Journalism Blog

This week we discuss the mobile phone as an exiting tool for journalism. Perhaps we have finally found a good use for a previously underused setting on our mobile phones. We have all seen mobile phone footage on the news and current affairs programs, often involving street violence or bulling incidents in schools.

Citizen and professional journalists are finding new ways to tap into this technology and use it as a valuable resource when it comes to reporting and recording.

Often snapping quick photographs and recording footage without the entire set up of a camera crew can enable a reporter to obtain a different more spontaneous perspective.

Reuters, a major news bureaus has embraced mobile phone technology when it comes to reporting and news gathering giving reporters a ‘mobile journalism toolkit’, making for a more convenient and less intimidating approach to interviews and filming.

Disadvantages of the ‘mojo’ technology are that sound can be quite bad quality espesially on windy days, also the picture quality is far less quality than that of a professional camera often appearing pixelated and delayed.

However, as mobiles get more and more advanced so will the quality of this type of journalism, Nokia claiming to produce mobiles with HD camera quality in the coming years.

One phone I found particually impressive for this purpose was the Nokia N93i, with its features being a 3.2 mega pixel camera and up to 90 minutes of filming time.

This tool will not be replacing high quality cameras in news but will provide a perfect alternative benifiting both citizens and professionals jounalists.

An interesting video link to the future of citizen mobile journalism…

This week we take a little look at five very different approaches to video blogs.

First up Alive in Baghdad, a critical view on the lives of civilians in Iraq and how conflict has affected their day to day lives. Although the reporting is short and in the style of several interviews, it is still significantly contributing to the ‘bigger picture’, covering what the mainstream news may not allows us as viewers to absorb a variety of information, giving us a greater knowledge of the situation. Audio Interview with Brian Conley, from Alive in Baghdad

Mobuzz TV, blurs the lines between TV and video bloggs, although the reports are on topical relevant issues, the report takes a similar style to that of ET (Entertainment Tonight), covering the gossip side of politics in a far less formal approach than that of, Alive in Baghdad.

Ask a Ninja, is an example of a comedy vlog, to me personally, I didn’t find it particularly funny. However makes for a good contrast to the previous two vlogs we discussed and makes the difference between citizen journalism and video bloggers distinguishable.

Wine Library TV, again falls into the category of video bloggers, discussing things along the lines of wine and cheese will most definitely appeal to a specific audience and once again helps differentiate a citizen journalist form a video blogger.

Rocket Boom takes an opinionated approach, trying to raise awareness to things deemed important of misunderstood by the public. The vlog is interesting to watch and informative however, still remains an opinion and wouldn’t be seen as citizen journalism.

Of the five vlogs we looked at, in terms of citizen journalism, Alive in Baghdad covered a relevant topic that is important and did it in a way that can be seen as a trustworthy representation of the truth.

Despite editing being a very powerful tool in the way that manipulation that can occur, Alive in Baghdad have taken on this project of reporting the ’significant’ under-looked view of the civilians affected by events and not just the events themselves.

Stomp, Straits Times Online Media and Print, is Singapore’s answer to citizen journalism. It’s a bit like OhmyNews with a twist, combining user-generated content with the knowledge and skill of educated journalists has proved to be a powerful influence over Singapore’s public attracting 300,000 visitors every year.

The site is fun and exiting with bright colours, bold fonts and seems to be aimed at a younger demographic strengthening the relationship readers and also appeal to non-readers.

How Stomp operates is different to that of OhmyNews, (discussed in week 5) in the way that user-generated content is utilised. People can send in photos or stories that perhaps would be overlooked in some of the mainstream national papers.

These can be sent via mobile phone, SMS, e-mail, phone call etc., and content is sorted though and deemed newsworthy or not by educated and experienced journalists most times the issue or story is re-written by a journalist to produce consistant stories of a newsworthy style in terms of grammar, editing and ethical codes.

However in this editing process they are careful to not change the intention of the article, checking that the citizens who send in the pictures or stories are happy with the changes and the intention or message of the article has not been lost.

As the push continues for fair and accurate news reporting so does the need for citizen contribution, Stomp is a cleaver way of taking the citizens perspective and interests into a mainstream news outlet without sacrificing the professional elements that comes with journalistic writing style.

Check out this video I found on YouTube on Citizen Journalism, it makes things crystal clear.

Citizen Journalism – What Is It ?

This week we take a look at the range of available free photo galleries. Online Journalism Review, make a comparison to determine the best for a small scale news website.

The review consisted of several web-based tools that allow photos to be uploaded and shown as a slide show to accompany other web based content.

Out of Picasa, PictureTrail, BubbleShare and SlideFlickr Google-owned Picasa proved to be the pick of the crop.

These new tools are adding to our multi-media world of journalism making imagery move readily available and in slide form a greater visual perspective can be given than one singular picture.

The comparison was based on the criteria that the slide tool would allow photos to be uploaded and embedded onto another website, be a free service that is compatible with most popular browsers.

After running these four tools through the trial, advantages and disadvantages for each arose, SlideFlickr being the better option to begin with, however after further consideration Picasa rated the best.

Perhaps most commonly used for sharing photos on forums like MySpace or Facebook, they also provide a service for journalism.

Providing a story with images this way can help the reader identify the scene without taking it out of context and in terms of citizen journalism or even photojournalism its an excellent way to share images with the world. A photojournalist slide show, A Glimpse at Korea, helps demonstrate how the bigger picture can be seen through as series of images rather that relying on one.