Online Journalism: Smartphone Reporting

Juneteenth in Texas

Juneteenth is an official holiday that is celebrated in Texas. It commemorates the day when African-Americans in Texas were freed from slavery on June 19, 1865, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Former State Representative Al Edwards led the campaign to designate Juneteenth as a holiday. It became an official Texas holiday on January 1, 1980. Serbino Sandifer-Walker explains more in this report.  (This report was produced using the iPhone voice memo and Adobe soundbooth)
Listen to this episode

Powered by Podbean.com

Replay of Smartphone as Reporting Tool Webinar

Innovator

Jeremy Jojola takes investigative reporting to the next level with a smartphone

Emmy award-winning journalist Jeremy Jojola is not only breaking news, he’s making news. The KOB-TV, Albuquerque, New Mexico investigative reporter was one of the first journalists in the nation to use a smartphone to conduct a live shot.

With his Apple iPhone, he sat out to see whether the mobile could be an effective device to use in the field. He found it to be effective; however, there were some limitations.  The video and audio were good for some breaking news stories, but it was challenging to shoot video with minimal movement without propping the phone. Jojola assesses his experience with the smartphone here.

Jojola will take part in a National Association of Black Journalists Digital Journalism Task Force (DJTF) webinar on smartphone reporting Tuesday at 12:30p.m. (ET).

The Courageous Story of Billy Guevara

Told with an iPhone


By Samii Noel Thompson
TSU journalism student

Using a smartphone as a reporting tool is a no brainer for today’s reporters. The days of tripods, heavy cameras, and tricky cords may soon be a thing of the past for multimedia journalists around the world. You see it all the time, eye witness news recorded by ordinary people catching extraordinary things in the blink of an eye.

Recently I’ve done some “iWitness” reporting of my own with the nationally acclaimed iPhone created by Apple. The story focuses on the journey of blind journalist, Billy Guevara.  See story here. Although small, the smartphone was able to capture a wide variety of b-roll, and clearly pick up sound from a comfortable distance between the iPhone operator and whoever is in front of the camera.                                                                         

With any package, you want to make sure that the story is not only being conveyed by the thoughts of the person being interviewed, but by the footage and voice overs that are added to the end result. To make the editing process easy, shots of Guevara and his guide dog were videotaped with the iPhone piece by piece to guarantee that that there would be ample b-roll that depicted the thoughts of the voice overs done by me as a reporter, that was later pieced together with the video editing program Final Cut Pro. The voice over tape that is heard throughout the package was recorded on the “Voice Memos” application that comes standard with every iPhone. After the script was recorded to the app., it was added to the video footage that was already placed onto Final Cut Pro.

All the footage and sound was saved on the iPhone, and uploaded onto a desktop with the USB cord that connects the phone to the computer. This new method of reporting is perfect for M.J.’s studying in college courses or professionals and even citizen journalists out in the field.

(Samii Noel Thompson is a journalism major at Texas Southern University)

A Smart Move: Using Smartphones to Tell Stories

The smartphone is becoming a must have for today’s journalists. From iPhone to Android and Blackberry, these mobiles are turning reporting into a seamless experience.

NABJ Institute and the Digital Journalism Task Force (DJTF) will host a “Smartphone Reporting” webinar Tuesday, June 15, 11:30a.m. (CT) on http://smartphone-reporting.blogspot.com/.

DJTF’s Serbino Sandifer-Walker, a journalist and journalism professor, will be joined by award-winning reporters Gio Benitez of CBS4 Miami and Jeremy Jojola of KOB-TV Albuquerque. Benitez and Jojola are producing groundbreaking reports with their smartphones.

Benitez was the first reporter to shoot and edit a television package using an iPhone 3GS in June of 2009. His report garnered international buzz and set-off a global conversational about mobile phone reporting. Click here to see the report.

Jojola is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter who uses his iPhone to gather elements for his investigative pieces, including using it as a hidden camera. Jojola was one of the first reporters in the nation to conduct a live shot with his iPhone. Click here to see the report.

Tech-savvy college students are also making the most of mobile phones. Texas Southern University journalism major Samii Noel Thompson will showcase her mobile reporting skills. She told the story of a blind journalist using her iPhone. See story here.

The one-hour interactive session will include tips and highlight the pros and cons of using smartphones to report news stories.

SmartPhone Reporting Webinar