Smartphones and journalism

Smartphones for several recent years have become an indispensable device in our pockets. All smartphones, as the name suggests, have many more uses beyond simply sending text messages and making phone calls. They can be described as a multimedia device which enable journalists to produce content with just one machine, the thing they previously need many to do so. The advent of smartphones has made it possible for them to do part of their job with nothing more than a phone.

Live broadcasting is a complicated work which requires cameras, cables and satellite trucks among others. However, I was so surprised when my Broadcast Journalism tutor showed me a video showing how BBC reporter Nick Garnett uses iPhone to broadcast live. This is the first time I know about Luci Live software for smartphone broadcasting the reporter is using. That’s awesome. According to Nick Garnett, he now does 90 percent of his broadcasting on his iPhone with the support of Luci Live. It transforms iPhone or smartphone or into a mobile IP-codec, software IP-codec for PC/MAC or high quality mpeg-recorder. Reporters only need one device to go live, record audio, edit, add pictures or videos and send to the studio – wirelessly. The first rule of the game, as Garnett said, is “staying connect”. It means journalists have to make sure their connection works, otherwise, their live broadcasts will fail. This, I think, is a disadvantage of the software because not all every place in the world is connected with Internet. However, I also find it interesting to learn a new thing that I may try to apply in my job.

Luci Live software (Image source: http://www.luci.eu/?page_id=15)

The convergence of camera and cellphones, especially smartphones, makes it easier than ever for people to become photographers. And for journalists, including citizen journalists, it allows them to quickly share photos as news thanks to the availability of 3G, 4G or wireless service. Though the quality of photographs from cell phones, even smartphones, is still far behind what can be captured with professional photo cameras, there are some obvious advantages. By several simple actions, the journalists can send the photos to their news organisations, share them on their social networking sites. In the digital age where time is one of the factors of pressures on journalists, forcing them to break news in the earliest time to compete with their rivals. Thus a multifunctional smart phone seem to be a useful tool to support them in their work.

(Image source: http://www.baomoi.com/Chup-anh-dep-voi-dien-thoai/136/14082144.epi)

Last month, I read an article which showed tips and tricks to take creative photos by smartphone, from unique panorama uses to a clever way to easily take partially underwater photos. I will try someday to get lively pictures for myself and may be for the purpose of artistic photo images with a smartphone.

Furthermore, journalists can also use the smart phone for recording and filing audio scripts. Special applications, such as VeriCorder Audio Pro, facilitate journalists in the job. According to Neal Augenstein, a reporter at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., who is using the programme, it records good quality audio, allows him to edit and move segments, including taking a sound bite and inserting it between his voiceovers, and then send the audio from his device to his newsroom. I found the programme very convenient thanks to its combined functions which helps the reporter produce a complete product. Those in the newsroom don’t have to spend much time on transcript or edit his/her piece of news.

Apple’s recent release of Iphone 6 and Iphone 6+ with many outstanding functions compared to the previous generation (Iphone5s), including 8MP rear camera in iPhone 6, has offerred Apple fans, including journalists more chances to create photo masterpieces, I believe. Together with Apple, other smartphone manufactures, like Samsung, Nokia, Sony have introduced various new smartphone models to the market, offering users a great number of choices.

The smartphone’s ever-present role as both a personal and professional device offers ample opportunity to practice. However, I don’t think smartphones in particular and mobile media in general can replace journalists. Smartphone in this case plays an important role to facilitate journalists in their job, bringing information to audience in the earliest time. Journalists still hold a key role./.

Bibilography

1. Snowden, C. (2012). “As It Happens: Mobile communications technology, journalism, and breaking news,” in N. Arceneaux & A. Kavoori (Eds), The Mobile Media Reader. New York: Peter Lang. P. 120-134.

2. Goggin, G. (2006). Cell Phone Culture: Mobile technology in everyday life. London: Routledge. Chapter 8, 143-161

Are tweets always reliable?

Twitter, an online social networking website and microblogging service, allows users to post and read text-based messages of 140 characters, known as “tweets”. It is true that these days, Twitter not only plays as a social medium, but also a source of news.

As Twitter is becoming more popular among public community, Twitter users not only shares news headlines, but also act as citizen journalists to report news. Sources of news from Twitter can come from news agencies, governmental offices and the public themselves (Shariff et al, 2014). Thus, a question is whether we can trust Tweets.

Early this year, as the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, MH 370,
was on the way, social-media users spread false rumors including reports saying the craft made a safe landing. One Twitter user posted that he had “some inside news from a pilot uncle that #MH370 has emergency landed somewhere in China! Hope everyone is safe.” (Peption, 2014).

The rumor immediately spread widely through Malaysian media outlets. After that, it was confirmed false by Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese government.

Search for the missing plane is still underway (Image source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29378953) 

Similarly, one user with his Twitter account @ComfortablySmug spread lies about Hurricane Sandy which actually killed at least 117 people in the US in 2012. False news reports and doctored photographs were posted, including one saying that the New York Stock Exchange was under three feet of water.

One of several false reports posted by Twitter user @ComfortablySmug

These examples are not enough to affirm that information posted on Twitter , in particular, and social network sites, in general, is unreliable, however, it raises a question of information credibility.

Credibility is a characteristic of information sources. The online Merriam-webster dictionary defines credibility as “the quality of being believed or accepted as true, real, or honest.” Since anyone can post information on a website, the possibility of unchecked information creates the possibility of inaccurate or misleading information. What’s more, news outlets often want to be the first to break a story and this can lead to mistakes being made when sharing or retweeting the information. According to Craig Silverman, an award-winning journalist and the founder of Regret the Error, “inaccurate information will be retweeted more than any subsequent correction.”

From the journalism perspective, it is crucial for journalists to judge the credibility of information posted on Twitter that looks useful as when information appears on social media, it’s tempting for news organizations to race to report it first.

Credibility assessment can act as filter of inaccuracies, while providing the content that users find most believable (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000). So how do we assess information credibility? In a research by Castillo C. et al, 2011, discovered that “newsworthy topics tend to include URL and have deep propagation tree” and “credible news are propagated through authors that have previously written a large number of messages, originate at a single or a few users in the network, and have many reposts.”

It’s true that fact-checking is very important for journalists when reporting news. From my experience, when dealing with available information from “public domain” to reproduce news, it is essential to check whether the source is reliable, whether there is byline and links, etc. If there are any doubts, I can make phone calls for double-check.

Silverman and Mandy Jenkins, social news editor for the Huffington Post, in their “B.S. Detection for Journalists,” at the 2011 Online News Association Conference in Boston mentioned checking the credibility of the information as one of the steps to verify news on Twitter. According to them journalists should:

– Check earlier tweets or updates. Did they mention something about why they were on the scene? Is there anything leading up to their news tip that makes sense or puts things in context? Do they indicate plans, location, etc.?
– Ask do any follow up tweets or updates make sense in context?
– Ask does it read authentically? Misspellings, bad grammar, typos can also be a sign of a real person.
– Ask if there is an image attached, check to see if it has geolocation data or exif.” (Click here to see all the steps).

Hope that all of us will be wise readers to identify which tweets are reliable to share./.

References:

Castillo, C, Mendoza, M and Poblate, B 2011, ‘Information credibility on Twitter’, WWW 2011, March 28-April 1, 2011, Hyderebad, India.

Flanagin, A J & Metzger, M J 2000, ‘Perception of Internet information credibility,’  Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , Volume 77, Issue 3, p. 515-540.

Morris, R M, Counts, S, Hoff, A, Roseway, A & Schwarz, J 2012, ‘Tweeting is Believing? Understanding microblog credibility perceptions,’ CSCW 2012, February 11-15, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Shariff, S M, Zhang, M & Sanderson, M 2014 ‘User perception of Information credibility of news on Twitter’ in M. de Rijke, T. Kenter, A. P. de Vries, C. Zhai, F. de Jong, K. Radinsky and K. Hofmann (eds)  Advanced in Information Retrieval, Springer, pp 513-518.