This document discusses best practices for live mobile journalism. It covers three main themes: events and rolling journalism, mobile journalism kit and infrastructure, and verification, ethics and law. It provides tips for live reporting like using hashtags, engaging multiple senses and media, quoting sources, and tweeting when things change. It also discusses choosing streaming platforms, building mobile kits with the right hardware and software, establishing systems and habits, and verifying information from multiple sources while maintaining transparency and adhering to privacy and broadcast laws.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U4Ha9HQvMo

2. 5: Live and mobile
JOM0845 Online Journalism

3. 3 themes
• Events and rolling journalism
• Kit and infrastructure
• Verification, ethics and law

4. "The Continuous News Desk is busier
than ever with stories coming in all day
from various desks. The sports editors,
when they hear about a big trade, are
pushing the reporters to file quickly and
sending that story to CND. All of the
desks are now doing that to some
extent, and it’s being done more often,
with more stories, every week.”."
- Editors Weblog, 2007

5. “The adrenaline was running by now. So
I turned [the flash] on and took five
pictures. I realised they were important
and I saw another guy shooting video on
his phone.
“So I got him into a taxi and we went
back to AP’s offices in Camden.”
- Matt Dunham, AP, in The Guardian

7. Events
and rolling reporting
Adding value

8. Video: live multiplatform election coverage (PBS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQrH1OuhPjk

9. "We increased the reach of the NewsHour's live-stream by
having it hosted elsewhere including the Sunlight
Foundation and Huffington Post. We also hosted a map with
live AP election data on our site and combined it with our
map-centric Patchwork Nation collaboration. We used
CoveritLive to power a live-blog of results, analysis and
reports from the field. Extra, the NewsHour's site for
students and teachers, solicited opinion pieces.
"Many of the tools we experimented with to cover the 2008
election -- Google Docs, Twitter, Facebook -- have since
matured as newsroom resources. Except for a few
momentary hiccups, Twitter was as stable as we could have
hoped on Election Day."
- Dave Gustafson, PBS

10. "On election night, more than a dozen NewsHour staffers
worked in the same [Google] document in real-time -- filing
reports from the field and transcribing quotes from
NewsHour analysts and notable guests on other networks.
"When [Mike] typed a pound sign (#), that signaled the
paragraph was ready and I immediately pasted it into
CoveritLive.
"In a different spreadsheet, staff kept track of which races
were called by other news organizations and when. We also
used the embedded chat feature in Google Docs to
communicate while editing and adding information."
- Dave Gustafson, PBS

11. I venture to bet that we were the only network last night with
an election graphics system running in Google Chrome.
Thanks to our partners at Ustream posting a giant
promotion on their home page for a full day our election live-
stream garnered more than 250,000 views.
We also notified our 73,000 iPhone app users of our special
coverage plans. Our app download traffic tripled.
As for Facebook, we were blown away by the breaking
news engagement we got. It has us reconsidering that
strategy. A separate two-day effort targeting NewsHour ads
on Facebook pages of specific political campaigns grew our
fans about 7.3 percent in that short period.

12. Same choices, but faster.
• Twitter stream?
• Liveblogging?
• Photo updates and gallery?
• Streaming video?
• Google map?

13. Where is the need?
• Document?
• Aggregate?
• Analyse?
• Enrich?
• Verify?

14. Live tweeting tips
• Use existing hashtag(s) - or make one
• Engage all the senses - and media
• Use direct quotes - or RT them
• Write as if an intro summing up
• Tweet when things change

15. Streaming tips
• Test, prepare, recce, schedule
• Auto-tweet upon streaming
• Steady camera
• Narrate if sound is not close

16. http://www.google.com/realtime

17. http://blog.ouseful.info/2010/12/09/an-appropriate-use-of-technology/

18. Events: lead up
• Talk to the community, recruit contributors,
set up lists, groups, photo pools, tags etc.
• Cover the lead up on multiple platforms
• Where might you get video, photo, audio?
• SEO/SMO - key phrases, ideas
• What will the community need?
• Do what you do best, link to the rest

19. Tactics of repression
• Some regimes throttle broadband during
protests
• Can also close parts of mobile phone
network
• E.g. Iran, 2009; Myanmar, 2007

20. The mobile journalist

21. Too busy on social media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8g3AFnT_Hk

22. Kit: hardware
• Smartphone with good data plan
• Flip or Kodak Zi8, etc. (not HD)
• Digital dictaphone/Zoom
• Portable mic and spoffle
• Gorillapod or tripod
• Bluetooth keyboard

24. Kit: power & connectivity
• Batteries - including phone
• Mifi unit (also tethering & Joikuspot)
• Extra SIM cards - EyeFi?
• Free memory - and extra cards
• Extension lead & chargers
• Power gorilla, solar charger

25. Kit: software
• CoverItLive, Posterous
• Qik, Bambuser, Ustream, Twitcam
• Shozu, Pixelpipe, Ping
• Twitvid, Twitpic, Flickr NOT Plixi
• Evernote, Springpad, Dragon, Catch Notes
• GeoTag, PlaceTagger, GeoLogTag
• Google Maps, Storify, Audioboo

26. http://bambuser.com/

27. Systems and habits
• Network: publish & distribute (RSS)
• Contacts & website emails
• Wifi map, 3G recce
• Scheduled post with embedded viewer
• Preparing users, tags, groups etc.
• Geotagging
• Plans B, C and Z - editing, streaming, etc.

28. A mobile mindset
• Be 'always-on' and catch the moment.
Share first, report later.
• Try new tools & apps and integrate
• Establish yourself in a network
• Look with a MoJo's eye - recce places,
rehearse, prepare.

29. See how it's done
• @documentally
• @ruskin147
• @alisongow
• @paullewis
• @adamwestbrook
• @ed_walker86
• @acarvin

30. Workshop
Prepare mobile reporting for covering a
live event. Identify:
- Key people
- Key platforms
- Key themes, terms etc.
- Preparation needed

31. Verification and law
..

32. "People shouldn't see this as a Twitter
mistake; rather it was a reporting
mistake that could have occurred on any
platform."
- Andy Carvin, NPR

34. Level 1: Content
Is it too good to be true? Bait?
Style and personality
Can you verify each fact elsewhere?
Frequency and recency
Cloning and airbrushing

35. Level 2: Context
How long has the account existed?
Who did they first follow?
Who followed them first?
Who has spoken to/about them online?
Correlation with other identities? (Identify)
Tools: PeerIndex, Klout. Speak to them.

39. Level 3: Technology
Domain extension - .gov?
Check Whois records
Last updated
Pages linking to:
Archives and caches; history & discussion
Source code

41. Ethics
Is deleting an incorrect tweet after the
fact a lack of transparency?
Live tweeting: spammy?
Taste & graphic nature: Neda
Non-declaration (Mayhill Fowler)

42. Law
Streaming = broadcast (apologise),
archived = publication (edit)
Privacy and trespass

43. Links
Delicious.com/paulb/cityoj06
Delicious.com/paulb/mobile
Dan Gillmor and Stephen Quinn ebooks

44. Lab
Find events
Create content building up to that event
Plan to cover the event live
• Who could you interview?
• Where could you add value?
• What can you research?