With the evolution and changing nature of technology, mobile journalism which is also known as "Mojo" has taken great place in the field of journalism. So, what is the meaning of "Mojo"? Mojo is actually a new form of new media storytelling in which the journalists or reporters use mobile devices especially portable devices and smartphones with internet connection to edit, gather and distribute news. Compare with last few decades, the job of reporting news has become easier as the news production team needs not to bring along their large, heavy and impractical camera to the scenes anymore.
These are the examples of mobile reporting tools:
According to Marrouch (2014), "Mojo" can be categorized into three which are user generated content, citizen journalists content and professional journalists content. The meaning of user generated content is unedited materials that are sent by witnesses directly to the broadcast station or press company (Marrouch, 2014). On the other hand, citizen journalists are citizens that play active roles in collecting, analyzing and distributing news through social media. Besides that, they are the one who often report breaking news faster than traditional media due to the availability of the technology (Citizen Journalism, 2012). On the other hand, professional journalists are journalists that being trained and they are usually being employed in a press company or broadcast station. In short, everyone can be a journalist in this 21st century.
Thanks to technology, journalists (or everyone) nowadays can update breaking news as fast as possible by using smartphones and share through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. They do not need to wait anyone. At the same time, technology benefits the citizens as they can know what is happening in their country or around the world. Freedom of speech is available too.
However, everything has its pros and cons.
According to Tia (2014), the quality of the video and picture taken by smartphones may not be that good compare to cameras which have set aperture. In addition, some irresponsible people would like to spread fake news through social media. One very good example is after the tragedy of MH 370, a lot of fake photos and videos spread on Facebook and Twitter that caused confusion of others.
So, what do you think of mobile journalism? Does it make our lives easier? Or it causes us many inconvenience?
Reference:
Citizen journalism. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.freebase.com/m/02hpjd.
Marrouch, R. (2014). How mobile phones are changing journalism practice in the 21st century. Retrieved from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-mobile-phones-are-changing-journalism-practice-21st-century.
Tia, J. (2014). Mobile journalism: Using your iPhone for multimedia. Retrieved from https://tiajames.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/mobile-journalism-using-your-iphone-for-multimedia/.
Mobile journalism is the baby born from technology, enabling anyone to be journalists at any time and any where. As the usage of mobile devices increase, the average of citizens to report breaking news increases. Other than low cost, easy and fast accessibility, people tend to forget the main role of a true journalist. Journalism is gathering, processing, and dissemination of news and information related to the news to an audience, where NEWS means information with justification and truth. However, mobile journalism doesn't seemed to work like that. Ability to capture the real thing is absolutely good, but there is an inability to confirm its accuracy. Mobile journalists are in great chance to be bias and highly personal, where people doubt their objectivity. The untrained journalists are lack of analytic and writing skills in portraying a story as a whole. Society rely on news to be updated with the current situation of the world. An inaccurate news mislead people. It is indeed a convenient tool, but users need to be responsible and report only the truth.
ReplyDeleteI agree on Mei Sann point of view, advancing of technologies in Internet, mobile devices had created great opportunities for everyone to become journalists, even without proper training. This situation will cause the presence of a lot new mojo, pumping in new blood into this industry, but on the other hand, the lack of proper training issue might also harm the professionalism for other journalists.
DeleteIn my opinion, I think the best way to settle this problem is to create a mojo association with authorities power to control and manage these "new born babies"
As technologies develop rapidly, everyone has smartphone in their pocket. According to a statistic, at the end of 2014, a total number of 1.76 billion people own and use smartphones and it has increased more than 25% over 2013. So, everyone has a chance to become a mobile journalist.
ReplyDeleteJournalists can report what they witness in the form of videos, pictures and graphics and not only words. As we know, videos, pictures and graphics are much easier to catch public’s eye. This is because no one will take their time to sit down and read the whole article and printed news in the reality. As Sandy mentioned above, even though mobile journalists use smartphones to shoot and the quality of the videos and photos may not be that good but the message is clear. It can attract more attention from the audience because people will feel curious to know more about the issue. Besides that, internet provides a platform for people to get a fair of news, information and truth that public need to know. Mobile journalists have their right to report what they witness on social media because social media are not controlled by any parties.
Sometimes, mobile journalists may provide the news that public want to know but not published by mainstream media such as newspapers, TV station and radio. Mainstream media may not provide message fairly and they will try to frame the news in certain way. Some of the issues like 13th general election had been controlled and censored by government in mainstream media. Media in Malaysia is always promoting the positive coverage of news and ignoring the critical news about the government. Government will influence the content of news to control the public from knowing the truth. For example, during 13th general election, phantom voters and blackout issue were covered by mainstream media.
Mobile journalism ini adalah sesuatu yang baru dalam tekonlogi masa kini yang mana sesiapa sahaja dan dimana sahaja wartawawan sentiasa ada. Dengan penggunaan telefon pintar yang semakin canggih ini semakin ramai pula dalam kalangan kita menjadi mobile journalism ini.
ReplyDeleteMobile journalism ini akan membuat berita dalam blog ataupun disebarkan di laman facebook dan mereka akan meletakkan gambar, video dan apa sahaja untuk menarik minat orang ramai membaca berita mereka. Mereka ini hanya menggunakan telefon pintar mereka untuk mengambil gambar ditempat kejadian dan kebiasaannya mereka adalah saksi ditempat sesuatu kejadian itu berlaku.
Jika dahulu surat khabar, radio dan televisyen merupakan sumber berita utama tetapi kin segala-galanya berada di hujung jari pengguna. Dengan internet yang boleh diakses melalui telefon bimbit maklumat bergerak dan beredar dengan begitu pantas sehingga mengalakkan pertumbuhan portal-portal, blog, dan berita dilaman facebook yang di buat oleh mobile journalism ini. Walaupun berita itu mudah dan cepat untuk diperolehi tetapi bagi saya, saya lebih mementingkan kualiti berita dan sumber berita itu diperolehi. Kita sebagai pembaca perlulah meneliti terlebih dahulu jika berita yang disampaikan melalui mobile journalism ini betul atau tidak.
There’s no doubt that news publish by using mobile journalism could work with the audience increased and develop to grow user generated content. There’s so much beneficial by using a smart phones and have a potential to report news. By the way, mobile journalism is one of a period of time for individual to become a journalist. As you guys say, they can be accessible anywhere and anytime with some focused on equipment. Mobile journalism also is like a great door open and something that can be taught and learn, if the individual is willing and interested in a short period of time. Moreover, interviewing people by using a smart phone is quite easy, simple and freely.
ReplyDeleteMobile devices, in fact, have provided lots of convenience for users to share the latest update with other users. However, mobile journalism is somewhat like what Mei Sann has said, "Mobile journalists are in great chance to be bias and highly personal" as 'everyone' is not well trained as a professional does, and it is lacking in ethical in this professional. Due to bias/prejudice/stereotypes in an individual, media framing might occur, and this might be a thread to society with diverse culture, as such society in Malaysia.
ReplyDelete