Audience Engagement Digital Innovation
2 mins read

Podcast: Best practice in mobile journalism and digital storytelling

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In this episode of Media Voices, Corinne Podger takes us through best practice in mobile journalism and digital storytelling, and how varying mobile consumption habits affect journalism in different territories across the globe.

For those unaware, Corinne Podger is a renowned media consultant and digital multimedia educator based in Sydney, Australia. With a strong background in news reporting, in 2013 she moved to London to work in international media development. She worked first with Thomson Reuters Foundation, where she commissioned and co-designed the Foundation’s first mobile journalism course, and then with BBC Media Action, where she trained the charity’s 600+ staff in smartphone storytelling and social media.

In 2016, Corinne returned to her native Australia and has since lectured on mobile journalism at Macleay College, the first Australian education provider to add ‘mojo’ to its BA Journalism programme. Perhaps most importantly, this year she wrote the Mobile Journalism Manual, which aims to strengthen mobile journalism in newsrooms, especially in Asia.

Key takeaways from Corinne’s podcast include:

  • Always look at the bigger picture, thinking how you can use content to tell better stories.
  • Mobile journalism is a relatively new concept in news reporting. To many, working with audio and video files on one small device can be a daunting task but Corinne explains that an audio file is not just an audio file, it’s an MP3. This means it can be put it into a video editing program, add an image(s) and suddenly its turned from radio to video.
  • Many journalists and publishers like to use images for a sole, static purpose. Corinne explains that image files aren’t just pictures to give context to a story but that they are JPGs that can be animated, have text overlaid or re-formatted for desktop, mobile or social media purposes.
  • Great digital storytelling comes from clever thinking around available assets. Corinne mentions a Twitter thread from Gabrielle Bluestone at Vice telling the story of the first months of Trump’s Presidency framing links to news reports with the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s Atlantic City