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If you are looking at where the humble mobile phone is going, this story from AMTA is worth looking at. Seems the modern journalist will be able to go places and do things with an element of subterfuge as they won’t have to lug around lots of equipment…

Journalists use their “mojo” to find new ways of storytelling

Reuters news agency in London has equipped its journalists with a mobile journalism toolkit about a year ago. Reuters’ product manager of mobile and emerging media, Ilicco Elia, says this is the start of a future form of journalism and a new way to tell stories.  In fact, the BBC’s technology editor, Darren Waters, has been filing mojo (mobile journalist) reports from various parts of Europe since late last year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Mobile phones allow journalists to change their heavy camera equipment to a smaller device,” Mr Elia says. Reuters’ journalists tested the mobile toolkit at the New York fashion week last year and on the US presidential campaign trail. The agency now plans to give the mobile devices to citizen journalists.

Mr Elia says that over the next few years mobile phone manufacturers will produce mobile phones capable of taking images of the same quality as high-definition cameras.

The Reuters toolkit includes a smartphone, a Bluetooth keyboard, digital microphone and a phone-adapted tripod.

In Norway, Frank Barth-Nilsen trains mojos for the national broadcaster, NRK.

“A lot of other broadcasters and newspapers are interested in our findings,” he says. NRK’s various departments now plan to use mojo content for mainstream platforms such as TV and radio.

“We’re building a toolkit for our journalists, focusing on speed and usability. We’re also looking into how the new technology will change today’s way of storytelling.”

Mr Barth-Nilsen has established a blog for sharing ideas called Mojo Evolution at mojoevolution.com.

Dutch mojo Ruud Elmendorp operates out of Kenya. By mid-July his website offered 133 news video reports from 22 African countries.

Journalists at Inquirer.net, the online site of the Philippines Daily Inquirer in Manila, have been filing stories remotely via their mobiles for more than a year. Journalists at German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle plan to introduce the mojo concept later this year.

An American mojo based in California, Robert Scoble, has been broadcasting live video from his mobile phone using a service provided by Qik since late 2007. “I’m the top (Qik) user,” he writes in his blog, Scobleizer.com, noting he has already produced more than 700 videos.