A Journalist’s Techtrums

My first taste of what a ‘MoJo” is when I was back in Sri Lanka; a high-school student; in a capital city, where it seemed like very six months there is an explosion targeting to assassinate politicians.

Before the camera crew could get their films rolling to get the first footage of the location, the breaking news were delivered by a reporter onsite through his mobile phone.

Now that kind of reporting in anyone’s book are primitive stages of mobile journalism.

The whole point of mobile journalism is that the reporting is of ongoing news transmission as it happens and when it happens without having to wait for the news production team to sum it up and edit before they broadcast the news an hour later.

MoJo’s are now vital in the ‘breaking news’ process and the mobile phone has moved on from being just the voice-over equipment into video transmission device that allows the journalist to start rolling, report and edit before connect to the internet and instantaneously to upload or send their news report through.

A MoJo is required to be able to multi-task and be a multi-talented, techno savvy reporter.

The recent developments of growing numbers of Mojo’s could also mean more job cuts of the more traditional reporters who are not stepping up to the technological pace.

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I speculate sometimes perhaps just like many others whether vlogs are really the video version of blogging or is it simply Online TV.

It shares the characteristics of a blog showcasing daily updates, RSS feed, comments of viewers etc. The vlog sites can also be compared into online television that provides individual with channels to broadcast their video content.

It may not consist of the professional finishing touches of television network productions. Nevertheless it does contain equal importance in its user generated contents.

YouTube is a perfect general example of social networking site that provides its users with individual channels to upload post and share their video productions.

The issue is however, that the world is yet to absorb the gravity of the power of vlog content.

When potentially threatening information in a video is uploaded online the authorities tend to dismiss the threat it may impose for the future. In example of the Finnish gunman who went on mass shooting in a school; the video he posted on YouTube of his killing intentions were taken too lightly by the police.

This obviously proved to be fatal just the same way the other mass shooting incidents were early this year.

Regardless of criticisms on sustainability in sharing information on vlogs by many, I believe it certainly is the way forward for User Generated Content as it provides the visual, audio and text segments in delivering the message.

On a more lighter note here is a video hosted by Deepak Ananthapadmanabha on latest (rather weird) technology. (Hilarious!!!) It’s a regularly updated vlog by MOJO’S The Circuit hosted in MOJO HD website.

If you cannot view the following video click here.

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 STOMP! No, it’s not another track by a Hip-Hop Mogul, but is the Singaporean website that represents Straits Times Online Mobile and Print.

STOMP encourages the regular citizen in becoming one with the now media process. Although unlike OhmyNews (mentioned in my previous blog), at STOMP they use a different model of citizen journalism.

Instead of the individual reporting in delivering the story directly, it is being mediated by the journalists at Strait Times in writing up the story based on their information.

However I did manage to stumble upon a blog post that argues this method use by STOMP is not citizen journalism by Cherian George blogging about Singaporean new media, politics and the law.

The argument is that in STOMP the decision of which stories should go up on the website is decided by the editors instead of vice versa as it should be in citizen journalism.

Perhaps due to censorship laws prevailing in the media in Singapore STOMP might not be as broad minded as OhmyNews would be.

Nevertheless it sure is stomping its way through into the world of media convergences in an era in which Mr. Nick Davies feels threatened by excessive PR campaigning.

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However interesting or informative a blog maybe, its readers will always be pleased to see some visual content that help them see the big picture.

Usage of photographs in free flowing slide presentation would aid the creator of the  blog to build his/her story as he tells the story.

Mr. Robert Niles of this week’s reading has chosen slide as his winner out of the most popular photo slide tools because of the versatility it has to offer. Compared to other slideshow tools i.e Picasa, BubbleShare etc. available online slide has more features such as sound embedding and captioning.

I had primarily used slide in December 2006 to create a slide presentation of my most memorable pictures in my hi5 profile (to visit my hi5 profile click here).

I have embedded a slieshow of some pictures off my family albums to prove how versatile my choice of slide presentation tools is.

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We are most certainly way past the era where we waited till every Sunday morning to pick up our Sunday broadsheet for that week’s scoop in the news.

The latest news is more of a click, stream and a RSS feed away as I munch on an apple while having morning tea (a weird habit of mine).

Ironically this week I watched the first episode of new Beverly Hills 90210 to find out how quickly news (mainly gossip) gets around within the high school through a blog including vlogs run by a fellow student, silver.

This technology savvy global village is becoming more and more dependent on these tools used by media corporations, gossip mongers (i.e Perez Hilton) and citizen journalists to keep them in a newsworthy need to know arena at a click of a button away.

This is where the use of technology by anyone who has got a camera to produce information could violate and disrupt our right to privacy in our lives according to Mr. Kevin Sites.

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What do you get when you combine an 89% broadband penetration, in one of the oldest continuing civilizations with one of the fastest growing economies in the world? The answer is simply OhmyNews.com that encourages citizen journalism.

This South Korean website spearheaded by its CEO, Mr.Oh Yeon Ho had proven to be very successful in gaining its readers affection locally by uploading at least 200 articles a day.

Further they have over 3,000 citizen reporters around the world that keeps help updating the news as it happens.

This project that persuades every citizen to be a journalist also follows a strict set of guidelines and a code of ethics in order to maintain credibility and privacy requirements in every article submitted.

As for the citizen reporters, writing for OhmyNews is perhaps the case of five minute fame, the generous tips from the readers or the simple satisfaction of sharing information with the rest of the world.

This turn of reporting not only allow the truth seeking Gen Y population with an alternative news media, but also allows the reporter to be a bit opinionated in their article more than conservative reporting would allow them to.

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On my previous blogs I have been discussing on how the present new media is stepping up to new trends through usage of multimedia, convergences between other types of media through citizen journalism in keeping up with latest technology based informa-craving world.

All this leads us to where as journalists we  stand not knowing which way the news medium is heading.

Truly enough as John Mullen (ALJ 301) discussed; not one in my circle of friends (which happen to be within the age of 20-30) do bother picking up a news paper to read the daily news.

We’d rather comfort our rears in front of an LCD screen that manoeuvre us through the news we want to read.

The Channel Ten News theme song says ‘right here, right now’ and then flashes ‘witness’ on the screen. However what we really want to witness may quite not be what they as media decide their audience may want to know.

It is a matter of the power of choice; the ability to decide what we need to know is what attracts us into online news distracting us from mainstream media. (MSM)

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On the boxing-day morning in 2005 I woke up at my in laws’ house to a big commotion. Everyone was rushing towards the TV and my husband said, “Get ready to leave at once in case of emergency”. Their house was located in the coastal area of Colombo and for the first time in my life-time ‘Tsunami’ had struck Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan coastal areas is dominant in the tourism industry. As we waited patiently in front of the TV and in online news websites, videos taken by mobile phone cameras and camcorders of the tourists in many tourism locations were broadcasted on breaking news.

The television stations depended on the survivors to send in material such as audio & video recordings describing the disaster and images till they could get their teams on site as most of their representatives in the area were killed by the Tsunami.

This natural disaster may go down in history as the trigger of ‘Citizen Journalism’ as the survivors of the tsunami around South East Asia had their say and became a part of the breaking of news as it happened.

Nevertheless the media decided to give official acknowledgment to news worthy material from the public after the London bombings in July, 2005. This was because BBC established their user-generated content desk to support the mass in-flow of the information from the public.

Even though it is a difficult task to monitor or even edit certain material to journalistic standards (especially on blogs), it still manages to provide general public with the information on demand. May it be due to the sixty second fame it has to offer, the money or simply the desire to be informative, citizen journalism certainly is a key player in the present news media.

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I will never miss my daily dose of celebrity gossip updates at pinkisthenewblog.com as a habit. I certainly would think twice before I change my celebrity news preferences because I am a consumer of online information. The author of this Blog, Trent Vanegas does such a great job keeping his readers up to date on the latest hot stuff linking them through numerous videos, images and other websites as they hit online.

However, whenever I come across the Melbourne’s own free evening tabloid, the MX I realise that there’s still potential in newspaper medium to reach out to the Gen ‘Y’ online community.

It may still be in the beta mode of media in the News Limited, but has managed to create a niche in the market complimenting the business model of media convergences created mainly for survival.

I thought I should also mention the relationship between Rove and the Fox Fm’s Hamish and Andy. The loyal radio listeners of this Fox Fm evening show who may not really be fans of television media do still make it a point to tune into Channel Ten on Sunday nights into Rove’s show to see their favourite hosts in visual action. Rove’s fans return the favour to Fox Fm vice versa.

This is just one of the examples I could come up with to elaborate on how media convergences are now successfully regaining and regrouping the fragmented audience.

Online radio, talk show blogs and news podcasts are certainly the present of people’s media. Only time will tell what other types of techno-savvy mediums of information will come our way as the convergences pave the road to the future.

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