Reuters the news agency revealed plans today to equip reporters with tools for mobile journalism. Working with Nokia to develop the MoJo kit, the aim is to allow posting of content via a mobile device without technical or editorial support. The original plans also call for supporting HD mobile video as soon as possible. So why this sudden interest in the MOJO kit? For starters, Reuters like news agencies worldwide are realizing the power of mobile devices. Cell phones are everywhere as are people and it is to an organizations benefit to have as much real time visual information of an event as humanely possible.
This already occurs in media's standing tradition of "user submitted" content and the last few years have even have seen not just an explosion of this (think pictures of the London Underground bombings and the South Asian Tsunami a few years back) but a slow and steady acceptance of such activity as an emerging trend that cannot be ignored.
"We [Nokia and Reuters] believe that mobile technology is evolving extremely fast to the extent that we can see a time, probably not that far out, I'm sure less than five maybe even three years out, when mobile phones could have HD video capability and they could have extremely powerful VPUs and keyboards," Fulton said.
"You might just start saying that's a laptop. I still think that it will ultimately be a very personal mobile device. So clearly there is potential for it to have quite a transformative effect on journalism."
Quality may not be up to the highest standards of TV reports, however, Reuters sees the technology - at least it the short term - as complementary to its existing reporting processes rather than a replacement - with most of the content being used in blogs and to augment text and other stories.
Fulton also explained how the current technology worked. Reporters have N95 mobile phones and use an on-board application, developed by Reuters and Nokia, to upload a draft form multimedia package to a back-end WordPress blogging platform.
The MOJO kit itself contains a Nokia N95 with attachable full size keyboard as well as a basic tripod, microphone as well as a PowerMonkey Explorer for mobile power. According to Paid Content at least, the kits have been well received but so far are in no position to overwhelm traditional media. Instead people are seeing them as "complementary" aids to the age old search for the perfect image or sound byte that news people strive for. Well, kudos to Reuters for taking a head start on this.
Want to see how this kit would be used? See video below of Reuters MOJO roundtable:
This already occurs in media's standing tradition of "user submitted" content and the last few years have even have seen not just an explosion of this (think pictures of the London Underground bombings and the South Asian Tsunami a few years back) but a slow and steady acceptance of such activity as an emerging trend that cannot be ignored. 
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