Although almost everyone carries a mobile phone, integrating them with our news system is more complicated than it first seems.
RJI’s resources and connection to the media industry have allowed me to get a sharper focus on the complex issues behind mobile phone journalism. At the Digital Publishing Alliance conference in September, I was able to talk to editors about the broader issues of supplying information “on the go.” At the Online News Association conference in October, I made vital contacts with mobile editors from European countries that are several years ahead of the United States in development of mobile news systems. The Associated Press Managing Editors conference later in October allowed me to probe key editors about their concerns over the rising wave of cell phone use.
I was able to flesh out those concerns when Jim Smith of Morris Communications came to the University to speak and a few days later when I participated at an RJI/American Association of News Editors seminar that featured several top newspaper editors.
The newspaper industry’s views of mobile phones can be wrapped up in three emotions: Anxiety, excitement and confusion. Editors are afraid that the mobile phone phenomenon will catch them unprepared much as the online phenomenon did. That said, they are amazed that there seems to be an app for everything in their future. But they are confused about how to navigate through seven operating systems and the major divide between smart and “dumb” phones.
For the rest of the fellowship I will address those concerns in two ways – projects and research.
Two projects are developing currently. In one, the Jefferson City News Tribune will use a mobile phone messaging system to provide readers with an audio tour of decorated homes selected for its annual Holiday Lights Contest. I am also working with the City of Columbia to create a cell phone tour of memorial benches on the MKT trail near the university.
My two graduate research assistants and I are editing a final draft of a research paper based on data I collected via a survey of mobile phone users last spring. The survey showed that, even though current smart phone use is less than 20%, we may have already turned the statistical cusp that will make Web-enable phones the norm. We also found evidence that adoption of Web phones increases rather than decreases the use of lower-technology text messaging. This implies that publishers must continue to work on 160-character text news alerts while developing colorful multimedia mobile Web applications.
December’s gift to me was two invaluable sets of contacts. Henry Tiri, the research director of the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, put me in touch with Seppo Pienimaa, the head of Nokia’s main research center in Finland. The Scandinavian mobile model is much more similar to that of the U.S. than is Korea or Japan, as it serves a large variety of small towns and cities with unique social networks.
At an RJI meeting about innovation, I met and had lunch with Jacques Natz, director of media content for Hearst Television. Based on our discussions he will put me in contact with the nascent mobile innovation team Hearst has assembled.
I have made initial contacts with Apple to determine who in the company is looking at the audience profile for iPhones. In February I will meet with representatives from all the major players in the mobile industry at the Mobile World Congress.
Next spring I hope to host a gathering of mobile editors from U.S. newspapers. No mobile journalism association yet exists so finding them is a challenge. I have, however, the email addresses of hundreds of managing editors, so will make my contacts through them. We hope that a mobile news brainstorming session at RJI will be the catalyst for an organization that can guide the industry into the mobile future.
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