Growing Importance of Mobile Journalism
Smart phones are increasingly becoming an important tool in telling news stories and producing short pieces and documentaries for various media platforms, including social networking sites
Smart phones are increasingly becoming an important tool in telling news stories and producing short pieces and documentaries for various media platforms, including social networking sites.
Mr. Mark Egan, a mobile journalism trainer from Eurovision Academy, urged broadcast journalists to be aware of the special role smart phones play in their journalistic work and learn to shoot video content in professional quality using their mobile phones.
The former BBC video journalist served as trainer for the Master Class on Shooting Video Content with a Smart Phone or Tablet, which opened on 24 March 2015 in Kuala Lumpur. The two-day event ushers in the series of activities AIBD has lined up prior to the 12th edition of the Asia Media Summit.
Some 27 participants from various countries in Asia Pacific attended the first day of the workshop co-organised by AIBD, Eurovision Academy and CCTV.
In his presentation, Mr. Egan said that in the multimedia era, newsrooms are demanding form journalists to produce more content for various platforms and smart phones are useful tools for this purpose amidst tight budgetary limitation.
He spoke about the pros and cons of using smart phones in capturing video content. Smart phones, he said, are small, portable, features good accessories and apps that can enhance video and audio quality. Connectivity is an advantage as video content shot from smart phones can be directly delivered to the computer and social media platforms even in real time.
Among the disadvantages of smart phones, Mr. Egan cited short battery life, limited memory, low light performance and stabilisation difficulties among others.
During the workshop, participants had the chance to shoot video content using their phones by following the five-shot sequence formula. The formula covers a variety of shot from close ups to long shots and creative shots.
