Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA
From the uprisings across the Arab world, to the student protests and summer riots, 2011 saw its fair share of unpredictable, fast moving news events. Some of the most dramatic and timely reports, pictures and video to emerge as they unfolded were recorded and filed using mobile phones.
With today’s smart phones enabling journalists to tweet, file copy, and edit and upload broadcast-quality footage, mobile reporting is becoming an increasingly important part of the basic skillset for journalists, from regional patch reporters at council meetings to foreign correspondents in warzones.
One of the sessions at our upcoming news:rewired digital journalism conference will look at the advances in mobile reporting and how it is being used effectively by regional newspapers, national broadcasters, freelance video journalists, and others.
On the panel: Paul Gallagher, head of online content, the Manchester Evening News, @pdgallagher; Nick Martin, Sky News correspondent, @NickMartinSKY; Ben Fawkes, audio content manager, SoundCloud, @benfawkes; and Christian Payne, social technologist, mobile story maker, @documentally.
Some background reading:
- Freelance Rosie Niven reports for the Journalist on how mobile technology is changing journalism.
- Journalism.co.uk speaks to several journalists making use of mobile reporting for a podcast on the past, present and future of the technology.
- For those after a more in-depth read, the Centre for International Media Assistance produced a report last year: “News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World’s Information Ecosystem” (PDF).
- For those who aren’t, IJNet summarised some of the key findings from the report.
- In September, Journalism.co.uk spoke to Neal Augenstein, a reporter with Washington DC’s all news radio station WTOP, who gave us five tips based on carrying out all of his field reporting from his iPhone and iPad.
- We also attended a session at the Frontline Club back in 2010 on the impact of the mobile phone on journalism. Loius Gump, CNN’s vice president of mobile, talked about the broadcaster’s intention to create more content specifically for mobile (an issue news:rewired will look at in it’s multi-platform strategy session), and all panelists stressed that the apps and tools available mustn’t distract from quality content.
Watch the first part of CNN’s Frontline Club event on mobile journalism below. The remaining parts are available on YouTube.