Phones Become Reporters

Post do MediaShift Idea Lab, “When Phones Become Reporters”, mostra a impostância dos dispositivos móveis como novas plataformas para o jornalismo e critica a lentidão dos veículos tradicionais. No Brasil, o Globo, do Rio e o Jornal do Comércio de Recife, já lançaram projetos nesse sentido. Vejam o projeto do Globo via Jornalistas da Web:

“A edição desta segunda-feira, 14, do caderno de informática do jornal O Globo, veiculou um anúncio de meia página sobre o Globo.mobi, a edição para celular do diário carioca. (…) O anúncio traz ainda um smartphone exibindo o site móvel do veículo e, abaixo, os dizeres: ‘Acesse globon.mobi do seu celular e tenha as notícias do Globo onde você estiver (…) Conheça o Globo.mobi. Você comenta notícias, envia matérias para o Eu-Repórter [seção participativa do Globo Online], participa de debates nos blogs dos colunistas, recomenda matérias para amigos e ainda tem acesso a vários serviços, como o Guia de Lazer de São Paulo e do Rio, horóscopo, indicadores financeiros, tempo e trânsito no Rio e em SP'”. JW.

Abaixo trecho do post do Media Shift:

“(…) Lets face it…we live in a world where half of all people possess cell phones (and over 90% in the U.S.). Most of these mobile devices now come fitted with or have the capability of utilizing information dissemination tools like geotagging (i.e., GPS and Google Maps), microblogging (i.e., Twitter), and soon live video streaming. As sensor technologies like RFID tagging gets added into the equation, giving us the ability to “tag” physical locations with information that can be accessed on the spot, there seems to be an interesting opportunity here for the combination of citizen media with place-based reporting and information sharing.

Here are some examples:

1. Local reporting that lives universally AND locally. Imagine reading a report about an accident in your neighborhood on the Internet. If you walk by the scene you are able to access eye-witness accounts and even video that is tagged to the actual physical location via mobile phone “reports” that live on the spot (but are also available on the Web). Not only can you access and review information via your mobile phone, but you can add to the story yourself, based on your own knowledge or interest. Similarly, eye-witnesses could easily “deposit” their accounts of an event, including text, video, and audio on the spot for access when mainstream reporters arrive on the scene.
2. Citizen Media that is video and not text based. A large proportion of the of the world’s over 3 billion cell phone users are not functionally literate, nor do they have access to the Internet, and the ability to access visual and voice-activated information on cell phones is a tremendous and largely untapped market opportunity.
3. News Networking. The “networking” of people that have an active interest in a story either because of their geographic proximity, direct involvement (say you know the people involved in an accident), or because of a general interest in following a story. Mobile Social Networking tools not only have the capability to link people with similar interests (via opt-in profiles), but can do it in real time.

Overall, the application of mobile media and social networking tools to reporting offer an alternative to the traditional notion of stories fixed in time and place and to the medium that shares them – print, broadcast, or Web based. Stories and the reporting of them can now become attached to places where they happen and involve and a wider of array of people to interact with them and with each other. And stories can live on into the future as interested people, and not mainstream media channels, determine their ongoing relevance and lifespan.

When phones become reporters, mass media truly has the potential of morphing into media of the masses.”