Nokia, Reuters collaborate on mobile journalism project
By Leah McBride Mensching, Tuesday 23 October 2007 at 21:32 :: Online/Digital Publishing :: #746 :: rss
Reuters and Nokia Research Center (NRC) are teaming up on a mobile journalism project that could change how journalists file news when they're on the go.
The new mobile application is based on a lightweight toolkit that gives journalists everything they need to file and publish news from the most remote regions in the world. It is the first project the NRC and Reuters are showcasing after collaborating on long-term research, PR Newswire reported.
The application allows reporters and photographers to file and publish text, photos, video and audio from handheld devices, instead of laptops, which can be more cumbersome. Select Reuters journalists around the world began using the application this summer in an initial test-run.
“This is a very easy-to-use application that takes account of the demands placed on journalists in the field,” said Nic Fulton, chief scientist of Reuters Media, according to PR Newswire. “By running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene. This saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date.”
Professional journalists will be able to get the most use out of the application in the immediate and near future, but in the long term, its use could be much wider.
“The term 'citizen journalism' has been in use for several years, but technological innovations – particularly the introduction of mobile multimedia computers – have transformed the concept,” Timo Koskinen, project manager with Nokia Research Center, is quoted as saying by PR Newswire.
“The mobile journalism application uses the multimedia capabilities already available in existing smart phones and combines these to produce a toolkit that fits intuitively with the way in which journalists want to use it. The toolkit comprises multimedia capabilities, text editing tools and live video streaming and is accessed using an innovative user interface. Metadata facilities automatically combine every piece of information the device already has about the context for the story - location, time, date and so on. For the trial, GPS integrated video-streaming technology was provided by Comvu. Reuters has already developed a mobile editorial interface that links the toolkit developed by NRC to the in-house editorial process, allowing stories to be published almost instantly from the field,” the article stated.
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