Using mobile for breaking news in the field

With @Sona Patel

Sona was working at the Seattle times at the time of the Lakewood police shooting. This is how they did social media coverage and newsgathering.

1. Reporters were sent out to different locations
2. Each journalist tweeted updates
3. Settle a hashtag with other media, if all use the same hashtag news get out quicker
4. Enable location on reporters' twitter enables you to do a Google map from updates.
5. Every reporter was equipped with an ipad or smartphone to take photos
6. Reporters wrote blog posts from the field
7. Scribble live is a great tool to get social media updates and reporters' coverage into a single (edited) stream.

But the most important thing is to PLAN AHEAD. Different roles make sure everyone knows what they are doing, and get to focus on what they're doing. Don't retweet everything on your main feed, curate what's put out. It needs to be true, and give a fair and balanced version of what's going on. An other option is to point to a twitter list with all the reporters covering the stories on it.

Social media is great for a breaking news situation, but it can also be used for an "everyday"-news situation. Sona Patel used the example of liveblogging from a City Council meeting

1. - One reporter used Scribble live to to provide live updates
2. - Readers commented asked questions during the meeting
3. - Updates were crosspromoted om social media
4. - Scribble live was used to share photos

Sona Patel's apps and tools for mobile newsgathering:

5-0 police scanner allows you to listen to dispatches on the go

Glympse You can share your location with anyone for a specific period of time

Groupme Group messaging service, to communicate with staff during breaking news events.

Camera+ Photo and photoediting in one

Youtube Allows you to shoot video and upload directly. Embeddable and searchable. 

Ustream, Livestream Live video apps

Photosync Take panoramas of a scene of breaking news

Advanced twitter search keep a running search for a specific hashtag. It can be used as a second scanner. Alternative search options are Tweetdeck and Hootsuite

Gramfeed search for Instagram pictures. You can embed them to your feed or livestream.

Foursquare to find out where people are och to find sources.

Tips for shooting with your mobile device: 

• Never use flash
• Use two hands brace your elbows in
• Shoot pictures from hight other than eye level to get a different perspective

Tips on reporting from the field:

• - Don't wait for breaking news to familiarise yourself with the equipment
• - Don't get overwhelmed with doing to much. What are the one or two things that will be a good experience. What do we want to tell our readers. QAs?
• - Communicate with your colleagues. Try not to overlap.
• - Identify mobile reporting strategies for different news events.
• - Focus on what resources you have to work with

Here are Sara Marshalls (of the WSJ) tools for Social media storytelling