Essential apps for today's mobile journalist

Thirty years ago a journalist would be equipped with not much more than a pen and notepad and would travel with a full camera crew to capture news footage. Today this capability has literally shrunk into our pockets with the potential to make any of us a reporter.

So in no particular order I have complied a list of some of my favourite iPhone apps that I believe any mobile journalist cannot live without.

Blogging Apps

In the age of the internet news can be as much about getting the story out as quickly as possible as creating finely crafted prose and blog can offer a great platform for doing this. Both WordPress and Tumblr offer fantastic apps that make it simple to bang a story out on the spot, upload and edit as required.

iMove/ReelDirector

With the release of iPhone 4 and its HD video capability Apple also created a mobile version of its successful iMove editing suite which although very basic does allow quick edits to be made to video footage directly on the phone. ReelDirectorhas been in this space for slightly longer and also has a capable app that has offers all the features of iMove plus a few more to boot.

uStream

Even low quality reel time footage can send a powerful message and the uStreamapp makes it a simple process to broadcast live through a wifi or 3g connection.

Evernote

If I am going to be away from the office for more than a day then I'll drag my MacBook but I don't carry it around everywhere. The same cannot be said about my iPhone which I literally do have everywhere I go. Evernote comes with a simple interface for quick story (or even a finished piece if needs must) attach some images and maybe a voice recording - all within the same app, which then stores the content online so it can be accessed from anywhere using any device on any platform. Neat, and essential.

AudioBoo

It’s not enough to just write the news anymore, apparently you’ve also got to talk it now and a couple of questions on AudioBoo can really help lift a boring article.. AudioBoo allows you to simply record a five minute clip which you can then upload, share or embed.

Wolfram Alpha

Facts, facts and more facts is what Wolfram is about. This computational knowledge engine draws on some 50,000 built-in algorithms and an amazing 10 trillion pieces of updated and curated data to provide expert answers to free-form questions. If you want to find out what the fourth biggest female population centre is in the world then Wolfram can provide the answer.

Twitter

Twitter is a great communications tool and is a great way to discover stories and connect and discuss with experts. It is also invaluable in getting your work discovered.

Dropbox

Need to store files and text that you can access on the move then DropBox is a great app to have. It automatically synchs your cloud data to your phone.

Skype

With Skype on your iPhone or iPod touch you can call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free. You also can call landlines and mobiles and send SMS anywhere in the world at great rates. Now works both on wifi and 3g connections.

Facebook

Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information. You can view news feed groups, view events, and upload photos and videos, but you cannot view videos that have been uploaded to FB. App includes built-in web browser

Instapaper

The Instapaper app is one of the easiest ways to store web pages for later offline reading. A fantastic way to make sure you never miss out on an article even when you are in a rush

Conclusion

This is a far from exhaustive list of apps that is available to the mobile journalists and if you have any other suggestions do tell. But it does show that from London to Kabul the power of the media is literally being put into our pockets.

Posted via email from fakingIt

It's the content - stupid: The future of newspapers is digital

I'm a self diagnosed addict - crack, alcohol, sex (?)... no something far less interesting but equally as seedy, newspapers.

Full of gossip, outrageous opinions and oh yes, news. Cheap and totally portable, you can read them anywhere; tube, plane or bath. With each page throwing up something new, interesting and just plain weird.

Yes I know I need help...

On reading the headline "Web overtakes newspapers as source of news in US survey" I began to stare into cold turkey hell. The Internet and its instantaneous communication of news stories, free to user and the destruction of the newspapers advertising business model is Napoleon's Waterloo for once mighty titles.

Or that is how it seems - if you have been reading the commentary on the subject in newspapers. As Rupert Murdoch pointed out in a recent speech, many journalists are too busy writing their own obituary and trying to protect their outdated interests to be excited by the opportunity offered by the web.

Love him or hate him the doyen of News International is correct when he says that journalists must not be so fixated on the paper - it's the content that matters - and there will always be a market for well written, edited, fact checked, filtered copy with commentary.

In the 90's I set up a small travel magazine supported by advertising and most of bills were due to printing and distribution with a relatively small amount spent on the thing that really mattered - the content. Today the web has solved my major headache having democratised distribution making it quick, easy and relatively free to reach a potentially huge audience.

The barriers to entry are much lower now than then when I was pushing bankruptcy with every print run. I was caught up, all be it on a smaller scale, in the same insane cycle that our newspapers are today i.e the cost of paper, the finite nature of paper, the cost of delivery and selling as many ads as possible and fitting the content around them.

The web is diffusing power away from the old press barons and their bureaucratically organised forms of journalism that, traditionally, have required massive capital investment. The cost of online advertising is far lower than for traditional advertising and the revenue generated would struggle to fully pay for today's professional media organisation with its army of journalists, editors, sub-editors, production editors, photographers, administrators, etc.

As we bail out bankers from their mismanagement the same logic can be applied to helping ailing newspapers survive. They too can point to being a vital public service.

However this would merely slow down the inevitable, beyond all the arguments about what it would do to the concept of a free press.

If today's news titles are to survive they will need to rethink their business model. Power is now shifting towards spontaneously organised journalists who can gather and disseminate news with little or no barrier to entry.

As popular as citizen journalism and it's peer reviewed content is, it can never fully fill the breach left by the demise of professional reporters working on a well funded newspaper. There is and will continue to be a demand for high quality journalists and the titles they work for to prevent misinformation. Although to professional journalism's discredit in the UK only 23% of the public count newspapers as a highly trusted source of information.

Citizen and professional journalists need to recognise and utilise each others strengths to counter the spin of corporations and governments. We need these vital services as a society, so that we can make decisions about important things, such as the economy, the environment, healthcare, education and war.

Newspapers will not vanish overnight but there is going to be less print in the future, and the old pecking order of online being the poor man's print will be reversed with an accelerating seepage of readership from print to the online editions. Physical objects—newspapers, books, magazines, discs—will no longer be the primary or most profitable means of delivering and interacting with media: news, fact, entertainment, or education.

It’s not that print is bad. It’s that digital is better. It has too many advantages not to succeed (and there will only be more): ubiquity, speed, permanence, searchability, the ability to update, the ability to remix, targeting, interaction, marketing via links and data feedback.

Hopefully, it won't be too long before I can receive my daily news hit through a subscription to a cheap, strong, light flexible “e-paper” screen which I can stuff in my bag and will combine the best of citizen journalism with professional journalism. This device will offer a true multimedia experience and update constantly by wifi. By doing so it will overcome one of the major drawbacks of toady's newspapers which is that they are static, whereas news by its nature is dynamic.

For this I would be happy to forgo my inky fingers.

PS:
For those with a morbid interest in the newspaper industry’s death rattle in the US (and what happens there often is the next step for everyone else), there is author Paul Gillin’s “Newspaper Death Watch” site, which tracks the agonizing process of their economic decline like a running autopsy.

PPS: There is a rumour posted on the influential Silcon Valley Watcher blog on the 22nd December 2008 that The Independent, one of the large national UK newspapers, is considering moving to an Internet only edition.

In the US The Kansan City Kansan - the only paper covering Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas - is turning off its presses and going online.