Jodie’s blog

I was reading the headlines and articles on journalism.co.uk, the essential site for journalists, and a headline on USA multimedia, in the J-blogs section, jumped out at me.
Upon clicking on the link, I was transferred to Reportr.net where the full article was displayed.
After analysing 360 USA random newspapers, Professor Robert Bergland and a team from Missouri Western State University discovered that the newspapers were behind in the usage of multimedia tools that were readily available to them.
The research was released at the recent Convergence and Society conference in South Carolina.
The research clearly stated that the US newspapers had low usage of multimedia for audio, interactive graphics and podcasts.
Larger newspapers displayed more multimedia usage due to larger staff numbers with a variety of skills required to produce the multimedia.
In this day and age of technology, this research really surprised me. I thought Australia was behind in the speed and accessibility of the internet, which can effect who and how we use it.
I thought the USA would embrace multimedia, especially at the moment with the current electoral campaigns running.
This research was conducted over 2007 and I hope the figures have increased this year.
Along side this article was another post titled ‘US TV stations “don’t get” citizen journalism’.
This was also discussed at the same conference.
TV websites weren’t keen to allow citizen journalists to run stories on their the webpage.
How can the rest of the world be using citizen journalists to cover more stories and lower production costs, and the USA – the leaders of the world, be behind and not including this in everyday news.

Professor Robert Bergland from Missouri Western State University. (Picture taken from http://www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/Faculty/bergland.asp)

Anyone can be a journalist. Photo by Jodie Grzeschka.

Mobile phones have not only made us more accessible to the world but the world more accessible to us.
Apart from the usual mobile phone capabilities of ringing and staying in contact with people, we are able to use other functions on the phone that help to contribute to our communities.
There is also the option of keeping up with breaking news when you are not able to use the internet or turn on a radio.
I can remember during the Schapelle Corby verdict, I was out of the office and wanted to keep up with what was happening – so what did I do? I subscribed to ninemsn news updates and had text messages sent to my mobile.
Many newspapers around the world, who are encouraging us to become citizen journalists, have grasped technology changes and are using it to benefit us and themselves.
Use the camera or video function on your mobile to capture news as it happens and then send it to online newspapers for possible online and print publication.
All news can be covered.
Singapore’s The Straits Times introduced STOMP (Straits Times Online and Print) in June 2006 and it has had overwhelming success.
Citizens are all wired up and ready to report on any issues that emerge during their day.
Using this form of technology has also allowed the younger generations to become interested in the news around them, encouraging them to take an interest in their society and in the media.
Younger generations will always embrace and utilise new technology and it is fantastic to see the world’s media as doing the same.

Image taken from STOMP webpage http://www.stomp.com.sg/