Mike van Niekerk, Fairfax's editor-in-chief of online, talked to Journalism.co.uk about the necessity of getting technology in reporter's hands.
Why are you arming your reporters with mobiles?
The iMate JasJam is a multi-platform, multimedia tool that incorporates mobile phone, remote text filing, wireless camera, audio capture and filing and video capture and filing.
Of these functions, the first two are the most important because they enable reporters to stay in touch with the newsdesk and to file stories direct into the editorial system - this is important for both print and online but obviously is extremely valuable for breaking news on the website.
Images, audio and video add richness and depth to breaking news, especially the really big stories.
The idea is that reporters will make use of the first two functions as a matter of course, but having a device that lets them also take pictures, audio and video as well as the training to make the best use of those functions means that they have the right tool when they are in a situation to capture something significant.
Although images and audio is acceptable quality for website, the video quality is actually quite poor - but still can be quite dramatic when something original and unique is captured.
The Jasjam is also useful as a wireless device for transmitting high-resolution images taken by photographers on professional-level digital cameras.
Which of your papers are using the mobiles?
The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and our paperless online news site, brisbanetimes.com.au
We have been trialling early versions of the devices for more than a year at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, only in the online breaking news team.
Mobiles for how many staff?
Initially all online breaking news reporters, which is about four each at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as all eight reporters at the brisbanetimes.com.au and then also police, courts and other hard news rounds at the newspapers.
Photographers will have some dedicated devices and some pool devices and then there will be a pool of devices for other reporters.
Have the papers used this technology to any great effect yet?
With the few that have already been deployed reporters are now using them on all assignments. In big court cases can get paragraph-by-paragraph updates to the websites, and we have had some great 'gets' in terms of images and video.
If they are using them regularly, do they make other skills - like shorthand - redundant?
Reporters have used audio recorders for the past 20 years to back up their notes, especially for accurate quotes, but in a fast breaking news situation you're still going to need to take notes so that you can compose a story very quickly and file it.
There have been occasions though when video interviews have been filed immediately and the quotes transcribed back in the office from the video.
Has there been any complaint from unions that you could effectively be getting reporters to do photographer's jobs?
No
How do you present interviews with people? Are they edited first person accounts used as additional footage to augment a story or do you cut them together to make video packages that tell the whole story?
Sometimes interviews are edited, but we have often used raw interviews - these can be quite dramatic and compelling, especially as an add-on to a text story.
In the UK Five News has announced that it is dropping certain 'faked' techniques from its video pieces - shots of reporters nodding in response to questions, reporters asking questions and staged establishing shots and cut-aways to link sections. They say they are doing it in a bid for authenticity in their reports.
Do you think this is a gimmick or is showing 'authenticity' in news becoming more and more important? Is that part of the reason for giving reporters camera phones?
We have video production teams and studios in Sydney and Melbourne with high professional production standards. Those techniques you mention are sometimes used, but we tend to go for a straighter form of reporting, usually with a voice over. As I've said, the authenticity of raw, unedited interviews can add a lot to the story.
Do you think that asking a reporter to do more than one job, report text and take video and stills, could compromise the quality of their basic reporting?
It's a cascading hierarchy of needs. The first obligation of a print reporter is to ensure they have all they need to produce a story for the newspaper. If they are then also able to file a story to the website and if they can also take images, audio and video then that's an important bonus. But they aren't expected to capture and file multimedia on every job. Only where it is relevant and there is something worth capturing.
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