This week looks at the role the mobile media is playing in society and the possible convergence of material from all media outlets and companies. I also want to mention some examples of this, looking especially at the way mobiles made an impact in Mumbai last week. The basis of this conversation follows a brief lecture from Rick Waghorn last week. He left a traditional newspaper environment to start up My Football Writer on the Internet for Norwich City fans. His work on this site raises some interesting points about what is right in mobile journalism.
Rick Waghorn spoke about websites with experienced writers (such as his) teaming up with experienced broadcasting sites such as ITV Local. This creates a multi-media platform with companies sharing their resources. Rick Waghorn claims this would create a barter economy where he swaps a match report for clips of the game. However, would this not create a stale media where all outlets are carrying exactly the same multi-media content? This is a problem in my eyes as surely the beauty of the Internet is that there is so much content on it, people have the freedom to choose.
Although, as Rick Waghorn said the mobile phone is a publishing platform, yet the quality may not be amazing on film, pictures and audio. But surely if the writing is excellent and entertains the readers then some poor quality audio is excused. After all I would argue that the
challenge for sites such as My Football Writer is to make enough money to be able to afford quality sound recorders and cameras (I am not saying that’s an easy task and would take years).
So we have discussed journalists embracing the online and mobile media, I would like to briefly develop points from earlier posts with a case study. Twitter and Flickr as well as other websites documented the Mumbai terrorist attacks last week almost immediately. Citizen journalism gave the general world population the initial insight into the attack. Whilst I am 100% in favour of UGC and online media I must re-emphasise my opinion that media outlets must make every effort to check the information they are given. (The 0750 Radio 4 interview gives a good insight into UGC during the attack)
Finally I simply feel I have to comment on the role of the media in the world and the continuance of traditional journalism alongside, and incorporated with, online journalism. Watching The Changeling in the cinema this weekend the plot re-emphasised the power the media has and how it can make change happen as well as holding the authorities to account. This took a long time in 1920’s and 1930’s America yet should mobile/online journalism have been around then I am convinced change would have happened quicker.
Journalism is now immediate but I don’t see why traditional quality, ethics and authority need to change.
That’s all for now…till next week…
Pick + Mix photo courtesy http://flickr.com/photos/dfluff/ (creative commons)
Rick Waghorn spoke about websites with experienced writers (such as his) teaming up with experienced broadcasting sites such as ITV Local. This creates a multi-media platform with companies sharing their resources. Rick Waghorn claims this would create a barter economy where he swaps a match report for clips of the game. However, would this not create a stale media where all outlets are carrying exactly the same multi-media content? This is a problem in my eyes as surely the beauty of the Internet is that there is so much content on it, people have the freedom to choose.
Although, as Rick Waghorn said the mobile phone is a publishing platform, yet the quality may not be amazing on film, pictures and audio. But surely if the writing is excellent and entertains the readers then some poor quality audio is excused. After all I would argue that the
challenge for sites such as My Football Writer is to make enough money to be able to afford quality sound recorders and cameras (I am not saying that’s an easy task and would take years).So we have discussed journalists embracing the online and mobile media, I would like to briefly develop points from earlier posts with a case study. Twitter and Flickr as well as other websites documented the Mumbai terrorist attacks last week almost immediately. Citizen journalism gave the general world population the initial insight into the attack. Whilst I am 100% in favour of UGC and online media I must re-emphasise my opinion that media outlets must make every effort to check the information they are given. (The 0750 Radio 4 interview gives a good insight into UGC during the attack)
Finally I simply feel I have to comment on the role of the media in the world and the continuance of traditional journalism alongside, and incorporated with, online journalism. Watching The Changeling in the cinema this weekend the plot re-emphasised the power the media has and how it can make change happen as well as holding the authorities to account. This took a long time in 1920’s and 1930’s America yet should mobile/online journalism have been around then I am convinced change would have happened quicker.
Journalism is now immediate but I don’t see why traditional quality, ethics and authority need to change.
That’s all for now…till next week…
Pick + Mix photo courtesy http://flickr.com/photos/dfluff/ (creative commons)
Blackberry picture courtesy http://www.flickr.com/people/breakdown/ (creative commons)
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