Mobile Journalism

Here's a good example of how journalists can use their mobile phone to help tell stories. It involves my work iPhone and a huge fire in Sheffield.

As I was about to cycle home from work in Sheffield city centre on Sunday 14th July I got a message from a friend with a photo of a big fire in Sheffield. I turned my back and saw behind me a huge thick black smoke cloud coming from the East of the city so (being a journalist!) I cycled towards it. After calling the newsroom to let them know, I took some photos on my phone and tweeted them and before long I was broadcasting live on my phone, describing the huge smoke cloud which was continuing to grow. I used the Google Maps app to find out which road I was on and then looked for updates on Twitter. South Yorkshire Fire Service were tweeting that the fire was at a plastic recycling centre in Attercliffe and that people nearby should stay indoors – this allowed me to update our audience live with the latest news. When I got closer to the scene I saw one of my old colleagues at ITV Calendar filming the fire and decided to do the same with my iPhone and I then uploaded the video to the BBC Look North system. Next, I recorded vox pops on my phone and sent them back to BBC Radio Sheffield to be used on air.

So in summary I used my work iPhone to call the newsroom to let them know about the story, broadcast live, record studio quality vox pops, take photos which I tweeted, find out the name of the road I was broadcasting from, check Twitter for updates from South Yorkshire Fire Service and record video for Look North.

In order to do our job as well as possible, journalists need to become really comfortable with using our phones to help us tell stories. 

You can listen to my first update below...

listen to ‘Sheffield Fire’ on Audioboo

Radio 4 in 4 Minutes

If like me you're a fan of Radio 4, you should watch this! Very amusing...

My Radio 4 Programme - The Closure of the Remploy Factories

John Waite and I recording in Swansea

Today, after four months of researching, recording, scripting and editing (also known as blood, sweat and tears!) I had my first programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

John Waite (presenter) and I (producer) travelled to Darlington, Swansea and Wigan investigating the impact of the closure of the Remploy factories, which provided 'sheltered' employment for disabled workers.

It was an exhausting process but has given me the invaluable experience of working on a longer form programme rather than the daily news shows that I'm used to producing and reporting for. 

In my eyes investigative journalism like this is the purest and toughest form of the profession. There are no press releases to go on, you are relying on your own skill and instinct to work out what the story is and where to continue digging to uncover it.

You can listen to my programme on the iPlayer by clicking here and read my feature for the BBC News website by clicking here

Off the back of my programme an article in The New Statesman was published and Remploy was raised in Prime Minister's Questions today.