Finding the 'winning formula': Mobile journalism in South Africa

Mobile journalism within South Africa is still within its infancy, but the trend is growing fast. In a bid to transform itself from a legacy media company into a multimedia operation, Independent Media has created a mobile journalism team, aiming to encourage more people to consume and engage with news on their mobile devices.

Over the past six months, the department's three mojo (mobile journalism) units based in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg have worked in partnership with Independent Media's print titles.

Journalist Chelsea Geach heads up the Cape Town mojo division, working along with four interns to produce multimedia stories for the company’s YouTube channel and website. “The reaction within the company has been mostly excitement,” said Geach.

“There are of course some print stalwarts who feel threatened by the change, but through running workshops, many of the reporters and photojournalists have picked up the skills of shooting video on their smartphones, and are now producing their own video to accompany their traditional print reporting.

"It has been incredible to see the way mojo is catching on throughout the newsrooms.”


Screenshot of Independent Media's YouTube channel, showcasing the mojo team's work.

Although the mojo project has been a success so far and has produced over 500 videos nationwide, the development process hasn't been easy.

“The challenges we've faced since March have been numerous and varied – from battling our way around equipment and technical issues to training interns fresh out of university to be competent journalists,” said Geach.

Each team has a kit currently comprising of an iPhone 6, a tripod, iRig preamp, AKG lavalier microphones and general hand-held microphones, but the three teams are looking to add more equipment as time goes on – including GoPros and different phones, mics and grips.

Independent Media's mojo reporters have had to adapt to using new equipment quickly. 

Geach is currently taking part in mobile journalism training with the Thomson Foundation, securing a place on the course after winning the Vodacom's Journalist of the Year award for her coverage on South Africa’s "exhausted" junior doctors.

Week 1 and developing core #journalism #skills for our summer course participants, including a visit to @Channel4News pic.twitter.com/Vb1iIuClZR

— Thomson Foundation (@thomfound) August 11, 2015

She plans to take the new skills she learns back to her newsroom to help the division produce videos of better quality.

Most of the mojo team’s videos complement stories covered by the company's newspaper reporters, but they are working towards producing more original content that isn’t tied to other journalists' work.

Although they focus on regional storytelling, the teams also work together on stories that have national appeal.

Viasen Soobramoney, the team leader of Independent Media’s mojo division, is aiming to guide his mojo reporters into looking for unique ways to tell a story.

"At the core of mojo is good storytelling," said Soobramoney. "If you tell stories that are compelling and across platforms then you would have achieved the winning formula, so my focus is very much in finding unique ways to tell these stories."

"Mojo is very much the bridge between our legacy print titles and the new and exciting digital space that Independent is now playing in. My dream is to see the project entrench itself within the business and become a hub in creative and innovative storytelling," he said.

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