Mobile journalism is the leading source of news for adults in the US

Many more adults are relying on their smartphones in order to access news updates. Photo courtesy of Pew Internet and American Life Project

Mobile devices have become the leading source of news for adults in the US, new data has shown.

A report published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicates that 47 per cent of adults in the US use a smartphone or other mobile device in order to access their local and national news.

The figures also show an increase in the number of adults who are looking to their smartphones and mobiles for day-to-day weather updates, social media activity and local information about businesses and restaurants.

Top tweeting tips

For any budding mobile journalists out there, this list of tweeting tips from award-winning journalist Mary Hamilton is sure to provide you with some invaluable advice.

We picked a couple of tips that we feel are the most important for any journalist hoping to tweet the news to the waiting world.

Hashtags – if you are reporting from an event or an incident, check to see if it already has a hashtag on Twitter and, if it does, make sure to use it at the end of every tweet. Not only will this allow people to see what you are tweeting about, but it will also make your tweets much easier to find. If you are organising an event or are planning to tweet from an event, make sure that you make  your Twitter followers aware of what hashtag you are using. That way they can use it and join in with any conversation or debate.

Should we allow court proceedings to be tweeted?

Twitter free courtrooms may be locked in the past. Photo: Most Uncool.

The Lord Chief Justice is backing the use of twitter in court in the hope that it will spark a revival in court reporting.

“My fervent hope is that the advance of new technology will make it easier for the media to be ‘present’ in court, and that the present trend for fewer and fewer reporters in every court will come to an end,” Lord Judge said in a speech on the judiciary and the media.

Five of the best compact camcorders

One of the greatest strengths of any mobile journalists is the ability to capture an event as it is happening, right from the frontline of the action.

As the recent coverage of the Japanese tsunami has shown, a picture can often be worth a thousand words and a video can often be worth a thousand photographs. The videos taken of the tsunami were unlike anything ever seen – they provided a form of journalistic coverage that had never before been achieved.

A quality compact camcorder is a vital part of your mojo kit bag and we have compiled a list of some of our favourites;

Get videos analysing global news straight to your mobile

 

CNN will be shown next to Al Jazeera coverage. Photo: Lubrio.

With the boom of the web, people are demanding fast, convenient news that can be quickly consumed. Critics of the internet often argue that the context of stories is being lost, and that even though we are living in an increasingly connected world, knowledge of events outside our immediate sphere remains limited.

There may be multiple sources of news to choose from, but we are still often sticking to what we know best.   

Newsy is a mobile video site that is tacking this. Using short video segments, it helps people understand the differences in how news organisations from across the globe are reporting a story. For example, coverage from CNN will put right next to Al Jazeera.      

Live tweeting from the TUC march

I caught up with budding journalist Joe Dyke, who was live tweeting from Central London covering the TUC’s March for the Alternative, as well as the improvised protests staged by UK Uncut.

How was your smart phone helpful on the day?

“I obviously had it to live tweet, but I had Twitter up all the time and was following all the main figures in the movement, such as

The Fortnum and Mason protest at which Joe was present

people from UK Uncut. There were about 5 or 6  of them posting all the time so I could see where they were going. I also knew some contacts so was able to mix it up with ringing them to stay on top of it.”

Any examples of how you used your smart phone?

“I heard about Fortnum on Mason on my phone and I was somewhere north of Regent Street at the time. I was able to use the map function on my phone to work out a quick way of getting there without having to go through the crowds, which cut about 20 minutes off the journey. I ended up getting there about two minutes after the invasion so was able to see some of the really interesting stuff, such as the police getting attacked with paint. I then tweeted about this.”

#march26

Mojos used Twitter to report on the March 26 protests

Saturday 26 March saw a fresh wave of protests through the UK as swarms of people hit the county’s cities in order to fight against the cuts. The event once again provided mobile journalists with the opportunity to report from the ‘front line’, using the #march26 hash tag on Twitter in order to keep followers up to date with the latest developments as the protesters swarmed through the capital.

Anyone following #march26 was able to see exactly where the protesters were, what they were doing and what action was being taken against them by the authorities. Not only does this sort of mobile journalism provide the outside world with a unique insight into the protests, without actually having to be there, it enables a number of journalists to voice their opinions on the events of the day, something which is not usually possible when writing an article for a publication.

Reporting through Twitter sees a new generation of would-be mobile journalists commenting and reporting on breaking news events and, in this particular case, it was the siege on high-end department store Fortnum & Mason that drew the most attention.

As protesters forced their way into the famous Fortnums, both journalists and participants tweeted to the outside world, while following the tweets of those caught up in the violence taking place beyond the gilded walls of the UK Uncut Fortnums protest.

Protesters and passersby posted photos online, showing the utter chaos that many of the protests had descended into. News that the Oxford Circus Topshop was being vandalised by a particularly furious group of protesters sparked debate on Twitter between those who felt such extreme action was necessary and those who believed that the violence overshadowed the real issue behind the protests.

City University’s Newspaper class and mobile journalism

What phones do City University's Newspaper Journalism class have?

We spoke to City University’s Newspaper Journalism class to find out what mobile phones are most popular among tomorrow’s journalists. Unsurprisingly, Blackberry and iPhone were the most popular brands, however there were still a few older, traditional models flying around, most impressively a Nokia 3310.

Weather updates are the top search on mobiles

Weather updates beat news in mobile searches. Photo: Svedek.

Weather updates and local business searches are the most popular reason for people tapping into their mobile according to research.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism  found that local news coverage followed next, trailed by sports and traffic information.

Mobile broadcast journalism

Luci Live enables you to transform your smartphone into a recording studio. Photo courtesy of http://www.filecluster.com

Meet Luci Live, the software that allows you to turn your Mac, Windows PC/Phone or iPhone into a device for broadcasting audio.

The software, available online or through the iPhone App Store for £239.99, enables you to make high quality audio recordings, edit, add images and then upload them to the internet or a studio.

The Luci Live program represents a great advance in mobile journalism, enabling mojos everywhere to broadcast audio feeds from anywhere in the world (anywhere, that it, with a 3G or WiFi connection). The creators of this exciting new software promises to deliver ‘professional and streamlined approach to your reportage, bringing with it the highest levels of quality, user-friendliness and reliability’.