007 festival. Mobile journalists send video to be checked by an editor via the system before it goes live. Reuters was keen to develop a multi- media form of breaking news that could be sent from the scene. The company also explored the potential of geo- location journalism, using the Nokia’s built-in global positioning system (GPS) facility. The N95 has a fi ve- megapixel stills and video camera, the latter capable of shooting 30 frames a second. It also has a digital stereo microphone. The built-in software tags stories with the date, time and location using GPS technology. Some of the best raw news stories reported by Reuters journalists around the world during the Mobile Journalism trial – they tend not to use Figure 2: The Reuters mobile journalism toolkit (Source: Flickr)

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most popular video received more than of video rather than several minutes of out a mobile phone and suggesting we 60,000 views. footage. His subject, technology, does shoot some video. I had expected people Cellan-Jones said the clips were saved not always offer interesting visuals. So to be horrifi ed but in fact most people on the phone’s micro SD card and trans- he did lots of short interviews. “Some of were extremely receptive and many were ferred to a laptop by Bluetooth or a card- them were very dull. They were too long, impressed by the novelty.” reader. He then used free software to or they rambled, or we were too far The BBC’s mojo gear included a Nokia top and tail the clip. The software also away from the subject for good sound phone, a Bluetooth keyboard, extra compressed the clip from about 80 Mb quality.” But some were interesting batteries, a monopod, and a micro- to just 6 Mb for faster uploading. because the interviewees were interest- phone. Waters said one of biggest Waters proclaimed the project “a ing. “The important thing for us is that successes from the Barcelona experi- triumph.” “During the experiment without the camera we would not have ment was a consumer application called the picture quality was indifferent, the had any video. So the camera gave us an ShoZu. After loading the software on the sound quality was ropey, [and] the con- extra layer of material,” Waters said. phone, it was possible to upload video to tent was so-so. But it was brilliant.” The “The thing that struck me about the ShoZu server. Thereafter the software video quality was adequate for what he mobile journalism is that opportunity plus sent video to wherever he wanted, in as wanted for a blog. Sound quality from capability is the key. If you have got the many different formats the BBC wanted. the Nokia’s internal microphone was only phone in your pocket and the systems in “I was able to ftp to the BBC server, and acceptable if the reporter got within a place to be able to send video, then you YouTube and BlipTV, and keep a copy as metre or two of the subject. Any further can report at any time. You do not have backup.” away and the sound was a problem. that luxury when you are relying on a Cellan-Jones noted that the N95 picked cameraman, or need to set up your own 3.2 Case studies from Scandinavia up sound from wherever he pointed it. camera. And with exclusive video, audi- In Norway, Frank Barth-Nilsen trains “Unless you are quite close to the inter- ences do not mind if the camera work mojos for NRK, the national broadcaster. viewee you may get swamped by back- is a bit rough around the edges. It is “A lot of other broadcasters and news- ground noise.” As noted earlier, Reuters clear to me that mobile video will never papers are interested in our fi ndings,” got around this problem by getting replace professional cameramen and he said. Barth-Nilsen said NRK’s various Nokia to build a bespoke microphone. professional [news] packages any time departments planned to use mojo con- Waters said during the trial he learned soon.” With the speed of development tent for mainstream platforms like a lot about the technology but also of mobile phones, it is highly likely that television. “We’re building a toolkit for about how using the mobile infl uenced mobile phones that can record in high our journalists, focusing on speed and the workfl ow for reporting. He said he defi nition will become available in the usability. We’re also looking into how developed a better understanding of next few years. the new technology will change today’s the kinds of video audiences wanted In the short term, Waters said, mobile way of storytelling.” to watch on a blog or website. Using phones might be more relevant to radio Barth-Nilsen has established a blog software called ShoZu, Waters was able journalists rather than TV journalists. for sharing ideas, called Mojo Evolution. to “point, shoot, click and send,” not- When mobile phone companies improve The URL can be found in the readings at ing that he had video on the BBC web audio quality and internal microphones, the end of this report. Barth-Nilsen has site within half an hour of sending. BBC radio reporters will be able to report modifi ed some equipment to work with reporters experimented with other tech- live from anywhere. “Someone with a his mojo kit. One of his most innovative nologies such as Qik and Flixwagon and mobile phone and a microphone could is a Bluetooth earpiece that works as a commented favourably about them. broadcast live from anywhere in the microphone. “If you’re at a press con- These technology options are discussed world.” ference and want to stream live or record later in this report. After the initial experiments, Waters [an interview] during the conference, Some mobile phones let reporters resolved always to carry the mojo equip- this is a handy utility.” Barth-Nilsen pur- top and tail video. Waters noted that ment with him. “I’ve been very impressed chased a cheap Bluetooth earpiece and he learned to shoot “discreet blocks” with people’s attitudes to [my] pulling glued on a clip. “On Nokia N82 and N95

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you can use a Bluetooth earpiece as a it is possible to view incoming videos have to go to an Internet café or back wireless microphone when recording directly in the portal. The software deals home to get a faster connection. Or video or audio. The quality is not as with all video handling and conversion, reporters have to compress the video to good as the on-board microphone, but and distributes information to relevant a manageable size on their notebooks in crowded places you will fi lter out a lot editorial departments. It handles RSS, [small laptop computers] to make it of noise.” geo-tagging and metadata. transmittable.” Rufi no said any “kinks” Battery life can be the biggest problem in delivery of video had largely been with smart phones if reporters are 3.3 Case studies from Asia addressed. “But at the moment we recording or video streaming for hours. Reporters at Inquirer.net, the online cannot report an event in real time. The Barth-Nilsen recommends solar chargers. site of the Philippines Daily Inquirer in fastest we have had video on the web “Most solar chargers come with a built Manila, have been fi ling stories remotely is about 20 minutes from the time it in battery,” he wrote on his blog Mojo via their Nokia mobiles since early 2007. happened.” Evolution. “Some of the more expensive Given the limited 3G networks in the Rufi no said reporters had to learn how solar chargers deliver quicker charging country, Inquirer.net offers an example to do post-production work to make than from sunlight.” He said he would of innovative use of mojo technologies. the fi les smaller, to get them down to choose the Power Monkey if money JV Rufi no was editor in chief of the site about 4 Mb. Some reporters recorded were not an option. “If you can afford until February 2009. He said getting an entire event such as a political meet- it, I guess that would be my preferred stories to the site from reporters in the ing with their cameras, he said, and then solution.” fi eld was easy with narrowband Internet. edited the video. “So they only send a Norway’s largest daily newspaper, VG, “We have been sending text for years. few selected clips because that is much has developed “news portal” technology Photos are not a problem. We can get faster.” He said video clips were meant to help media organisations handle by with 72 dpi [image resolution] on the to accompany an article for the web, and mojo content from the audience and its web.” were not merely standalone material. reporters. This technology is “made by But video was occasionally a problem Inquirer.net reporters record video in journalists for journalists.” The portal because of the much larger fi les. “We high defi nition because Rufi no wants manages incoming text messages, multi- cannot send video in real time; it tends the video quality to be as good as poss- media messages (MMS) and e-mail in a to be a gap of anywhere between half ible, and he wants to be able to use the single application. With the technology an hour and several hours. Reporters video in a variety of contexts. “Ultimately we want to be able to show video on television.” All 11 of the site’s reporters shoot video in the fi eld, though Inquirer.net also has one dedicated multi-media reporter. Reporters supply an average of about fi ve stories a day. “Sometimes it’s three or four if they are doing longer stories; more if they are doing shorter stories. We like to do one [major] video story a day, which is seven a week.” Breaking news tends to start with text because it comes in fi rst. “The photos follow shortly after and the video takes longer.” Rufi no has been testing the Nokia N95 for its multi-media capacity after learn- Figure 3: MojoEvolution.com screen shot ing about the Reuters mojo toolkit. But

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price point was important, he said. “It page impressions a month. The island Within months of launch, audiences was still possible to get better quality of Singapore has a population of about were sending Stomp about 100 photo- images for a lower cost with a dedicated 4.4 million and mobile phone pen- graphs a day. Almost all are published video camera compared with a mobile etration is one of the highest in the world. on the website. Only poor-quality or phone. Reporters shoot video with their Household broadband penetration offensive images are rejected. News- dedicated video cameras, transfer it to reached 102.1 percent by January worthy images are sent to SPH’s 11 daily the laptop with a cable, and edit using 2009. Partly this was driven by massive newspapers. the laptop’s basic software that comes take-up of 3.5G services, whether on a Felix Soh, deputy editor for digital with the operating system from Micro- phone or via a USB dongle in a laptop. media at the fl agship daily, The Straits soft, Apple or Linux. If video fi les are very For more details see http://www.ida.gov. Times, oversees Stomp. He believes it is large reporters upload the fi le to a media- sg/Publications/20090304182010.aspx. the only platform in Asia that focuses sharing site on the web and then text Network availability measures the degree on social networking. About 80 per- message the offi ce, whereupon editors to which the Internet functions properly cent of the site’s content comes from the download the fi les. Reporters also send in any society. In Singapore network audience. Stomp caters for a different text messages of the captions for photo- availability ranged between 99.99 and market compared with The Straits Times, graphs and introductions to accompany 100 percent reliability, and mobile phone whose online site, ST Interactive, effec- the video. “Editors in the offi ce clean up call success rates were perfect, accord- tively mirrors the print edition and con- the video, correct the sound and remove ing to data from the Infocomm Deve- tains mostly serious journalism. Stomp is [things like] profanities. Then the fi les are lopment Authority, the body that over- alternative journalism. “It is not serious uploaded to the site and to YouTube,” sees and regulates telecommunications journalism in the form that The Straits Rufi no said. in Singapore. Times offers,” Soh said, “though Stomp Manila, the capital, has crowded roads does deal with journalism that affects and traffi c jams at peak hour can clog people’s lives.” highways. Many reporters know the Singapore intends to become Asia’s frustration of getting good video but leading media marketplace. In 2003 Sin- not being able to get it on air because gapore’s government launched a major of being caught in traffi c. The author innovation called Media 21. It seeks to has experimented with mojo reporting almost double the media’s contribution from cafes in Manila and found video to gross domestic product from 1.56 per- fi les of up to 30 seconds duration were cent in 2003 to 3 percent a decade uploaded quickly. Thus mojo work is later, along the way creating more than possible even in cities with low quality 10,000 media jobs for Singaporeans. The 3G networks if you can fi nd a wifi con- country has pioneered high-defi nition nection in a café or other public place and mobile television services in the like a restaurant. Free wifi is available region. Dr. Tan Chin Nam, chairman of at cafes throughout Asia. The reporter Singapore’s Media Development Auth- stores interviews on the phone’s internal ority, said the media industry in the Asia- hard drive or SD card and transmits the Pacifi c region was expected to grow at video or audio when she or he locates a a compound rate of 9.2 percent at least wifi network. until 2010. In Singapore the country’s main Soh believes the Internet and multi- media group, Singapore Press Holdings, media are a natural fi t. “Video is going launched Stomp (Straits Times Online to be big. It is more engaging than, Multi-media and Print) in June 2006. say, a podcast. Multi-media storytelling By March 2009 the site (stomp.sg.com) means using video to tell the story. But was averaging more than 7 million Figure 4: Home page of www.stomp.com.sg in Singapore it is not as slick as what is being done

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on mainstream television. I want Internet Reporters and photographers involved If Internet access is poor or stops, the multi-media storytelling to be raw. If it with breaking news tend to be the main video recording is stored on the phone is too slick it looks too contrived.” Soh users of the device, McLean said. “That’s and uploaded when the phone fi nds a said all journalists employed on Stomp somewhere between a dozen and 20 signal again. All video is held on Qik’s needed to be innovative. “We look for reporters at The Sydney Morning Her- website for repeated viewing. “People fresh ideas because you have to break ald and another 15–20 at The Age [in are using Qik almost as a camcorder. rules when it comes to multi-media Melbourne, the other major Australian When they are going on their travels, storytelling. You have to have an edge, city].” A pool of about 70–80 JasJams they are using it to capture memories,” an attitude.” would be made available for specifi c says Bhaskar Roy, Qik’s co-founder. Rishi assignments. Mallik, who works in business deve- 3.4 Case studies from Australia Reporters use the JasJam to shoot lopment for the same company, said In Australia the national news agency, video and stills, record audio, and write Qik had partnered with the CBS and Fox Australian Associated Press (AAP) has stories on a cut-down version of Word, networks in the United States. been deploying dozens of mojos since and then fi le to editors at Fairfax’s Culberson combines video streaming September 2008. Miguel D’Souza, AAP’s various online sites via the country’s 3G with Twitter, the micro-blogging system. multi-media editor, said each mojo’s kit phone network. Fairfax Media launched He notifi es his more than 3,000 Twitter included the Nokia N95 with a Bluetooth online-only daily “newspapers” in March followers when he is about to stream Nokia fold-away keyboard, a digital 2007 and June 2008 respectively in Aus- a video with his mobile phone so they sound recorder and a Sony HDR-SR12E tralia’s third- and fi fth-largest population can watch. He also uses Twitter to post video camera. AAP developed a training centres, Brisbane and Perth. All reporters comments from committee rooms and program and roster for its Internet desk at Brisbane Times and WAToday were the fl oor of the House. Twitter is a micro- journalists, and distributed a training equipped with the JasJam from the start. blogging tool that lets people broadcast video to bureau reporters around the The key issue was not the technology, messages of up to 140 characters to country. McLean emphasised, but preparing people in their network. The mess- Late in 2007, journalists at The journalists for new ways of provid- ages are known as “tweets.” Users can Sydney Morning Herald and the Aus- ing information to audiences. “It’s the twitter via the text facility of their mobile tralian Financial Review moved into a JasJam today, but it could well be a dif- phone, or using a website. new building dubbed the “newsroom of ferent piece of equipment tomorrow,” Robert Scoble, based in California’s the future” on Sydney’s inner harbour. said Mike Van Niekerk, editor in chief Silicon Valley, claims to have shot the The papers are two of the fl agships of of Fairfax Digital, the company’s online highest number of Qik videos. He is Fairfax Media, Australia and New Zea- arm. also a video blogger with Fast Company land’s largest and most integrated media magazine. Qik succeeds because it is group. Phil McLean, Fairfax Media’s 3.5 Case studies from the “frictionless publishing” he told The New group executive editor at the time of the United States York Times. It was as simple as touching move, said three quarters of the entire John Culberson, a Republican repre- two buttons on his camera phone, com- process involved getting people to “think sentative from Texas, broadcasts live pared with the dozen he needs to press differently” – that is, to alter their mind- images from the US Congress via Qik to make a phone call. When someone set so they were willing to work with software on his mobile phone. Culberson downloads Qik software for mojo work multi-media. Fairfax Media had moved described himself to The New York Times they allocate buttons on their mobile from being a newspaper company to an in August 2008 as the “fi rst real-time phone as the “record” button. “If I’m in integrated media company, McLean said. representative.” “New media promises the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, for example, As part of preparation for the move, to create the next revolution that will I can go round and show my friends Fairfax organised weekly training courses allow we the people to take back con- back home – live – what it’s like,” Scoble to introduce journalists to a port- trol of our government,” Culberson said, said. “To me, that is a much more main- able digital assistant (PDA) or smart- claiming he uses Qik to “shine sunlight stream idea for our culture than stream- phone called a JasJam, made by iMate. into all the dark corners of Congress”. ing 24 hours a day.” Scoble said he uses

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Qik alongside his professional work with interactive journalism at the graduate be professional? And there is the fi rst high-defi nition cameras. Mojo offers the school of journalism at the City Univer- fundamental change brought on by advantage of allowing him to capture sity of New York. In January 2008 Jarvis the mojo phone: It’s small, unobtrusive, spontaneous moments and get instant spent a week as a mobile journalist with unthreatening. You don’t feel as if you’re feedback from users. His high-defi nition a mobile phone at the World Economic talking to a camera and, in turn, to television work, meanwhile, could take Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Like thousands or millions online. You’re talk- three weeks to appear. Scoble, Jarvis believes that all journalists – ing to a phone; how silly. Other Reuters “Qik has put a television studio in my print or broadcast – should be equipped mojo journalists told me they had the pocket,” Scoble said. “I can get live video as mojos. Jarvis said the mobile phone same experience: It makes recording onto the Internet faster than I can make would change the job of the journalist people more casual and perhaps candid, a phone call.” Audiences send text mess- “in ways more radical than I could have and certainly easier.” ages to his phone while he is fi lming. imagined until I started reporting with NBC news photographer Jim Long was Scoble described this process as an excit- one.” Jarvis said mobile phones allowed in Africa in February 2008 covering a ing form of interactivity. “Advertisers reporters to upload or broadcast while visit by President George W. Bush. Long want to put their brands with content on the move and could also be used used a mobile phone with Qik software that has large and engaged audiences to send photos to Flickr and tweets to to broadcast an interview with Sir Bob and that’s going to be breaking news. Twitter. The latter is a short-form version Geldof, the musician and humanitarian. If I were running a newspaper, I’d get of blogging, like reporting via SMS. A The mojo interview did not involve any every reporter a cell phone capable of wired journalist without a camera and large broadcast quality cameras or a broadcasting video to the Internet using connectivity was “like a hack without a satellite uplink. Long said the most a service such as Qik, Kyte, Flixwagon, or pencil,” Jarvis concluded. important component of platforms like Mogulus. Then I’d stream compelling live “We already know that camera- Qik was interactivity. events – crime scenes, postgame locker- phones in the hands of witnesses have “The coolest part of the Geldof inter- room interviews, new-product intro- been changing news. There is no better view was when my Texas Twitter bud ductions – and package analysis on top illustration of that, so far, than the 7/7 Mike Neumann’s question popped up of it.” [London transport] bombings [in 2005]. on the screen. It was haltingly unscripted Scoble was a keynote speaker at the But I now see that this same device may as I interrupted Geldof to ask Mike’s annual conference of the Online News change the job of the journalist in ways question. Geldof didn’t miss a beat and Association (ONA) in Washington on more radical than I could have imagined actually referred to Neumann by name.” 13 September 2008. Student journalists until I started reporting with one. At Long noted that the interview took place covered the conference for the ONA, [the] World Economic Forum meeting only a few metres from the US television using CoverItLive to do a live blog of in Davos, I begged my way into Reuters’ pool transmission workspace where Scoble’s talk, and also acted as mojos mojo – mobile journalist – project and “racks of routers, monitors and decks to record his keynote address. Jackie Hai was one of a score of delegates and churned out two satellite paths of pool and Stephanie Lim collaborated as mojos reporters to get a mojo phone.” and unilateral materials from all fi ve to report Scoble, and concluded that Jarvis saw David Cameron, the Con- networks.” The comparison between a mojo work was useful for organisations servative Party leader in the United live video stream interview via a simple that wanted to cover a story in its Kingdom, alone in the halls of Davos. “I mobile phone and the millions of dollars entirety. Teamwork was vital. “It gave walked up and asked him about his own of television equipment was stark. us a chance to cover this event more small video work at Webcameron [see KCRW in Santa Monica in California, accurately than if it had been done by readings for more details]. I whipped part of the National Public Radio system, a single person.” A team was important out my mojo phone and asked whether has been using mojos since mid 2008. to ensure the coverage was accurate, the he’d mind my recording it. I told him I Anil Dewan, KCRW’s director of new students said. was doing this for Reuters, but I can’t media, said the station bought three Jeff Jarvis publishes a highly infl uen- imagine he took that seriously, for I Nokia N95 phones and three plans with tial blog, BuzzMachine, and teaches was just using a phone. How could that AT&T that allowed unlimited access to

12 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

3G networks. After joining Kyte, one of region contains some of the world’s to fi le their stories, with accompanying the software companies that provides biggest uranium deposits.” visuals and audio while on the move, live video streaming, the station sent The reporters carried smartphones as saving time and increasing productivity. journalists to the Democratic and Repub- well as full-size video cameras. Auth- Enhanced productivity is a key output of lican conventions. KCRW’s website got orities confi scated the latter soon after this new relationship,” he said. more than 124,000 views for 67 con- the reporters entered Niger, but the Nokia provided Bizcommunity’s edi- vention clips. “The content is fed straight reporters were allowed to keep their torial team with mobile phones. Louise from cell phones to the web site. No one phones. They took high-quality images Marsland, editorial director and editor has to encode or edit it,” Dewan said. with those phones that were geo- of Bizcommunity, said her company was “It’s a small, nimble technology,” he tagged, using the phone’s GPS function. proud to be the fi rst online media site in said of the streaming process. “You can This provided the exact location of where Africa to benefi t from such a partner- record and upload quickly to our website the shot was taken, which allowed Al- ship. “Mobile journalists – ‘mojos’ – using Kyte.” Jazeera’s new media team in Doha in are the journalists of the digital future: Daniel Graf, chief executive of Kyte in Qatar to plot the route of the reporters’ journalists who can seamlessly integrate San Francisco, told The New York Times journey through the Sahara on an inter- and upload their reporting efforts in September 2008 that KCRW was active map. Examples of the Sahara including images, podcasts and videos using Kyte’s services on a trial basis. In photographs and the mash-up of the to give their readers the full picture, the future, commercial users would pay reporters’ journey can be found at http:// immediately, on daily news services like a fl at fee based either on the volume of labs.aljazeera.net/. Bizcommunity.” traffi c or through a share of revenue. Audiences could follow the reporters Journalism students from the Univer- Individuals are not charged for private into the heart of the confl ict via a Google sity of Witwatersrand, also in South use of the service. Maps mash-ups. “The project was initia- Africa, were using mobile phones to ted by Al-Jazeera Labs to demonstrate explore how technology could be used 3.6 Case studies from Africa some of the innovations coming out of to create and distribute news. Their kit Al-Jazeera bases reporters in “hotspot” our new media group,” Nanabhay said. includes an N95 8 Gb handset, a port- areas of the world where it expects news “Keep in mind, though, that some of able keyboard and a tripod. Nokia also will break and uses the latest mobile these tools are still in development.” provided technical support. Indra de technology to get news to its audiences. Nanabhay’s team is also looking at the Lanerolle, adjunct lecturer on the Wit- Mohamed Nanabhay, Al-Jazeera’s head potential of Twitter for newsgathering watersrand journalism program, said of new media until early 2009, said and the iPhone for distribution of news. students had to think carefully about the the 24-hour news service had 62 news Twitter software allows people to blog nature of the platform they were using bureaus around the world. “We have via their mobile phone. and how this would affect the content deep knowledge of our region,” he said. Ruud Elmendorp, a Dutch mojo, oper- they produced. “Are there specifi c kinds The experiences of two Al-Jazeera ates out of Kenya in Africa. By May of news or information people will want reporters, Baiba Ould Mhadi and May 2009 his website (videoreporter.nl) on their cell phone? Do stories need to Ying Welsh, in Mali and Niger illustrate offered 133 news video reports from be of different length?” Students needed the use of mobile technology to get 22 countries in Africa. Also in Africa, the to decide when and how to use video, news from isolated regions. As part of Bizcommunity.com site in South Africa rather than text or still images. “All of a special series the reporters travelled partnered with Nokia to get multi-media this puts them on the bleeding edge of across the Sahara desert to cover a con- content on the website via mojos. Mathia new media. They are working with tools fl ict involving uranium, the environment Nalappan, Nokia’s general manager for that many professional journalists have and the Tuareg, the nomadic animal South Africa, said businesses all over not yet even seen.” herders who live in the Sahara. “The the world were realising the value of At Rhodes University in Grahamstown Tuareg are among the world’s poo- becoming mobile, and journalism in his in South Africa, another mojo project rest people,” said Nanabhay. “Yet their country was at the forefront of this revol- started in mid 2008 to cultivate citizen ution. “Journalists now have the tools journalists among local high-school

13 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

students, supported by the Knight A separate “cell-phone journalism” Noted Professor Berger: “The challen- Foundation in the United States. Pro- project involved getting 45 senior high ges have been developing skills of fessor Guy Berger, who wrote the school students to text news to the local accuracy on the part of these young funding application for the project, newspaper, the Grocott’s Mail, which citizen journalists on the one hand and, said the experiment was looking at the publishes a selection of the best items. on the other, the newspaper translating potential for mobile phones to become Content covered local politics, school SMS-style abbreviations back into full devices for interactive journalism. “The news, sports and entertainment. Rhodes English for its grown-up readers to com- whole initiative will enable young people University journalism programme owns prehend.” Content from all the students, in Grahamstown to have fun mess- the newspaper and uses it as a training plus other material from the newspaper, ing around with cell phones in search vehicle. was sent back to the young people’s of formulae to turn the gadgets into a mobile phones in a separate experiment serious platform for journalism. The idea designed to use the phone as a dis- is to intervene in a context where most tribution device. cell phone use is still for interpersonal business, rather than participation in mass communication.”

14 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

4 Challenges to mojo work

In the context of journalism and breaking ate to conduct a cost-benefi t analysis to Even though the technology is simple news, the fundamental question that calculate the cost of mojo work. to use, training is still important. has to be answered is the balance of Technical challenges such as battery Reporters need to know how to locate speed versus quality. Sometimes get- life become important for mojos. Reuters and connect to public wifi networks if ting the story fi rst or fastest can mean noted that it takes six hours for the solar they cannot get Internet access. And accuracy is sacrifi ced. To ensure quality panel in its mojo toolkit to recharge a print reporters need to learn how to content, breaking news reporters must phone. The BBC’s Darren Waters said he frame images in the phone’s viewfi nder. ensure they are both fast and accurate. used three or four batteries a day when “We are not cameramen, so we made If it becomes a choice between the two, reporting. Both the BBC and Reuters mistakes,” the BBC’s Waters said of the accuracy should always prevail. encountered problems with sound Barcelona experiments. One reporter It is pointless having brilliant video quality: bland and monotone stand-ups pressed the pause button instead of if a reporter cannot fi le it. Thus the caused by poor-quality sound. Reuters’ record for one interview, and had to ask availability of appropriate infra- use of an external microphone for their the interviewee to do the interview again structure, including wireless broadband mojo toolkit has produced better sound the next day. Waters said he watched access and the reliability of 3G networks, quality. some Variety journalists at the Cannes becomes a key issue. Mobile phones fi lm festival using Qik for live interviews. are constantly being improved, so from One interview with Woody Allen failed a technology point of view newspapers because the reporter put the phone too need to refresh their phones regularly far away from Allen. The sound quality because technology quickly gets out of was poor and people kept moving into date. The best option here is to lease the image frame, which was distracting rather than buy the phones. for the audience. Every time a reporter streams live video Finally, any form of live reporting via the web someone pays for the data involves the potential for legal problems. being transmitted. The only exception Few media organisations are going live is when the reporter fi nds a free wifi from a mobile phone. Most tend to use network at a café or restaurant or other Figure 5: Photo of people taking photos of Obama on the technology for obtaining on-the- public place. This applies also when the election trail with their mobile phones spot images that are visually attractive, downloading pages from the Internet (Source: Google images) such as the fi reworks after the Obama for research. An average web page con- nomination. Darren Waters, the BBC’s sumes about 1 Mb of data and watching Once large numbers of reporters technology editor, says the BBC has a a fi ve-minute video clip can gobble start mojo work, the potential volume system of checks and balances: “Any- up about 3 Mb. So a combination of and speed of video being sent back to thing that goes to air goes through those sending video via the web and surfi ng a website will put pressure on back- checks and balances. The ad hoc and for information several times a day will end systems. It is important to have spontaneous nature of mojo means that use up hundreds of megabits a day, reliable systems in place at the back audiences are slightly more willing to which represents gigabits of information end. Any media organisation that uses accept blemishes. These are mainly tech- a month. a third-party site will have to trust their nical blemishes rather than editorial.” Costs easily escalate. The best option scalability and robustness. If the third Archiving and copyright issues also need is an unlimited data plan. These are avail- party cannot handle the traffi c from to be addressed. able in some countries such as Singapore, a major news event and their servers Sweden and the United States. But other collapse, the media organisation and countries such as Australia are not as not the third party looks bad. Back-end advanced, and media organisations systems therefore are a genuine issue to face large costs for data. It is appropri- consider.

15 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

5 The people formerly known as the audience

On 16 September 2008 the Geelong via their mobile phone. Chris Ahearn, – or unlucky – enough to be at the scene Advertiser in Australia published a story president of the Reuters media group, of a newsworthy event.” The morphing about a YouTube video in which four men said his news agency had always pur- of citizen journalism into something bashed a teenager near a Geelong church. chased newsworthy images from part- recognised more as “public engagement The video showed the teenage boy being time contributors known as stringers. with the media” might make it more kicked in the back of the head and “What if everybody in the world were my palatable to the people who object to the punched in the face before being pushed stringers?” Ahearn asked rhetorically in notion that members of the public could into bushes. The video was shot with a an article in The New York Times. commit “random acts of journalism.” mobile phone and posted to YouTube. News organisations have traditionally In response to this worldwide trend, While this scenario represents the dark published photographs taken by mainstream media have provided ways side of what is possible with a mobile amateurs of major news events like the to let people submit video still images phone, it shows a trend emerging around London Underground bombings in July and text via their mobile phone. CNN the world. Individuals with mobile phones 2005 and the Asian tsunami the pre- introduced its I-Reports section for audi- in situations where news breaks now vious year. Yahoo’s news division has ence-submitted material (http://www. have the tools to record it. Newspapers often used images originally posted cnn.com/exchange/) in August 2007. need to be prepared to take advantage on Flickr, the company’s photo-sharing Some submissions are included in main- of this trend. The number of people site. It created a slide show of images stream news broadcasts. CNN’s I-Report around the world with a mobile phone from Thailand after the coup there in was forced to expand the site to accom- reached about 4.2 billion by mid 2009. September of 2005. modate the volume of material sub- That is four times the number of people Steve Rosenbaum runs Magnify Media, mitted. I-Report’s site offers a range of with a personal computer and treble the which helps websites collate and present tools for helping novice reporters, called number of Internet connections. video contributions from audiences. the Toolkit. Mitch Gelman, executive Another example from the Geelong He created MTV Unfi ltered, one of the producer of CNN.com, said observers Advertiser illustrates the potential of fi rst viewer-contributed video programs could offer their perspectives on a story the mobile phone for breaking news. on television. “The average person wit- from the inside. “Even the best reporters On Sunday 21 September 2008 police nesses something that is considered in most cases are approaching the story became involved in a siege after a man news once every 10 years,” he told The from the outside in. We feel as a news in a Geelong house threatened offi cers New York Times. “When it’s time to put organisation we need to provide both to with a handgun. After a three-hour something on the Internet, they will put offer full coverage to our audience.” standoff offi cers stormed the house it in the place they have used before. Reuters also established a site for when it caught fi re, dragging the man The numbers tell us that is YouTube.” As accepting content from audiences, from the fl ames. A woman’s body was of mid 2009 just over half of all videos along with Yahoo! News, CBSeyemobile. found in the house. The newspaper posted to the web went onto YouTube com and the Fox network in the United maintained a live blog throughout the (53 percent). The next highest was in States. The last is called UReport. Yahoo! siege, incorporating text messages, single digits, so YouTube is the power- News has a training site for its audience- still photographs and video sent from house in this arena. generated contributions called YouWit- neighbours’ mobile phones. Many of The project manager for Nokia’s ness News. Details about all of these can the images in the newspaper the next Research Centre, Timo Koskinen, said be found in the readings. day came from those mobile phones. mojo toolkits had transformed the Jeff Jarvis of the BuzzMachine blog Advertiser editor Peter Judd said text concept and the potential of citizen noted that the point of the mojo concept messages provided valuable colour and journalism. “Citizen journalism is begin- was not simply equipping journalists, background material for the stories in ning to embrace a wide range of pub- but knowing that witnesses would be Monday’s newspaper. lic engagement with the media, from equipped with the tools that enabled Around the world, traditional media groups of contributors organised around them to share what they saw. So one companies are encouraging their audi- subject or geographic areas to the casual future role for journalists was knowing ences to contribute still images and video participation of observers who are lucky how to tap into this resource, he said.

16 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

6 Revenue opportunities

Mobile delivery of news is a likely future when they vote via SMS for contestants We should also consider the poten- for newspapers, and probably for in reality television programmes. They tial of the e-reader, a form of electronic broadcast media as well. Newspaper are willing to pay for data charges for book, as a device for distributing news- companies should partner with telecoms transmitting video or photographs to paper content. Printing, paper and dis- operators or become mobile carriers their friends. tribution cost about 60 euro cents of themselves. The latter option pro- In short, they will pay for micro- every euro spent on producing a news- vides at least three revenue generating payments (because everything invol- paper. A device like an e-reader cuts or marketing opportunities: A mobile ving mobile phone content is in reality a production costs signifi cantly, meaning carrier could offer video streaming to micropayment). This provides an oppor- more money can be put into producing their subscribers. This would generate tunity for newspapers to make money by content. Early in 2009 the Hearst Cor- money via service fees and data plans. selling their content and premium ser- poration in the United States announced Secondly, if newspaper companies pro- vices via mobile phone. it would release an e-reader for news- vided their content via the mobile phone, papers some time in 2010. It would they would receive more money for be American letter in size and weigh that content compared with partnering about 400 grams. In March 2009 the with a telecoms company. Finally, news- Silicon Valley-based Plastic Logic said papers could bundle mobile phone it planned to release an un-named contracts with a yearly subscription to e-reader in January 2010. The Plastic the newspaper. Logic product would have a screen, The technology gives journalists a measured diagonally, of about 27 cm chance to interact with their many and it would weigh about 300 grams. scattered audiences through live two- In April 2009 News Corp Chief Executive way chat. Assuming global roam- Rupert Murdoch said his company was ing options, mojo technology allows investing in a mobile device for reading reporters to produce live videos from newspapers on a screen. The project was anywhere in the world. This reduces in its early software development stages, costs for satellite feeds and related and he provided few details. communication technologies. News- These three e-readers are intended paper companies could customise video Figure 6: Example of an e-reader (Source: Google images) for newspaper readers. They are poten- content and also offer the ability to inter- tially attractive to audiences if news- act through live chat, and viewer-sub- papers can get the content and busi- mitted questions and requests. ness model right. The devices have Newspaper companies have struggled other selling points. They are perceived to fi nd ways to make money from as being greener than newsprint, which online. Audiences have come to expect makes them attractive to people con- free content. If a newspaper starts cerned about environmental issues. charging for online content, audiences And readers can store back issues of simply look elsewhere for free content. magazines, newspapers and thousands But audiences are accustomed to paying of books on each device. This saves to use their mobile phones. They have paper and the strain of carrying heavy got into the habit of paying monthly paper-based products. Their potential as subscriptions. They are happy to pay for a replacement for school and university ring tones. They appear content to pay Figure 7: Example of plastic paper (Source: Google images) text books is huge.

17 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

7 The future

Where to from here? Where is the mojo storms, Anderson got a data cable for his 7.1 Changing roles for journalists likely to go? Reuters’ chief scientist Nic mobile phone and as mobile technology The mobile phone makes mojo work Fulton believes mobile technology is improved, he found he could do more possible. But as with all tools, a person evolving very fast. “We can see a time in the fi eld. “In 2006, on a trip for the makes the choice to use or reject that probably not that many years out – less BBC World’s ‘Have Your Say,’ I was able technology. As well as technology than fi ve [years], maybe as short as three to use a 3G data card in the US to set up choice, the issues of changing job roles – when mobile phones could have high a mobile wifi hotspot and keep us con- and the diffi culties associated with being defi nition [television] capacity, [and] nected when standard communications a “jack-of-all trades” always surface extremely powerful VPUs [computer pro- channels failed.” whenever mobile journalism is discussed. cessors] and keyboards,” Fulton said in Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine believes a Should and can one person do every- mid 2007. “You might just start saying key skill in the newsroom of the future thing? Is it fair to expect one person to that’s a laptop. I still think that the future will not be the ability to get reporters work long hours to produce content for will ultimately be a very personal mobile to the scene, but to notice news as it many forms of media? device. So clearly there is potential for it happens as members of the audience The development of the mojo at [the mojo] to have quite a transformative shoot video with their mobile phones newspapers should ideally be left in effect on journalism.” and post to blogs and the web. Main- the hands of people who value the edi- So expect some exciting news about stream media does not have enough torial product. Mojos should not be seen high defi nition on the mobile phone by reporters, editors or producers to do as ways to save money by getting one as early as late this year or the middle that on your own. “You need to have person to do the jobs of several people. of next year. Apple’s iPhone appears lots of friends who’ll alert you. You need Mojos are an innovation that gives news- to have stimulated higher levels of to use every tool that’s available – the papers a chance to match television and innovation in terms of phone interface, Technorati of the live video web – to see radio in the realm of breaking news. But so expect some major developments in what’s happening in the world.” This people will only watch or read quality. screen capacity as well. presents an opportunity for an enter- Jerky and poor-quality video is only Kevin Anderson is blogs editor for The prising newspaper to develop social con- attractive if it is exclusive. This is a call for Guardian. He believes mobile technology nection tools for mobile phones. editors to manage the development of lets journalists stay closer to the story, Mainstream media would have plenty the mojo, not MBAs. Mojos must not be and connected both to the offi ce and of “witnesses with cameras” who seen as a way to cut costs, but more as a to audiences. “The news organisations would use these tools to share news as way to improve newsgathering options. that experiment now will be best placed it happens, Jarvis said. The role for big Kevin Sites is sometimes offered as an to take advantage of the journalistic media would be to discover, organise and example of one person who succeeded possibilities that ever-advancing mobile vet the huge volume of video and con- as a jack-of-all-trades. In 2007–2008 he technology allows.” tent from the audience. “That is a vastly travelled to confl ict zones in 19 coun- In 1999 Anderson covered Hurricane different and vastly expanded vision of tries, sponsored by Yahoo! Sites shot Floyd for the BBC News website as the how news will come to us. And it brings video, took photos, and wrote stories winds hit the North Carolina coast. “I no end of additional implications about that were sent via satellite to the United fi led throughout the night, but after the our ability to know what is true and what States. A team posted the content daily storm passed, it knocked out electricity is not as it happens. Live, distributed to hotzone.yahoo.com. Sites’ goal was and phone lines throughout the eastern newsgathering and sharing will change to show the United States parts of the third of the state. I wasn’t able to fi le a the news more radically than we can yet world that were often overlooked. A number of pictures I had taken because imagine.” Life becomes a 24-hour news core audience of about 2 million people I simply had no way to get them back channel, Jarvis said, as “we see news looked at the website each week. But to the back to base.” Soon after the through the eyes of witnesses.” the project was expensive: the project’s

18 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

equipment cost about $ 50,000 plus a 7.2 Storytelling with the mobile too pleased if I’d decided to fi lm it on similar amount for satellite fees. Travel Matt Cowan was one of Reuters’ fi rst my mobile. There’s a theatre to television costs for Sites’ team were also high. mojos. Soon after the mojo software that you just have to let play out. But Such innovations while attractive, are was fi rst loaded on his phone, Cowan sometimes the picture doesn’t matter expensive. said he was aware of the power of as much as the immediacy, and what The mojo concept is less expensive. the device. “That’s an amazing power, someone has to say.” That was the most Even cheaper is the use of audience- almost like science fi ction. It has the appropriate time to be a mojo, he said. generated content because most of the potential to capture more everyday life. Nic Fulton, Reuters Media chief time the content is provided for free. The Everyone sees the potential in this [mojo] scientist, said handheld devices enabled future is probably some form of pro-am and I think this is the most advanced reporters to create complete stories and partnership, where professional editors execution of this kind of mobile video fi le them without leaving the scene. work with the people formerly known blogging software.” “Rather than bulkier laptops, the mobile as the audience. Reuters and Yahoo! Cowan covered the 2007 Edinburgh journalism application saves time and remain the most popular news websites TV Festival and interviewed Internet benefi ts our audience by ensuring that in the United States, according to com- developer Vint Cerf with the Nokia they receive high-quality up-to-date Score’s MediaMetrix. Those media com- N95. Said Cowan: “It’s easy to use. As news.” panies have embraced the pro-am con- someone who is used to working with It is important to emphasise from the cept. Audience-generated photos and a big camera, this is a different kind outset that mobile journalism will not videos have been available on these sites of experience. It fi ts in your pocket. replace traditional reporting. Reuters and since December 2006. What’s amazing is that you can sidle other innovators see the mojo as com- It is important here to emphasise the up to someone and take pictures and plementary rather than a replacement. complementary nature of mojo work. video, which people fi nd surprising. It Most mojo content is being used in It is not going to replace high-end has real potential to capture people’s blogs, and to add to text stories. So video cameras for broadcast television, thoughts in places where you would not think of mojo in terms of its being a or high-end digital stills cameras, or have a full crew. Its portability is what supplementary form of reporting. Said broadcast-quality audio recorders. But makes it so exciting.” Cowan noted that Cowan: “I don’t think this [mojo] is going it offers a “Swiss army knife” option for many other “smart-phones” had similar to become the way we’ll all be reporting. producing multi-media content when no capabilities, but the N95 was different But it will be an incredibly important tool other technology is available. in that it was “built for journalists”. He that plays in to how we report stories. Given the rapid spread of the mobile also said the new technology helped It injects a kind of dynamism that we’ve phone throughout Asia, especially India broadcast journalists because it was less seen mostly from social networks.” and China, the arrival of the mojo has intrusive than traditional cameras and huge ramifi cations for the newspaper microphones. business in these countries and around For a reporter on the ground, Cowan the world over the next decade. said, a key issue was appreciating when The future remains exciting for news- a mobile report would be most suit- paper companies willing to embrace able. On 11 October 2007 Cowan was change and innovation. As Reuters sent to interview Doris Lessing when media and technology correspondent it was announced she had won the Matt Cowan has noted: “I don’t think Nobel Prize for literature. Cowan’s was this is the way we’ll all be reporting. But the fi rst television crew at Lessing’s it will be an incredibly important tool London home. “Everyone in the world that plays into how we report stories. It wanted that footage, and I don’t think injects a kind of dynamism.” the folks in the offi ce would have been

19 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

8 Lessons learned and conclusions

Think of the mojo as like the Swiss army to write or interview or summarise the software companies they partner with knife. It is useful if you are alone in the key moments. have rugged servers that can ensure forest and have to fend for yourself. Mojo reporting in the fi eld introduces reliable and quality service. When news Better to have this tool rather than its own range of problems. External noise breaks, the technology must make nothing. The same applies for breaking is a real issue, unless the reporter has a sure the video is delivered. Qik and the news: a mojo is perfect for breaking specialised microphone. Beware even dis- other software tools for streaming video news, for getting multi-media onto a tant noises such as helicopters or traffi c or involve a time lag. The longer the piece web site from the scene of the action. construction because these interfere with of continuous video, the longer that The best mojo work is done in teams, the phone’s ability to record voice con- time lag. A 10-minute piece of video with appropriate allocation of roles. versations. The human ear blocks external takes another fi ve minutes on top of A team can allocate tasks and each noise during an interview or press con- the initial 10 to be delivered, even on member covers for the others. Each ference, but the mobile phone’s internal the most modern 3G networks. Rather member is confi dent because they know microphone captures all external sound. than streaming 10 minutes of a press others in the team are focusing on dif- When bright sunlight refl ects on the conference or other news event, mojos ferent parts of the story yet they are all phone’s screen it becomes diffi cult to should send discreet packages of video, working towards a common goal. Mojos frame good images because it is imposs- each of one to three minutes. working alone need to have suffi cient ible to see the screen. This especially Frank Barth-Nilsen of Norway’s confi dence in their bosses that they can applies in a media scrum where the national broadcaster NRK believes sup- call for help if the story they are covering journalist is forced to hold the camera in plying information about the reporter gets too big for one person to handle. outstretched arms above the interview and the location at the start of an inter- It is possible for a single mojo to subject. Even a small camera starts to feel view is important when doing mojo cover a news event, but diffi cult. Only heavy after several minutes. The answer work and feeding the video to public the most exceptional person can listen, here is an extension arm or tripod. With servers. “You’ll never know how other summarise, send video, upload fi les, these tools it is vital to be able to ensure people will use your video. Putting this respond to incoming messages from the record button is on. The options here information at the start of an interview online viewers and colleagues, and are some form of remote control, or is an insurance of fair use, both for you still be aware of the big picture all at being willing to have some blurred and and the people interviewed.” the same time. From experience, the wasted video at the start of the video Barth-Nilsen recommends the mojo author found it stressful trying to do between hitting the record button and should video him or herself at the start as many things at once. Perhaps it might focusing on the subject. The best option a way of establishing the setting for the be easier for someone from the 18–24 here is to have an editor at the offi ce interview. “This will give the audience a demographic, who has grown up multi- able to remove this set-up video before sense of presence and sort of watermark- tasking and is more comfortable with it is put on your website. ing the material as your own.” When this style of working. As with most forms Several spare batteries are vital interviewing people standing still, mojos of journalism, different people gravitate because mojo work consumes power. should focus on getting high quality towards different kinds of reporting. A typical one-hour press conference images and audio. Indoor interviews on Some people have the kind of person- might need at least two or three fully mobile phones often look bad because ality that thrives on the chance to be a charged batteries, depending on how of poor lighting and surrounding noise. mojo. the reporter covers the event. “Try to fi nd natural light from windows Journalists who plan to work as mojos Data charges in some countries are or light bulbs. This will increase the need to consider the most appropri- high, and managers need to budget picture quality a lot. If it’s possible, fi nd ate way to treat a particular story. A for them. The author pays his own data a place with little noise. The microphone live video stream of an important news charges, and the local telco charges on phones like the Nokia N95 and N82 event demands one person’s attention about 1.5 euros per Mb. are great, but they have a tendency to for the duration of the event. Image Newspaper companies that embrace pick up a lot of background noise.” quality is just as important as the ability the mojo model need to ensure that the

20 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

Appendix A: Mojo tools

At least fi ve companies offer tools for into Flash where it can be watched by Windows Mobile operating systems. A streaming live video from a mobile anyone who goes to the Qik website. list of compatible phones is available at phone to the web. This section of the The site describes the video as “live” but the end of Qik’s home page. Qik advises report looks at those companies. With all usually there is a delay of a few seconds. that users will need a data plan from of them, software enables a reporter to Newspapers and individuals around their service provider, and recommends stream video directly from a phone to the the world embed a Qik “channel” on an unlimited data plan because video software company’s website. Reporters their website. Audiences can watch streaming “can consume a considerable use their cell phone like a miniature cam- events live, leave comments, or watch amount of bandwidth.” Qik has users corder to capture news and go live. Most the video later. The software is avail- in more than 50 countries. Those users of the software is currently only available able on a wide range of mobile phones, have produced thousands of videos on Nokia phones and a handful of hand- mostly those running the Symbian and since the company’s launch in December sets running Windows Mobile, though the range of suitable phones is increas- ing. A list is usually available at each company’s website. Look for the link to “suitable phones.” It is vital to have a data plan because video streaming con- sumes large amounts of data. In most of the current examples of mojo work, the video is streamed from the reporter’s camera to the software company’s site. Then the newspaper copies each piece of video’s embed code into the newspaper’s website. A faster option, which would involve negotiations between the software com- panies mentioned below, would be to stream video directly from the camera to the news organisation’s website. Figure 8: Screen shot of Quik home page Newspapers considering this option will need to contact individual software companies. Qik (http://www.qik.com) is prob- ably the best known of the live video streaming tools because of the pub- licity it gained with the U.S. Congress- man mentioned in the case study section of this report. All software tools work the same way: A reporter down- loads software to their mobile phone. After opening the software, whatever the reporter videos with the phone is transferred via wireless networks to a website. The phone buffers and sends footage back almost in real time to the Qik servers, which transcode the video Figure 9: Screen shot of Kyte home page

21 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

2007. How can Qik make money, given to transfer photos, videos, music, text applications and services, not about the software is free? Like many software and other digital content to and from creating new and separate mobile-only companies, Qik currently appears to be the handset without the need to open a services. Said Bole: “Our technology is focusing on building a community and mobile browser, wait for pages to load, designed to overcome the challenges of seeking partnerships with media com- interrupt phone calls, start over in the mobilising existing online communities panies and other organisations. More event of a dropped connection, or sync (such as videosharing, photosharing, details about Qik can be found at http:// to a PC. A feature of the technology was blogging and social networking sites), www.crunchbase.com/company/qik. “Share-it” one-click uploading of camera and other Internet services (such as RSS Kyte (http://www.kyte.com) is the phone videos and photographs to online feeds, podcasts and videocasts). The BBC second U.S.-based mojo software pro- community sites and other destinations. used ShoZu in its mojo work in Barcelona viders. It aims to help anyone, includ- ShoZu has offi ces in London, San (see BBC case study earlier). More details ing journalists, create digital content Francisco, France, Spain and Italy. Most about ShoZu can be found at http:// and distribute it across the web, social of the software development appears to www.crunchbase.com/company/shozu. networks and mobile phones. It has take place in San Francisco, and it is an Bambuser (http://www.bambuser. strategic partnerships with some of the American company. ShoZu “Desktop” com) says the core concept of its tech- world’s leading media and mobile phone is a Macintosh and PC compatible nology is to provide people with the companies, including Nokia. At the time software that allows users to drag and chance to broadcast live using a mobile of writing Kyte’s mojo software was in drop photos or videos on their computer phone anywhere. Students from Turku in private beta. to more than 30 destinations including Finland and Malmö in Sweden founded Jemima Kiss of The Guardian has Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube. Bambuser in 2007. One of them, Måns noted that Kyte tried to differentiate ShoZu believes that the “mobile Adler, said Bambuser provided a world itself by working with a series of big web” is about mobilising existing web leading service for user-generated live music names such as 50 Cent. In a video interview on Beet.TV, chief executive Daniel Graf described the company’s partnerships with EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal. “For on-the-go con- tent producers, Kyte Mobile Producer provides a mobile production studio that fi ts in your pocket.” Graf said the tech- nology featured the ability to stream live video with high production values with one-click. It is possible to send video directly to Facebook or MySpace with a single click. A video about Kyte can be found at http://www.kyte.com/platform/ pg/overview_video. More details about the company are available at http:// www.crunchbase.com/company/kyte. ShoZu (http://www.shozu.com/) describes itself as a mobile media ser- vice that enables consumer brands and media companies to interact with their consumers via the web and the mobile phone. CEO Mark Bole said ShoZu’s patented technology allowed consumers Figure 10: Screen shot of ShoZu home page

22 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

because of the phone’s ability to create, edit and upload stories directly to the Internet. When John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, announced he had picked Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, many media com- panies had no recent video of Palin. But MTV did. In February 2008 MTV street reporter Dani Carlson did a live video interview with Palin using a mobile phone running the Flixwagon application. This video can be found at http:// newsroom.mtv.com/2008/08/29/sarah- palin-republican-vice-presidential- nominee-plugs-romney-paul-but-not- Figure 11: Screen shot of Bambuser home page mccain-in-mtv-interview/. In September 2008 Flixwagon partnered with the video from mobile phones. “What you to promote citizen journalism. MTV used organisers of the Web 2.0 Expo in New see on your cell-phone screen is what Flixwagon’s mobile-to-web broadcasting York to cover the conference live from everyone can watch a second later on platform for its “street team” of youth mobile phones. More details about Flix- the Internet.” The company’s deve- journalists who covered primaries in wagon can be found at http://www. lopment offi ce is based in Turku in Fin- 23 states during Super Tuesday in 2008. crunchbase.com/company/fl ixwagon. land and the head offi ce is in Stockholm, Those live broadcasts can be seen at the Swedish capital. http://think.mtv.com/Issues/politics/. The A.1 Hardware and software A key difference between Qik and citizen journalists were paid through a recommendations Bambuser is the fact the latter offers $ 700,000 grant from the Knight News Of the currently available mobile phones, streaming both from a computer and Challenge. All used Nokia N95 phones Nokia offers the best available range of a mobile phone, while Qik only allows streaming from a mobile. Polopoly, an Atex business with headquarters in Stockholm, partnered with Bambuser to provide live mobile broadcasting options to Polopoly’s customers. “The integration will provide a ready-made Bambuser element within the web-based Polopoly user interface, containing all the high- end publishing features required by leading online services,” a Polopoly press release said in September 2008. Details about Bambuser can be found at http://www.crunchbase.com/company/ bambuser. Flixwagon (http://www.fl ixwagon. com) is an Israeli company. It has partnered with MTV in the United States Figure 12: Screen shot of Flixwagon home page

23 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 From backpack to pocket journalism

have large editorial staff, so charges like those above could become excessive if all reporters were given a phone, unless costs are monitored closely. High data charges for video will remain a major restriction on the possibility of mojo work. Exchange rates are based on $ A1 equals 55 euro cents. Figure 13: JasJam with Newspapers (Source: Kerry Metcalfe-Smith, Sydney) Of the above software tools, Qik worked best for reporting breaking hardware tools for mojo work as of mid Media companies need to consider news as of mid 2009. The main criteria 2009. Many media companies around how to pay for data charges because used in selecting software tools were the world are using the N95, while video generates large fi les, and phone simplicity of use and quality of image. several others have adopted the N82. A companies charge for data transmitted, Qik is by far the easiest to load onto a small number of newspapers employ the not time connected. The best option is mobile phone. If the software corrupts, iMate JasJam. Nokia released the N97 to choose an “all-you-can-eat” monthly one simply logs in to one’s section of Qik early in 2009, and this is another option data package if they are available. One and requests a repeat of the software. It that news organisations could consider. of the reasons that Singaporean citizens appears seconds later and takes less than (Disclosure: Nokia gave the author four have embraced mobile video so avidly a minute to download onto a phone. Qik Nokia N95 8 Gb phones so he and his this past year is the relatively low cost of also sends frequent software updates to students could experiment with mojo high-speed data packages, at $ 60 Sin- each registered user’s phone. work.) gapore a month, or about 30 euros. The quality of the video each software For this report the author tested a Some countries, like Australia, do not package produces varies, depending on range of mobile phones for shooting offer unlimited data packages. Data how far the phone is from the server, and video, including the Palm Treo, the HTC charges for individuals in Australia are the calibre of the local networks. Because Diamond, a range of Sony Ericsson very high, at 1.66 euros per Mb. This Qik’s servers are in California (the closest mobiles, as well as the iMate JasJam. will certainly dissuade many people to Australia), the author got pretty quick Apple’s iPhone ruled itself out because from becoming citizen journalists. One response. Bambuser and Flixwagon were the 3G version, released in 2008, did of the under-appreciated factors in dif- the next fastest. Bambuser is based in not have a video camera, though the fusion of innovation theory is cost: Only Sweden and Flixwagon in Israel, yet the still camera does produce nice images. people with relatively high disposable connections were still pretty fast, which In June 2009, just as this report went to income can afford to be early adopters! suggests those companies have plenty of press, Apple released an iPhone with a Media companies in countries without server power. video camera, which will make it a con- unlimited data packages need to Frank Barth-Nilsen of Norway’s NRK tender in future. establish long-term contracts with tele- says one of the other attractions of Qik Frank Barth-Nilsen reviewed the coms providers. is the fact it also records video onto a Samsung Omnia touch phone on his In Australia, one media company memory card in full resolution. This gives blog (see the readings for the address). pays about 72 euros a month for each reporters the option of physically deliver- It uses the Windows operating system. mobile phone plan in its mojo experi- ing a higher quality video clip to the Barth-Nilsen rated it a suitable tool for ment. The project employs several newsroom, though obviously this would mojo work. In April and May the author phones for reporting breaking news. take longer than sending it wirelessly. “I phoned Samsung public relations staff in The plan includes phone calls and text also love all the functions in Qik, allow- Sydney four times to borrow a phone to messages, and a maximum of 1 Gb ing you to hook it up with social media review the Omnia. Despite promises the of data a month. Thereafter data are services as Twitter, Mogulus, Facebook phone never arrived, so it is impossible to charged at 13 euro cents per Mb. News- and others,” Barth-Nilsen said. comment further. papers in major cities around the world

24 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

Any media organisation that seeks This last point is important if newspapers “It’s pretty easy to set up your phone to to control the quality of images prob- seek to insert advertisements around the publish videos on YouTube. I haven’t yet ably needs to establish an “in-house” video. had a chance to test out their stream- solution rather than rely on streaming “If you are able to control the quality ing application. But Kyte gives you the video to one of the software sites and of service on your own server, the picture possibility to download a script for Inter- then embedding the html code from may look a bit different,” Barth-Nilsen net sharing. With it installed, you have that site into the newspaper’s website. said, noting that Flixwagon impressed a one-key publishing solution when your Noted Barth-Nilsen: “I believe that with its coverage on MTV. recording is done.” you have to choose different strategies Barth-Nilsen said ShoZu worked well The author had problems download- if you want a publicly available solution in Norway. Bigger cities in his country ing the Kyte software. The website or an in-house solution. The problem tended to offer better 3.5G coverage. asked me to insert my mobile phone with using public solutions is that you “When it’s installed ShoZu is very easy number and said the software would can’t control the server load. Often you to use. The problem with ShoZu is that arrive in 10 minutes. It did not, despite will experience bad quality in your live it’s not able to transfer fi les bigger than my attempting the process three times. streams, even if you’re on a high capacity 10 MB. If you record video, you will The problem appears to be a glitch in the WLAN [wireless local area network]. reach the limit pretty fast.” But ShoZu’s website. The site inserted an extra zero Media companies will want to be able to website does offer the option of allow- into my mobile phone number, which control the quality of service. It will also ing people to transfer fi les via FTP. Barth- meant the automatic process of sending give them better solutions for branding Nilsen said he found Kyte a good con- the software never happened because and making revenues on their content.” tender for fast publishing of video fi les. the number was wrong.

Advantages Disadvantages

■ compact; light; portable ■ video quality not as good as television ■ able to be used unobtrusively ■ the high cost of a smart-phone: ■ people do not take them seriously and are often more willing to the Nokia 95 costs about $US 750 to buy outright, though give interviews because they do not appear as a threat over time the price will come down, plus data charges ■ able to spread the newsgathering options by giving phones to ■ interviewees do not take the journalist seriously because of the many people small size of the camera ■ many members of the public already have a mobile capable of ■ it does not look “professional” shooting video, which increases a newspapers’ potential ■ high-end mobile phones drain batteries quickly, which means newsgathering resources users have to carry several spares and ensure they charge during ■ the Nokia N95 has excellent image quality, even in poor light the night ■ hand-held videoing offers the journalist lots of freedom ■ the Nokia N95’s internal microphone was designed for con- ■ external programs such as ShoZu and Qik, which are free, help the versations and not video audio; needs an external microphone journalist fi le video easily with a couple of clicks of the and connector phone’s button ■ reporters with large fi ngers fi nd the Bluetooth keyboard diffi cult ■ these applications will also send photos to places like Flickr and to type on Vox ■ the Nokia has the option of allowing reporters to fi le via any avail- able wi-fi hotspot so it is not always vital to have Internet access ■ for breaking news, the ability to shoot video and deliver it quickly to the offi ce without a satellite connection is very useful ■ from personal experience, interview subjects seem amused at being interviewed by someone with a tiny mobile phone

25 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

Appendix B: Recommended videos about mojo

■ Ilicco Elia talks about the tools that ■ Steve Garfi eld, an American mojo, ■ A Helsingen Sanomat journalist talks make up the Reuters mojo toolkit in offers a web-based course on how to about software called “Reporter” that this three-minute video: http://www. be a video blogger, sponsored by Pro- allows journalists to feed content to youtube.com/watch?v=L_OJGeamwbs ject NML and the New Media Exemp- the web: http://www.youtube.com/ ■ Find other Reuters videos titled lar Library (funded by a grant from the watch?v=sSlL4-_OTrA “Reuters Mobile Phone Reporting John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur ■ DigitalJournal is an excellent example Part 1” at http://www.youtube. Foundation). Find the site at http:// of online-only television provided by com/watch?v=lpUMxZS6muw, www.projectnml.org/ an innovative team. Find it at “Reuters Mobile Phone Reporting exemplars/06vlog/ http://www.digitaljournal.tv/ Part 2” at http://www.youtube.com/ ■ Jasmine Teo, a content editor with ■ Videos shot by BuzzMachine’s Jeff watch?v=p1kVbvhp4Ik, Reuters Stomp, talks about the ideas behind Jarvis mentioned earlier in this Mobile Phone Reporting Part the site at http://www.youtube.com/ report are available at http://www. 3” at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bwGn8atZhVc buzzmachine.com/mojo watch?v=03SAMopg8Ww ■ Ruud Elmendorp profi les African ■ David Cameron, leader of the Conser- mojo Evans Wafula, based in vative party in the United Kingdom, Nigeria, at http://www.youtube.com/ has pioneered the use of video watch?v=XxznVB0kGNk for reaching audiences. Read his blog and details about his video at http://cchq.conservatives.com/tile. do?def=webcameron.index.page

26 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

Appendix C: Recommended readings

■ TechCrunch (http://www.techcrunch. com) is a technology blog that con- sistently appears in the top 10 most popular blogs in the world. The site maintains an excellent database of information about technology companies. To fi nd out more about companies mentioned in this report, go to http://www.crunchbase.com/ company/ and insert the name of the company you seek to information about. ■ For example, if you would like to know more about Kyte, go to http:// www.crunchbase.com/company/kyte, or for Qik, go to http://www. crunchbase.com/company/qik ■ Reuters’ Mojo: This site is one of the best places to learn about mojo work. Reuters were pioneers in partnering Figure 14: Interior of the IFRA mobile car (Photo: Stephen Quinn) with Nokia to provide reporters with a toolkit for mojo work. Read about the ■ Details of CNN’s i-Report Toolkit are at ■ Frank Barth-Nilsen trains mojos for various projects at http://reutersmojo. http://www.ireport.com/toolkit.jspa NRK, Norway’s national broadcaster. com/ ■ More about Yahoo’s YouWitness He set up a blog for sharing ideas ■ IFRA NewsGear: Each year IFRA News can be found at http://news. called Mojo Evolution (http:// assembles a collection of the best yahoo.com/you-witness-news mojoevolution.com/). It is highly tools for multi-media reporting. ■ Details about CBS’s EyeMobile can be recommended as a source of Search the web using the keywords found at http://www.cbseyemobile. information about mojo work. “NewsGear” or read about NewsGear com/ ■ The author maintains a blog called at http://www.iframagazine.com/ ■ Reuters’ YouWitness can be found at GlobalMojo at http://globalmojo.org/. website/ntwebsite.nsf/ http://www.reuters.com/youwitness/ It contains details from my testing listportal?Readform&5&E& (Fig. 14) ■ Read more about the Fox network’s of technology plus interviews I have ■ This post on the PBS MediaShift blog UReport at http://ureport.foxnews. conducted and reports I have written. has good advice on the future of com/ This blog started in April 2008. journalism, delivered via video inter- ■ For more on African journalists’ use view. The videos were shot with a of mobile phones, click on the “Africa Nokia N95, mojo style. See http:// mobile reports” link at http://www. www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/ africanews.com/ video_report_from_onajournalis_1. html

27 IFRA Special Report 03.2009 The mobile journalist – from backpack to pocket journalism

Appendix D: Author biography

Stephen Quinn of Australia worked in decade to June 2009 Dr. Quinn has all areas of the media for almost two presented 126 papers in 24 countries. decades before becoming an academic. More than a third of the papers have He was a reporter, editor, columnist, TV been by invitation. and radio producer and radio writer in Since becoming an academic, Dr. Australia, Thailand, the United Kingdom Quinn has maintained industry links and New Zealand from 1975 to 1995. by contributing to newspapers and He also had one year as a PR execu- Figure 15: Stephen Quinn working as a mojo in Geelong magazines, working as a newspaper tive in the UK in 1988–89. At various (Source: Reg Ryan, Geelong Advertiser) editor and a freelance television script- times Dr. Quinn has worked for regional writer and producer, and delivering newspapers in Australia; the Bangkok Dr. Quinn has written 12 books since training courses. As of mid 2009 he Post; the UK Press Association, BBC- 1997. He has written extensively about had run more than 100 courses in eight TV, Independent Television News and new media. He is the author with countries. Most covered multi-media The Guardian in London; the Australian Dr. Stephen Lamble of Online News- journalism, information management, Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney; gathering: Research and Reporting for knowledge management, and com- and Television New Zealand. He also Journalism published in 2007. He is puter-assisted reporting. He is the only worked as a producer for the Middle author of Convergent Journalism: The academic on the international advisory East Broadcasting Centre in Dubai in fundamentals of multi-media repor- counsel for the IFRA Newsplex, an IFRA 2002-03, while teaching journalism, to ting (2005) and Conversations on Con- consultant, and a member of the inter- become familiar with recent production vergence (2006), and Convergent national committee of the Online News technologies. Journalism: An Introduction (2005), Association. co-written with Dr. Vince Filak. In the

28 Empowering the News Publishing Industry