Click here to view original article by Kate Dubinski - The London Free Press
I saw what could be the future of my profession on Saturday, and I’m not sure what to think.
Part of me was astounded, excited and intrigued. I wanted to call my newsroom colleagues and tell them to prepare themselves for the cool stuff that will be coming our way.
Another part of me was freaked out and defensive, and I wanted to call my newsroom colleagues to tell them the future could bring more work, less in-depth analysis and competition from younger journalists who can do the day’s work of three people in 10 minutes, all by themselves.
Meet Nick Wynja, the eager young man who made my head spin.
Wynja, 21, was presenting a session titled “Mobile Journalism: The Revolution of Capturing News Media” at the PodCamp held Saturday.
Wynja graduated from Fanshawe College’s radio broadcasting department this year. He and journalism student Ashley Rowe went to Vancouver for the Olympic Winter Games, and were tasked with filing stories using mobile journalism — they were MoJos, for short.
They were also there to generate buzz for the technology they were using — an application for the iPhone from VeriCorder Technologies called 1stVideo. VeriCorder, started by a former B.C. journalist, is based out of Kelowna. The company creates apps for MoJos.
Wynja and Rowe didn’t need a newsroom. They didn’t need an editor. All they had was an iPhone, a Owle Bubo — essentially a metal case for the iPhone that steadies it during picture and video taking, and gives the camera a wider lens — and a monopod.
Armed with that, Wynja and Rowe were able to record audio and video, take pictures, and —here’s the rub — edit it into story packages all by sliding their fingers across their iPhones screens, then sending it to the web.
At today’s London Free Press, getting a story requires (usually) a reporter who does interviews and sometimes shoots videos, a photographer who shoots still pictures and sometimes shoots videos, and a video editor back in the newsroom who edits whatever the reporter and photographer captured and then uploads it to the web.
The entire process usually takes a couple of hours, from getting the story to uploading it to lfpress.com.
Boom. Using the technology that Wynja presented, the work of three people could now be done by just one.
And, if the technology is as easy as it seems to be and as Wynja says it is, it takes about 20 minutes to edit it and send to the web, something that can be done on the steps of city hall or, as was done this winter, from the top of Whistler Mountain.
Not that I want any of my bosses to get any ideas, but that’s pretty damn cool, at least from a technological perspective.
The point isn’t to save money by laying people off — although if one person can do the work of three with a single $140 Owle and a $10 app, the math is pretty striking — but to deliver news as quickly as possible, Wynja says.
“If you had three people doing it before, you could outfit the three of you with an iPhone, and have three stories instead of just one,” he says.
“Most people don’t expect to get an A1 picture from an iPhone. You’re not replacing the work of photojournalists, but you (the MoJo) can start filing stories while the photojournalist is still on the way.”
But what about the other stuff that print journalists offer? If I’m recording video or audio, and thinking of background visuals, b-roll, lighting and how it can all fit together, can I also take notes and think of in-depth questions that might make for interesting analysis for the next day’s paper?
Inevitably, if more work is downloaded on one person, something has to suffer.
But, as Wynja says, journalists can look at the new reality of MoJo in one of two ways.
“It can be a scary time to be a journalist if you’re not on the ball, but it can also make your job a lot easier,” he says.
And Wynja believes the hype: he’s packing up his apartment and heading to B.C. He’s taken a job with VeriCorder to promote the technology to citizen journalists and mainstream media outlets.
Glossary of terms
PodCamp: n. A free open community gathering in which people talk about new media, anything from Facebook to blogging. Sessions are put on by anyone who wants to put one on.
MoJo: n. Short for mobile journalist, this is a person who uses digital cameras, cellphones and the Internet to gather audio, pictures and videos quickly and immediately posts them to the web, either working for a news organization or as a freelancer.
Owle Bubo: n. Owle is short for Optical Widget for Life Enhancement, and a bubo is a type of owl; the device is an aluminium case for the Apple iPhone that provides steadier handling for video and picture taking. Can be used with a tripod or monopod.
Application, app: n. Third-party software programs developed for Apple products including the iPhone and iPad. The developed software can provide real-time bus schedules, allow a user to check movie listings, play games or edit videos on the iPhone. Most cost between $2 and $10.
