In addition to the standard smartphone equipment, such as a camera and social networking applications, we've compiled a list of five additional tools that can help a single journalist rival a fully-functional news team. With these tools, a mobile journalist can record data, edit clips, and broadcast polished stories as events unfold.
1. Voice Recorder/Google Voice
For times when face-to-face interviewing is not possible, Google Voice is a handy alternative for teleconferences. Subscribers to Google Voice are given a unique number, which forwards calls to a landline or cell phone, and stores voicemails on an easily accessible website. Perhaps the best feature is integrated voice-recording for inbound calls, and, like voice mail, the entire conversation can be retrieved from anywhere via the web.
2. Ustream
Once you’ve typed-up a good story, you’ll want to make sure all that hard work is safe. Applications like Notespark and Evernote sync notes to a remote server so that even if your cell phone is lost while traveling, all your work is preserved.
5. WordPress
In the age of the Internet, a breaking news story can be as much about publication speed as it is about quality journalism. With the WordPress application for the iPhone, journalists can patch together analysis and multimedia and post it to a blog without ever touching a computer. Even for journalists who rely on an editor to publish stories, a WordPress post can give an editor a working layout for how all the information should flow.
Conclusion
Today, everything a journalist needs to publish a story is only a few clicks away. In addition to speedy publication, inexpensive reporting allows less-endowed news outfits to blanket an area with more reporters. For instance, at Penn State, an unofficial campus newspaper, Onward State, is taking on the century-old university standby The Daily Collegian. According to sources at Onward State, a combination of mobile journalism and social media has helped the rogue publication become a competitor to the more established, award-winning official newspaper.
From college campuses to the streets of Tehran, a combination of low costs and hyper-local resourcefulness is democratizing the world of news journalism, putting the power of the press, literally, into the hands of every citizen.
More journalism resources from Mashable:
- Mashable’s Social Media Guide for Journalists
- 8 Things to Avoid When Building a Community
- 7 Ways News Media are Becoming More Collaborative
- 10 News Media Content Trends to Watch in 2010