Journalists on How They Use Mobile Devices

Two journalists who’ve made the switch to mobile journalism shared what they’ve learned with Damon Kiesow of Poynter’s Mobile Media Blog. Poynter launched the blog in January of 2010, which shows just how new the field is.

News gathering is changing, according to long-time WTOP reporter Neal Augenstein. He covers D.C. now with only an iPhone. Producing a segment and sending it to the newsroom takes just 10 minutes using the device and he can quickly send photos and video to the WTOP website to accompany his story, he said.

The iPhone has its drawbacks, however. Augenstein said he hates typing on it. Wind can also be a problem. “Even a moderate breeze can distort a recording.” And the phone is useless in remote areas with no AT&T signal or Wi-Fi.  

He said journalists need to find creative ways to work around the iPhone’s limitations. For instance, there’s no way to mount the device to a podium for a news conference. So he superglued some thin foam inside a regular mic stand clip, which holds the iPhone ‘snugly without scratching it.”

Likewise, no one makes a windscreen for the iPhone to filter out background noise. But sticking the phone into any standard windscreen that fits will help, Augenstein said. Even so he had his biggest challenge with the iPhone when he was covering the hurricane last summer because of the wind distortion.

Tiffany Campbell, lead producer for SeattleTimes.com also gave her experiences with mobile reporting. The newspaper’s use of mobile devices like Twitter and Qik helped the Times earn a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for its reporting on the slayings of four police officers in Lakewood, Wash.

Streaming live video from the scene “was an extraordinarily powerful way to get information out during breaking news,” Campbell said. “It’s immediate, tangible and simple with a smart phone. … We can go live from anywhere.”

Times journalists reported updates in real time on Twitter, which they also used to talk to residents and track what they were saying. “Using hashtags like #washooting, we were able to become a town square and clearing house for tips, updates and conversation,” she said.

The Times’ coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. was the paper’s other big success with mobile reporting. Reporters used their smart phones to cover the events from a ground level and capture some of the flavor of what it’s like to attend. They reported on the related street protests using Twitter and Twitvid and used a Picasa camera phone and Google Maps to map photos and “update our blog in real time, live without ever stopping to file.”

The Times always sees a spike in traffic when reporters are tweeting live or streaming live video, Campbell said. And “we didn’t stay with just the Twitter community” while reporting on the murders of the police officers, which critical, she said. Readers who weren’t on Twitter could see the same content on the Twitter feeds on the Times’ blog pages and other web pages. Reporters also tried to wrap up the coverage for the general audience in blog posts later.