Mobile journalism: a revolution or an evolution

“Competition has increased, and in an attempt to regain lost market share. Most media owners have squeezed news organizations to do more with less” Van Derk Haak, Parks, Castell, (2012) The Future of Journalism: Networked Journalism. The authors of this paper delve into an issue that has grown to what has been described by some media experts as a crisis (Hall, 2005; Hirst, 2011; McChesney & Nichols, 2010). This situation is the focus of my doctoral studies in mobile journalism. Trained in 2011 on an iPhone 4s at the University of Sheffield I was one of the first active mobile journalists in the UK. Over the course of a career broadcasting live TV from warzones in Iraq to tornado coverage in the US, mobile technology has been the primary avenue for me as a modern journalist capturing, curating and distributing packaged and live content. During my doctoral field gathering in Spring 2018 I spent a week embedded with a one-man-band iPhone reporter in rural Scotland working for STV news and another with CBS 12 in Tennessee. These are 2 of 5 TV stations that are my research case studies across 5 countries and 3 continents. The data gathered allows me to compare and contrast how mobile technology is helping to support shrinking news teams in rural news markets. In many cases the phones are replacing videographer staff with apps and social media suites taking the place of online and news desk editors. The practical aspect of this study is a 1 hour documentary shot entirely on mobile devices by me as the practice based researcher in a fly on the wall exploration of mobile journalism practice globally. Parts 1 and 2 are available below. https://youtu.be/mVSxMpT4Nss US Video Case Study https://youtu.be/LHpQp4D7GjQ UK Video Case Study