Week 7: On-the-go journalism and web 2.0

When bombs went off in Mumbai, the first thing I did was go to Flickr (click photo to see more) and YouTube to check photos and videos taken by people who might have witnessed it. These popular social networking websites now allow people to capture history. In today’s wired world, the unfolding of events can be documented almost instantaneously with technology. But can we describe this practice journalism?

Armed with a phone camera, I have been taking snapshots of events/people while on field since last year. But due to frustrating speeds of sending photos via today’s local mobile network, I still download these photos onto a PC before sending it to my editors. Perhaps this is the first step towards mobile journalism. (Also listen to the short podcast I did).

Mobile journalism involves Internet technology and telecommunications. Both are modern tools for delivering news on-the-fly. When I started working for an online publication six years ago, the standing order was to: “write for today and not tomorrow.” Today, that has changed to: “break the story now and add photos, videos and audio quickly.” Sounds like a lot of work? Yes it does. But since the Internet is multimedia, people expect more from journalists (who do not necessarily work for the online medium) to also produce photos, videos and audio. Mainstream media is now looking at hiring younger and more tech-savvy journalists to cover news because they understand readers' behavior today.

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a blogger observed how fellow bloggers attending this big event have become source of “scoops” and “inside information.” Not every journalist could cover this event alone. But they have provided "just in time" information for mainstream media. He called it “instant journalism.” I simply call them “leads.”

Week 5: Embracing “citizen” journalism

I recall an interview with one of Philippines’ top blogger Abe Olandres. The premise of that interview was this: Should bloggers follow ethical guidelines in journalism?

Abe is a well-read professional blogger writing about technology. He prefers to be called a "meta-journalist," a term that describes his tech punditry. But after reading Mark Glaser's article , I say Abe is a journalist.

No matter how he puts it, Abe is doing journalism. He writes based on facts -- but insists that some are based on "speculations" or better, an informed guess based on industry sources.

As Max Kalehoff, an executive at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, wrote on Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine blog :

Why not just call journalism “journalism” — a word the citizens, amateurs, networks, distributors and professionals can understand? Journalism can be “practiced” in all sorts of ways, and by virtually anyone. You don’t even have to be a citizen or a professional; you could be a foreigner, or even an alien from outer space. But I do agree with your overall beat: journalism is not some exclusive club; it’s something that takes many forms, including all the ones you describe.

Citizen journalism has emerged because of the Internet and blogs. Similar to Dan Gillmor's story on Joe Nacchio, Abe and other local bloggers like J. Angelo Racoma have become sources of my stories. From time to time, they pick up juicy information, which I end up writing as a full-blown news report.

As Gillmor pointed out, citizens like Abe and Racoma are no longer consumers of news. They make the news. They are today's citizen journalists. Gillmor adds:

[T]echnology has given us a communications toolkit that allows anyone to become a journalist at little cost and, in theory, with global reach. Nothing like this has ever been remotely possible before.

Essential tools for "backpack" reporters

As I was reading through Berkeley's Multimedia Reporting and Convergence online training module, I found this interesting feature by Jane Stevens that details what "backpack reporters"-- a term given to multimedia journalists -- need in the field. They include:

• Laptop computer loaded with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iMovie or Pinnacle Studio 8 (or Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere if you're doing advanced video editing), Flash and a text editor such as Word.
• Video camera and accessories (lenses, filters, microphones, headphones, batteries, cables, tripod)
• Digital video tape (more than you think you'll need - tape's cheaper than missing the most important shot of the story)
• Lens cleaners (brush, tissues, solution -- clean your lens before every outing)
• Absorbent soft towel (for emergency lens cleaning)
• Duct tape (if some part of your camera breaks, as mine did in a Moscow subway station)
• Pocket knife (remember to put this in your checked luggage when traveling)
• Rubber bands (you never know)
• Extra batteries for microphones (replace these every few months)
• Camera and microphone manuals (unless you've memorized both)
• Plastic bags for camera (as emergency protection if you don't have a raincoat for your camera, or if you're moving between extremes of heat and cold and need the camera to adjust slowly)
• Plastic bags, small and zip-lock for used DV tapes
• Water bottle (for you)
• Power bars (for you -- you never know when you're going to skip a meal)
• Pens (if nothing else, to jot a quick ID on the tape you've just shot)
• Small notebook (of course, your camera is your reporter's notebook, but a small notebook is handy for writing down shots that you don't want to forget, especially if it's raining and you can't read what you've written on your hand)
• Backpack journalist vest with many pockets (you don't have to go the extreme of still photographers with their 87 pockets, but it's more efficient to have towel, batteries, DV tape, notebook, pen, knife and duct tape within easy reach)

WEEK 4: Multi-media journalism in the Philippines

Perhaps the closest example on how journalists in the Philippines are using “multi-media” techniques when they report is INQ7.net, the company I work for. When we started, our news website was called “shovelware,” which means content taken from the print edition is just “shoveled” into web. There was not much difference between the print and web version except the latter is online. Also the web version followed the “narrative” style of the print. There was not much interactivity.

A year after it was launched, INQ7.net covered the “People’s Revolution 2.” It was at this historic and defining moment that INQ7.net transformed into a semi-multimedia news website. We broke news as it happened – through our breaking news section. We worked like the wires. But that’s just text. Eventually, we incorporated videos taken from our partner TV station and provided links to videos related to stories. We also provided a streaming audio of a local radio station for people who wanted to hear almost real-time broadcast of the events at that time.

Special websites have also emerged at that time. We created these sub-websites within the news portal for special features. It usually contained text, audio and videos, and other information we deemed useful for our readers.

The level of “interactivity” or multimedia techniques used in INQ7.net are not as sophisticated as the examples of Touching Hearts or 360 Degrees, which are in fact, larger projects that take time and specialized skills to develop. INQ7.net is, however, evolving and will feature more of "less linear", multi-media news.

WEEK 3: The best of both worlds

The online medium provides the "best of both worlds" of broadcasting and print. With faster computers and Internet connection, it is now possible to deliver text, videos, and audio through an online media. Users can choose what they want. They may even opt to have news pushed to them via mobile phones --which extends the online medium further. The online media is at the "cutting edge" of journalism. While it won't replace journalism as we know it, it changes paradigms, mindsets, and business models. Online medium can deliver news quickly and around the clock. It provides an endless web of information through links and recently, blogs. Newspapers are now putting up video content, complimented with audio, which can be a short news clip or a streaming Internet radio program. Blogs have also provided another way to engage readers .

The biggest weakness of the online medium is accessibility and cost. Not all people have Internet access and computers. But mobile phones are becoming an alternative. Nonetheless, the online medium opens up opportunities for the news "business." It creates additional revenues (through advertising and syndication) for newspapers, television, and radio. With the online medium, they can have a bigger and younger audience born in a multimedia world. Traditional media that refuse to change remain the biggest threat to online media.

A paper titled, "Newspaper websites deliver local consumers" by the Newspaper Association of America, states a general trend in the US, which is now happening in countries like the Philippines:

The number of Web users visiting newspaper Web sites continues to grow—from 40 percent of everyone online in 2002, to 48 percent in 2004 and 51 percent in 2006.

College kids going online for campus news

I know this is beyond the 300-word requirement for this week, but I wish to highlight this study I picked up from Poynter Institute.

Baltimore Sun's Nick Madigan wrote that College campus papers are becoming popular despite the dwindling newspaper readership. However, there is a growing number of students going online for news. Excerpt:

At the same time, college students are still reading the papers' print editions. A Student Monitor study says 76 percent of college students surveyed during the spring semester this year read one out of the previous five print editions of their campus paper. That number has remained roughly consistent for almost two decades, never dropping below the high 60s, said Eric Weil, managing partner of Student Monitor, which twice a year surveys 1,200 full-time students on 100 four-year campuses.

The difference now, he said, is that 38 percent of students regularly read an online edition of their campus paper, and they spend an average of 19 minutes doing so, Weil said.

WEEK 2: Convergence is inevitable

Convergence in journalism involves the marriage of old and new mediums. "Mass media" is no longer enough to describe today's new media. The audience is growing because it is spreading virally through blogs and other social networking services such as YouTube or Flickr. Instead of the old paradigm of "one to many," the convergent media is now a medium of "many to many."

It also has gone "multimedia."

Blogs have allowed anyone to become a "journalist." Mainstream media is now embracing technologies, such as blogs, to deliver news. According to this paper from the University of Essex, titled "Blogging: personal participation in public knowledge building on the web,"

Blogs have emerged from a humble beginning to become a highly networked mass of online knowledge and communication. All kinds of research, from searching for the best price of the latest mobile phone, to more rigorous forms, are conducted through the blog medium.

Blogs or blogging have become "cheaper" and efficient means to publish information on the Internet and deliver news to a bigger audience. This is just example on how convergence has spread so quickly worldwide. Anyone with an Internet connection, a decent computer, and a good command of English can become a journalist. Thus we've seen the rise of citizen journalism, which is now gradually being embraced by MSM.

Convergence is happening in the Philippines. With a growing population of Internet users, a close to 40 million mobile phone users, it is evident that Filipinos want news pushed to them via new mediums. The company I worked with, INQ7.net, now sends breaking news to 20,000 mobile phone subscribers. Everyday, the local news website gets more than one million unique visitors -- that's about three times more than the current readership of our sister firm running the print medium.