MojoShift
Field Work and Technology in International Journalism
The use of technology in field work outside of North America is a fascinating phenomenon. It is intriguing to see what kinds of tools have been acknowledged and used by other countries. Turns out, the sense of urgency to get news out first, is one felt by many newsrooms across the world, and not only the ones in the United States or Canada.
Roohi Hasan, senior producer of ITV News in England believes that field work has come a long way. “When I started working 14 years ago, we had these satellite trucks that were fairly restrictive, but now it's different,” she says.
ITV News is one of the main national television news stations in England. Although they still use traditional cameras for news coverage, they also use cell phones and smaller cameras in some circumstances, like when doing a breaking news, adventure or humanitarian story.
According to Hasan, if there is a situation like a fire or a flood, it may take too long for the camera crew to get to the location, or may not be able to at all because of safety concerns. In that situation, it is a lot more practical to cover a story with a smaller camera that allows to shoot and file it to the news room.
“Our website is also very interactive. So people can post videos that they may have taken from their cell phones,” she adds.
Hasan also talked about Flip video cameras that have been given to six children in Haiti to personally document the aftermath of the earthquake.
She calls mobile journalism “definitely the way of the future.”
On the other hand, Judy Sandison, editor of SABC says that new media is being used in South Africa in a variety of ways. Multiple mobile networks are present for people to receive the news through their mobiles.
Moreover, according to Cliff Lonsdale, international journalist and instructor at the University of Western Ontario, having an Iphone or a mobile is a common thing now.
“Everyone at Reuters has one of these,” he says pointing to his very own Iphone.
He says that it is a good start for developing countries to do journalism. This is because mobiles are relatively cheap equipment that many can afford in such nations. Using mobiles has allowed the people of these countries to have a voice not influenced by Western media, and thereby, practice free expression.
However, he believes that technology in field work “can be a good thing and bad.” Lonsdale fears “superficial journalism.”
He thinks it is critical to use this technology in a manner that does not compromise understanding and delivering the context behind stories and essentially conducting good journalism.
