The future of journalism has changed significantly as citizen journalism becomes more recognized in the media field.
Nowadays, journalists are becoming more digitally integrated by adopting aspects of the trend through mobile journalism. The new medium introduced famous journalists like Tim Pool who gained recognition from live streaming the entirety of the Occupy Wall Street protest.
Screenshot: Shoulderpod.com
In my experience, adjusting to reporting exclusively on a mobile device was difficult in many ways. For a reporting assignment, I could not use popular apps like Twitter, Google Docs and Facebook to report. Even though there are a plethora of apps available, it was hard to figure out which apps were the most efficient and effective.
Writing specifically on a phone detracted my mindset from focusing strictly on A.P. Style. There is a difference when I type on my phone and write a story using my computer. For phones, I have a more casual form of writing since it is on-the-go rather than being formal on a regular computer. I believe that writing only a phone prohibited me from creating the best story possible.
One good thing about mobile journalism reporting is that it is quick and easy to do. In regards to stories featuring text, stories should be smaller with text kept to a minimum. I used an app called Stellar that enabled me to write stories on the go but the app tried to keep my text to a bare minimum. Despite its portable nature, no casual person is going to spend time reading four paragraphs on a small device. Other than that, I believe that mobile journalism excels in creating live streams during important events such as protests.
Mobile journalism is definitely hard to adjust to for journalists where timeliness is prioritized. As a form of storytelling, I believe that it should strictly be a different form of multimedia that journalists could adopt. There is a balance between barely explaining stories and providing enough insight to them. Despite that, mobile journalism enables more individuals to join the movement in staying more connected and informed than ever.