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Friday, June 24, 2011

How Smartphones Make Us All Reporters

Thanks to modern technologies such as computers, smartphones, and the internet, our society is more connected than ever. Using these new technologies it is now possible for almost anyone to become a reporter. Smartphones are always connected now thanks to mobile networks and with the power of these phones and the apps that they run anyone can report news. Using just the included hardware and software of most smartphones someone would be able to take pictures, video, and text and post directly to the internet for anyone to see. This would be good primarily for reporting between friends and groups as you may be limited to text messaging and email. If you start adding apps into the mix however you begin to have a very powerful mobile reporting platform. With the help of a mobile app called Ustream it becomes possible to stream live video from a phone over 3g or 4g internet to the website where anyone can view the stream as live coverage. Just using this simple tool automatically greatly increases the reporting ability but if we add in a few more apps, say a blogging app and a location tracking app we begin to allow for someone to use there phone to write up articles on events, stream live coverage, post pictures of the event, and also broadcast the location to anyone who may be looking. With the power and coverage of 3g networks it is possible to do all this very portably, only requiring the apps and a phone capable of running them. The advantages to this easily accessible way of mobile reporting is that more people can cover events that normally would not hit the news. For instance, it is now possible for people to cover traffic that is very local and specific to your location rather than a broad or far away area. Another positive side to this way of reporting is that anything can become instant coverage rather than waiting for a news show to edit the footage. It is now becoming more and more evident that our mobile devices can be used much more effectively than they currently are. So get out there and give reporting a shot.


How do you use your smartphone to share the news? Leave your comments in the area below and feel free to give some love to the follow button. And don't forget to share the love with some friends and family. 

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