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Mobile Harder Than I Thought
For a decade, I've been a journalist who relies on the phone, meetings, tips, the public and some pit bull instincts for my coverage. This year, the newspaper purchased a video camera, a laptop, and an internet card to do some mojo journalism. Since then, I have found it incredibly difficult to do it as a county government reporter. I don't think newspapers should ever stop covering meetings, because that's how we watch decision making of local officials. I work in a county where it is growing fast, but there are very few watchdog citizens.
I am one of the busiest reporters at the 50,000 circ. newspaper. And I am oftentimes stuck waiting for those important phonecalls to gather information important to the story. Projects that take time, and require studying documents and government plans keeps me in the office. It is incredibly hard to find the time to get out and mojo.
The newspaper is highly unlikely to make me a full time mojo journalist who helps create social niches in communities with blogs and watchdogs. So, I am stuck with trying to balance my intense government reporting, with getting in my car and finding places to meet, greet and engage people to read the paper, my blog and the Web page.
I've done probably 5 decent video projects that accompanied a story. I've also done a few blogs with short videos of local officials talking about a project.
However, the biggest challenge I face is finding the time to get out and mojo the news on this intense beat I have. Some days I wonder if it is even possible to do it, and do it successfully.
I think they need to rework the plan, and just make me a "multimedia" journalist, which I am enjoying quite a bit.
I am one of the busiest reporters at the 50,000 circ. newspaper. And I am oftentimes stuck waiting for those important phonecalls to gather information important to the story. Projects that take time, and require studying documents and government plans keeps me in the office. It is incredibly hard to find the time to get out and mojo.
The newspaper is highly unlikely to make me a full time mojo journalist who helps create social niches in communities with blogs and watchdogs. So, I am stuck with trying to balance my intense government reporting, with getting in my car and finding places to meet, greet and engage people to read the paper, my blog and the Web page.
I've done probably 5 decent video projects that accompanied a story. I've also done a few blogs with short videos of local officials talking about a project.
However, the biggest challenge I face is finding the time to get out and mojo the news on this intense beat I have. Some days I wonder if it is even possible to do it, and do it successfully.
I think they need to rework the plan, and just make me a "multimedia" journalist, which I am enjoying quite a bit.
Tags: government, journalism, mojo, multimedia, reporting
7 Comments
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Comment by Brian Cubbison on March 9, 2008 at 12:10pm - Zac's right about using mobile journalism where it's needed and not forcing it. I also see that you mention being tied up in the office waiting for phone calls. It seems like a cell phone would take care of that. Ask yourself, "What do I really need to be at the scene for?" and "What do I really need to be in the office for?" ...
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Comment by Dave Brooks on March 9, 2008 at 3:00pm -
Congratulations for being brave enough to point out the un-trendy view that sitting through meetings, talking to officials, and reading pieces of paper written by bureaucrats is the only way to report on many types of issues. No technology or social-networking fix looks likely to change that, at least not in the near future.
As for the comment about cell phones, if I've waited all day to quiz a company director on a quarterly report or the Public Works Director on allegations about bad roadwork or the superintendent about the new teachers contract, I'm not going to be able to do it while driving to another assignment. Detail-specific interviews are tough to multi-task through; I need backup materials to help my follow-up questions - I have to stick to the desk.
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Comment by Brian Cubbison on March 9, 2008 at 3:32pm
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Dave, that's a reasonable point. Here's the best description I've seen of a mobile journalist in action, but it's on the cops and courts beat.
by Ron Sylvester
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Comment by Dan Telvock on March 9, 2008 at 5:02pm -
Well, at least you guys see my rock in a hard place. I am doing well with multimedia as a government reporter, turning regular meeting stories into larger pieces with video and a human touch, which is really lost in a lot of government reporting nowadays. But the Mojo stuff...I just don't think it's possible for me to do it successfully.
The video camera, laptop and internet card are very useful though for me, even as a government reporter.
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Comment by Dave Brooks on March 10, 2008 at 6:01am
- Dan - can you point us to an example of a multimedia piece that you did as a result of government reporting? That's still a challenge for many of us.
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Comment by Elizabeth on March 12, 2008 at 2:07pm
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My newspaper is currently trying to integrate mojo into our newsroom. However, we have a circulation of 5,000 and cover news for 5 towns. However, the hardest problem we're having is our newspaper has one reporter, one designer (me), one sports editor/writer, one ad salesperson...clearly, you get my drift. We're an army of ones.
For all the people that's worked with mojo and making it standard in your newsroom, how do you integrate mojo when you have very few people?
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Patrick Thornton is around here somewhere, as well.
Contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or concerns.
Thanks!
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Mobile Journalism is best suited for content that favors quickly breaking stories. Cops and courts, fires, event coverage.
Keep us posted on what you're learning as you move forward though. I'd love to hear more specifics.