So-so MoJo on the go-go - Village Magazine

48 April 2015

MEDIA MoJo

T one point during his workshop

at MoJoCon, the mobile- journal-

ism conference organised by RTÉ

in late March, BBC reporter Nick Garnett

paused during his demonstration of the

audio editing software he was using to

edit the sound recordings he had made

earlier.

Garnett’s NoJo website opens with

an impressive promise. “Recording an

interview used to involve carrying a tape

recorder that weighed the same as a new

born baby. Now we can record, edit and

mix – and broadcast live radio and TV

from around the world. On a phone”.

Unfortunately, Garnett informed the

audience, the company which made

Voddio, the multi-track editing app he

was demonstrating, had gone bankrupt,

and the app was no longer available. In

a world where Apple and Android have

trained users to expect software to cost

$1.99, the high-functioning audio editor

wasn’t a runner.

And there is a major problem faced by

phone-only journalism advocates. While

they might be technically capable of pro-

ducing broadcast-standard audio (and

video), smartphones are a consumer

product, and apps are aimed at end-us-

ers, not professionals.

But even allowing for the (temporary,

we hope) absence of appropriate soft-

ware, and settling for the moment for

an inferior editor (in the hope that a new

one comes along shortly) the improve-

ment to workﬂow from switching to a

single mobile device isn’t always that

compelling.

The microphone on the latest iPhone,

for example, is reasonably good, but

still manages to sound tinny compared

to most custom recorders. Several MoJos

recommended diﬀerent microphones

to overcome the problem, just as many

had their favourite lens attachments

for improved video performance, but if

a journalist is going to go that far then

there must come a point when she asks

whether it wouldn’t just be simpler to get

a “proper” camera or sound recorder.

The more traditional alternative

becomes even more tempting when one

considers that it’s been quite some time

since the typical recorder weighed “the

same as a new born baby”. The Zoom H2,

a handheld recorder favoured by at least

one prominent RTE broadcaster, weighs

a mere 110g, a quarterpounder.

Smartphones certainly boast some

selling points as reporting tool. The tech

– camera and audio – is “good enough”

but it isn’t necessarily the best. What it

does have is familiarity. A microphone

or camera can silence a witness, or make

them self-conscious about what they say.

A phone is familiar, and doesn’t spook

people so much. And the phone is already

wired in to the network.

Sending the report to the studio is as

simple as patting the button marked

‘Send’. But so what? It’s hard to shake

the sense that MoJo is – so far at least –

something of a gimmick for traditional

broadcasters, who are simultaneously

wary of and curious about broad-

banders. The best thing about it may be

the name.

RTÉ’s Philip Bromwell noted that the

Irish national broadcaster is leading the

way in the ﬁeld, having transmitted over

50 pieces shot on mobile devices. But it

is notable how many of those pieces

were features rather than hard-news

reports.

Examples of hard news produced

on mobile tech were more like what is

understood by “citizen journalism”,

where people who are not professional

reporters find themselves in places

where conventional reporters cannot

easily go – reporting a woman’s experi-

ence of life in Saudi Arabia, or a doctor’s

experience in the middle of an Ebola

outbreak.

A modern, slimline sub-compact

laptop ﬁts easily in a kitbag. A reporter

can still record on the smartphone of

choice, or on a Zoom or other recorder

or minicam. It is then easy to trans-

fer that raw ﬁle to the notebook over

bluetooth (or by switching an SD card)

where the ﬁle can then be edited using

much more powerful custom software

than is available oﬀ an app store, and

with the advantage of precision control

rather than half-abortive editings using

stubby ﬁngers and thumbs on a 5 or 6

inch screen.

At that point, the thing that matters

about mobile journalism is the mobile

journalist. The technology comes

second. Or as RTÉ documentary pro-

ducer techno-cynic Ronan Kelly put it at

MoJoCon: “Often people who talk about

the kit don’t have a story. In fact, the

story must come rst”. •

RTé’s recent conference suggests smartphone-based ‘mobile journalism’ is being

hyped. By Gerard Cunningham

So-so MoJo on the go-go

There must

come a point

when the

journalist asks

whether it

wouldn’t

just be

simpler to get

a “proper”

camera or

sound recorder

“