Need stressed to boost mobile journalism in Pakistan
MULTAN: Mobile journalism is an emerging form of journalism to gather, edit and distribute news using portable devices with network connectivity, said Noreen Shams, a broadcast journalist and trainer for a three-day training on mobile journalism, organized by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in collaboration with Open Society Foundation in Multan.
She said that cell phone is presently the most popular communicating tool and it is not only used for staying connected with our loved ones anywhere and anytime, but it has also many other facilities like video recording, global web surfing, news directory, composing, camera, light, radio, and calendar.
Naureen said that generally no previous experience is required for the mobile journalism. She said that the kits required for mobile journalism like mono pod/ tripod, collar mic and lenses used in camera are also available easily.
During the three-day training, the participants were trained on recording, editing and posting videos through mobile phone. They worked on different mobile phone apps related to editing like, Viva video app. They were told that with these apps mixing, alteration of sounds and videos could be done.
Naureen Shams spoke on the dos and don’ts of mobile shooting. She told them about power bank or extra batteries, going to offline mode or airplane mode, turning Wi-Fi and data connection off to save battery.
The participants conducted interviews, using their mobile phones during the training. Sidra Ashraf, a freelance journalist from Multan, played role of an interviewer. Sidra conducted a mock interview of tea stall people. Sadia Tabusum, another freelance journalist from Multan, acted as an interviewee and Abdul Musawer a freelance journalist from Multan, acted as a cameraman.
The participants also made one-minute news package with help of the apps introduced to them during the training on variety of areas; like weather updates, metro bus service, Multani handmade shoes and spring festival.
Ziaul Haq Khan, a freelance journalist from Multan, commented that despite working for 14 long years, he was unaware of the use of mobile phones in journalism. He stressed the need to boost mobile phone journalism in the country.
Sidra Ashraf, a freelance journalist from Multan, said that the workshop was helpful to enhance her skills. She said that before experiencing the mobile journalism, she was curious about the videos and considered such trainings costly, but with this training, she had received a lot of experience and learning without any cost.
Shoaib Iqbal, another freelance journalist, stressed the need for boosting mobile journalism, saying it should be taught in universities.
Another freelance journalist, Irfan Joiya from Bahawalpur, said that he can summarize a dozen-page story in one-minute package after receiving this training.
The workshop was the part of PPF and OSF project to create a network of freelance journalists and raise their capacity building.
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