Today we are talking about the use of mobile devices for news-gathering. I have an iOS operating system and I mainly use the apps: Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, BBC News, iPlayer Radio and Google Hangouts. I use my smart phone for news-gathering sometimes through hashtag searching on Twitter for trends as well as Facebook to see the current conversations on news-stories and breaking news. The benefits of this is the covenience of using my mobile phone on the go, and reporting on a story through my social media networks when I come across something interesting. The challenges include the lack of professionalism in the process – not having proper documented forms of news-reports, but I use my transferable skills to convert my brief stories on my mobile phone over to my laptop and change the style accordingly.
Some apps that journalists must have on their iPhone can be found here.
Apps that stand out to me as useful MUST-HAVE’S are GroupMe for group-texting and Yammer is a good app to keep in touch with coworkers.
Disqus app sounds like an interesting one to monitor my blog comments. A journalist’s top app to track news could be considered as Twitter – this is an online platform I heavily browse through to track breaking news.
A useful mobile journalism kit can be outlined here.
Other research:
Responsive Web Design Case Study at BBC News (outlined challenges, the core experience and other journalistic elements)
Reporters go at it alone: cellular-based electronic news-gathering – insightful article
Another news-gathering tool [for example Storyfull, freeDrive, Geofeedia, iWitness, Pulse, Healthmap, Google Alert, Scoopinion, The Stream and Citizen tube]
Social Media News-gathering: Stuart Hughes
Breaking news guidance: for social media
Reporting resources: These tools can help with research and sourcing
Blog on mobile news-gathering
You’ll learn the basics of how to use hand-held devices as a journalistic tool. With the help of social media, apps and some gear, you’ll immerse yourself in the best practices for reporting, editing and sharing stories to any media platform with your smart phone.
Along The Way - G.L.Smith 