Apps for the digital journalists

A digital journalist using a smartphone to record U.S. President Barack Obama.

We previously mentioned the iPhone or smartphone being essential to the digital journalist, but what kinds of apps and software should you have loaded on your mobile device?

Obviously you need the basics like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, but there are so many more. You’ll need an app to take notes with, record and edit video, upload to a cloud server and other functions that have become important for digital journalists.

The Wired Reporter has come up with a few lists of essential apps. Here’s one from a U.K. journalism site, another from the National Association of Black Journalists, and this one from the Poynter Institute.

The one and only tool a digital reporter needs

Just think what you can do if you were a digital reporter armed with an iPhone on the night the Titanic sunk? Your news outlet would drown in the great coverage you would supply.

Recently the Gannett media company in the U.S. purchased 1,000 iPhones for its reporters. The Wired Reporter doesn’t think it was because they wanted their journalists to be trendy. We all know it’s impossible for reporters to be cool.

No, Gannett’s bulk iPhone purchase is a strategic move to take advantage of the technology found in the iPhone 4S and some of the other high-end smartphones.

Let’s consider the latest iPhone and other current smartphones. They’re armed to the teeth with features and there are thousands of apps that add even more functionality.

Let’s say the Wired Reporter were onboard the RMS Titanic on that ill-fated night on April 15, 1912 and just happened to have his trusty iPhone. The first thing a cracker-jack reporter would do is use that smartphone to snap some high quality still images of that iceberg that strayed in our path. We’d then crop and edit the images before posting them to our news organization’s website, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and 500px.

We could then use the phone to shoot HD video of the Titanic’s crew assessing the damage and passengers playing shinny with chucks of ice sheered from the iceberg. We’d also turn the camera on Capt. Edward Smith to get his reaction to the collision. The video clip would be edited using an app and uploaded to the news site and YouTube.

The hard-working Wired Reporter would also be writing and posting an article at the same time, updating the story as things progressed. I could also use my smartphone to record audio interviews with John Jacob Aster IV, the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic, then edit the file and send it off to a news radio station in New York (just pretend the Internet has already been invented).

Get the idea? Every digital reporter is now a one-person multi-media reporting team, complete with post-production facilities.

Here’s a great article that outlines some of the skills and techniques involved in live digital reporting.

To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

For more discussions and articles on digital journalism, go to SFU’s New Media Journalism on Twitter and Facebook .

Invasion of the techno zombies

Ever been in this scenario? You meet your favourite peeps after work for appies and drinks and discover they’ve turned into techno zombies.

They’re iPhone obsessed or addicted to a Crackberry. In other words, they suffer from iDisorder – an obsession with mobile media technology.

You realize your friends require an intervention because their eyes flutter back and forth between you and their smartphone as you’re talking to them. When there’s a break in the conversation they mumble,”Jus a sec.” and start emailing or texting someone.

When the discussion resumes, they start talking about the time they lost their iPhone on SkyTrain.

“I felt so naked without it. I panicked,” they say.

Their admission gets sympathetic nods from the other zombies.

“I once took a cab home at lunch because I forgot my phone when I left for work in the morning,” admits your lawyer friend.

“I can’t function without it,” adds the social media specialist.

The worst one in the crowd is your buddy who’s a journalist. That’s because she has two obsessions, her iPhone and breaking news. She’s constantly checking headlines from various news outlet websites. When a news story breaks, her fingers are a blur as she tweets the latest story on her smartphone.

The growing number of techno zombies is a good reason to support a Technology Sabbath. Once a week we all need to reconnect with ourselves, family and friends. That’s not something you can do face to screen with your smartphone or hypnotized by your tablet or computer screen.

There’s a great article about unplugging from technology on the PBS MediaShift website. You can also learn more by reading the Technology Sabbath manifesto and the Huffington Post has a great article about smartphone obsession.

I would recommend you read these articles and then go for a walk, meditate, talk with others or anything else that doesn’t involve technology.

To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

For more discussions and articles on digital journalism, go to SFU’s New Media Journalism on Twitter and Facebook .

People consuming more news with mobile devices

Two ways to access the web when you're mobile. The first method requires regular visits to the chiropractor.

The Pew Research Centre’s 2012 State of the Media Report has been released and the highlight for digital journalists is the public is consuming more news, more often and for a longer period of time. However, they’re using mobile devices (iPhones, smartphones and tablets) to do so.

So should we be praising Apple Inc. for selling wonderful web-serving mobile devices which, you could argue, kicked off the mobile web revolution?

Perhaps, but credit should also go to news organizations for realizing the importance of the mobile web. Most prominent news media outlets now have a mobile app or mobile-optimized website so smartphone and tablet users don’t have to zoom in and out to read headlines and articles. Traditional media have been leaders in recognizing the future dominance of the mobile web and quick to embrace it.

They know that by 2013, people will spend more time surfing the web with mobile devices than desktop and laptop computers. We’ve seen the shift coming as smartphones now outsell PCs.

So… the moral of the story for news outlets that haven’t caught on yet: get mobile or get left behind.

To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies. Click here to register for a June 23 information session on the program.