AIBD and Lao National Radio organised an In-Country workshop on Mobile Journalism in Vientiane, Laos PDR from 27 to 31 November 2018.  The workshop was designed for media practitioners of Laos working in Radio, TV and Print media.  Representatives from the Police, Army, NGOs and civil society also attended the workshop.

The practical training during the workshop enabled the participants to explore the potential of mobile journalism that is becoming an essential skill in news gathering especially for reporters or correspondents working in remote areas or in crisis. Participants gained insight and practices during the training such as: shooting with smartphones, exploiting the smartphone specs with manual controls, editing the footage, creating motion graphics, using the essential gears for mojo, doing live streams from smartphones, working with the teams, and distributing the reports on different platforms. The workshop also included sessions on script writing and media management through smartphones. The workshop ended with a session on introducing VR journalism as the future of Mojo as a way forward for a potential future workshop.

Participants responded that the training was useful for both the future and their current work activities. They showed active participation during practical training and produced twelve short reports on various issues in Vientiane, shot and edited on their smartphones.  The participants truly displayed high commitment not only to apply the knowledge learned from this workshop but also to mentor their colleagues and subordinates to use the potential of ‘mojo’ to create impactful stories. The workshop also enabled them to learn the strategies related to build effective newsroom workflow to integrate practices of mobile journalism.

With the concept of trans-media in trend for broadcasting organisations, it is necessary for journalists to have an efficient workflow to create eco-worlds around the stories that matter. Practitioners should be self-motivated to learn about new apps, gears, and distribution strategies and understand the global trends of such kind of journalistic workflow. 

Fifty participants from all 17 provinces of Laos, which included organisations like Lao National Radio, Vientiane Radio, Army Radio, Police Radio, Economic News, Lao Women’s Union, Pasaxon News, Lao Youth Radio, Lao National TV, CRI, Laophattana News, Government community Department, Phongsalay Province Radio, Bokeo Province Radio, Udomxay Province Radio, Mass Media and Luangnamtha Province TV with working experience from 2 to 15 years attended the workshop. Mr Nabeel Tirmazi, former producer from Pakistan Television and AIBD Programme Manager conducted the workshop while Ms Vienglaty Ketsattha provided the translation from English to Laotian.