THE BENEFITS OF MOBILE JOURNALISM FOR STUDENT JOURNALISTS

Mobile Journalism, or Mojo, is the new fast-paced and most easily accessible form of journalism. By using a mobile phone, journalists can now film, edit, publish, promote and engage with their readers in a completely new manner, that was not there prior to the late 90s. Now, within seconds, an earthquake, terrorist event or even a firefighter saving a puppy from a house fire can be captured on a phone and spread to the masses.

As previously mentioned, Mojo is very fast-paced and this is arguably its biggest advantage to it, especially for student journalists. As students, we live on mobile devices, it's what we have grown up with, so this can be used to our advantage. The fluency with which we learn technology can be applied to so many different apps and resources- editing videos and photos directly from the photos app or using Premiere Rush for video editing on the go. Written articles can be published directly through the Wix app and similar outlets, or emailed to editors to go through their channels. You can upload directly to social media, with TikTok becoming an increasingly popular outlet for news, growing five-fold between 2020 and 2022.

By cutting out the middleman, which in this case is the editor/ mainstream publication, the news gets to the audience faster, which in the digital age is something readers crave. By doing this, you can also engage with the audience- seeing their reactions on Facebook or even LinkedIn, as well as responses on Twitter and comments on Instagram. In this way, you can grow a following who look for your work continually. Something especially useful for students about this aspect of Mojo is the way you can so easily create an online portfolio, which can be seen not only by your audience but also by potential employers.

Furthering the aspect of social media- live streaming and live tweeting events gives the immediate impact that goes amiss in traditional journalism, the urgency created by a 24/7 society needs to be fed. It is clear that people do not want to read lengthy articles anymore, and now they can catch up on events as they happen. Evidencing this, in 2019, social media users spent a weekly average of 6 hours and 48 minutes watching online videos- an increase of 59% from just 3 years prior in 2016 (Oberlo, 2023).

The journalism industry is rapidly changing, and student journalists need to keep up with these changes as they happen, or by the time their careers should be flourishing, they will already be a step behind. But with barely any change to their own online habits, student journalists can expand their skills and grow with the industry, to spread information in an instant.