mobile journalism

Journalism Teachers Get Mobil-ised

This post was originally published at MediaShift by Guy Berger, Rhodes University. Republished under Creative Commons licensed here. Thank you, Guy!

Online computers, Africans do not have. Cellphones are a different story.

So why aren't journalism schools around the continent integrating the use of mobile devices fully and squarely into their courses? It's a question that could also apply in many other places - even in media dense environments.

Answers - and solutions - to this challenge were forthcoming in Grahamstown, South Africa, last week, when MobileActive's Katrin Verclas - a Knight grantee - ran a workshop with a selection of African journalism teachers at Rhodes University.

Citizen Journalism: The Newsroom Question

Traditional news media is a changing industry and conversations discussing the future of news media as it transforms itself abound.  What is the future of the newsroom in citizen journalism?

SaveTheNews.org, an organization that is devoted to bringing public policy into conversation about the future of news media, hosted a forum in late August where former staff of Rocky Mountain News and journalists from around Denver fielded a host of questions regarding the future of news media. Below are a few highlights of the conversation (transcript available in full here).

Mobiles and News Gathering at Al Jazeera

With the advent of ubiquitous mobile phones recording video, audio, and photos and easily connecting to a worldwide audience, everyone has the potential to become a citizen reporter on the spot, as news and events are happening.  Traditional news organizations (aka mainstream media) are struggling to keep up and find relevance among the new voices from around the world.  Al Jazeera, the Arab news company (and arguably not exactly mainstream media) has been testing mobile phones with its reporters and for its media coverage. Safdar Mustafa, head of Al Jazeera's mobile media unit, explains how in this coverage from MobileActive08.



More videos are on the MobileActive YouTube channel.