Chapter 5: Going Moble
It’s all about going mobile, baby.
Using your mobile phone is the new way to capture breaking news and footage from a scene. It’s most popular because firsthand coverage can be reported directly from your phone.
Computer technology has already changed the way we live, and mobile technology alone has definitely changed our ways of living. Now, it gets even more evolutionary.
Mobile reporting is the new field in journalism. It’s all about what’s happening? – and – Am I there to capture it for my audience?
Trying to figure out whether going mobile on story is simple. Just take a moment and ask yourself:
- Will the audience benefit if we can take them there?
- Will the journalism be better if it’s done on location and with urgency?
- Can this event be effectively communicated in small chunks over time?
- Will sound reporting or video footage, turned around quickly, help people understand the story?
With a mobile phone, you can use any medium to report your story: text, audio, video or photo. It all depends on what compliments the story’s information best. Let’s explore the kind of stories that work with the different kinds of medium.
- Criminal and Civil Trials
- Important Speeches
- Breaking News
- Public Gatherings
- Sporting Events
- Grand Openings of popular consumer destinations
Again, mobile reporters can report in ANY medium, from ANYWHERE, at ANYTIME.
There are two kinds of ways that reporting can be done based on your cellular phone (ie. iPhone, Blackberry or Nokia N95. Your device is either heavily equipped, or not. There are two ends of the equipment spectrum:
If you’re a GEARHEAD, you tell multimedia stories all day, every day. They own most of the following:
Laptop computer
Internet Connection
Camera
Video Camera
Tripod
Audio Recorder
Headphones
Microphone
Cell Phone
Or if you’re a LIGHT PACKER. A smartphone. That’s is all.
Mobile reporting is especially useful during breaking news situations, news like major incidents, first footage news. This is NOT to say that mobile reporting is taking away professional photojournalism and writing. This is just a new way to communicate and work with the rest of the world through today’s new resources in multimedia.
Whatever you do, just know that you don’t need the resources of a big news company to connect with a mobile audience.
So, get cellular devices ready!
::Chapters::
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