Online Journalism Blog

In my MA Online Journalism session this week I’ll be looking at mobile journalism. As part of that, below I’ve compiled 4 lists of things I think a mobile journalist needs: hardware, software, systems, and mindset. I’d welcome anything you can add to this.

In the spirit of mobile journalism, I will also be streamed the session live on Bambuser from 9am UK time on Thursday, for around 45 mins – if you can join us online and chip in, please do. I’ve embedded the player below (skip past it for the lists of things a mojo needs).

A note from the comments

Some comments rightfully point out that this list is potentially terrifying. I’m not suggesting you need all these things – my favourite response said that you needed a Posterous blog, a smartphone, and lots of batteries, and I’d go along with that. But here are a whole lot of potential things to explore when you get itchy…

Mobile journalism – hardware

• Smartphone with camera, video, audio, unlimited data plan
• Digital camcorder, e.g. Flip, Kodak Zi8
• Digital dictaphone or Zoom
• Portable mic
• Portable mini tripod?
• Batteries (including extra mobile phone battery)
• Extension lead – and chargers
• Portable chargers, e.g. solar
• Bluetooth keyboard
• Mifi and/or 3G dongle
• Eyefi card
• Wifi laptop or netbook with webcam

Mobile journalism – the software

• Apps for your phone and services you can email or text to. Good ones include…
• Shozu
• Spinvox â€" blog via voice
• iBlogger
• Audioboo
• Twitterfone
• Twitvid
• Twibble – GPS twitter updates
• Zyb â€" synchronise contacts and calendar
• Opera Mini; on iPhone use bookmarklets on Safari like ‘Read Later’, ‘Post with Tweetie’, ‘Save to Delicious’, ‘Share on Tumblr’
• Qik, Bambuser, 12seconds â€" streaming video
• Posterous â€" blog via email
• ZoneTag â€" geotag images
• JoikuSpot â€" create wifi hotspot from 3G phone
• Google Maps

Mobile journalism – the systems

• Email must be set up – more than one account as backup (Google Mail occasionally goes down)
• Useful phone no.s, e.g. Twitter, Twitterfone
• Useful emails, e.g. Twitpic, YouTube, Twittermail, Facebook, Posterous etc.
• Map of wifi hotspots
• Map of mobile and 3G coverage
• Blog via email or text – Postie plugin/Posterous/app/etc.
• Pulling RSS feeds from Twitter/Flickr/YouTube/Posterous/Tumblr/Google Docs
• Embedded players for livestreaming/liveblogging
• Geotagging information for mapping
• Mashups
• Preparation: web-based video/audio/image editors
• Collaboration – preparing the users, hashtags, tweeting, feedback

Mobile journalism – the mindset

• ‘Always-on’ approach – tweet on the go; share images; stream quick video. Think humour, art, quirky, as much as ‘news’. Prepare yourself and users for when you need it.
• Play with new mobile tools – follow TechCrunch etc.
• Try out mobile apps
• Find the stories that are not online
• Be part of a mobile community – follow people like @documentally @alisongow @ilicco @patphelan @moconews
• Be creative with mobile, not formulaic: the rules aren’t written yet

Assuming you want them to, how do you get people to blog? It’s a challenge facing most community editors, particularly as they seek to encourage a conversation with readers for whom Wordpress or Blogger are still too fiddly.

Enter Posterous, a fantastically intuitive, quick and easy blogging platform. Scrapping the need for registration, or even the need to go onto the web, this has the potential to be a mass blogging tool – as well as a great tool for blogging on the move. [Read more]

My live coverage of the Investigative Journalism Goes Global conference seemed to polarise opinion among the Twitterati. The Guardian’s Neil McIntosh and Charles Arthur, the BBC’s Bill Thompson, and Pete Ashton all unsubscribed from my updates – and those were just the ones I know about. [Read more]