Testing the best practices guide on reporters

This week we visited the NBC affiliate in Columbia, Mo., KOMU, to test out our best mobile journalism practices guide. The plan was to see if MU broadcast students could return from their stories with an extra interview, photos or video collected on an iPhone 4, 3G or Droid 2. We had four students take the equipment on a test drive, each with prior knowledge of editing on a desk or laptop. We gave them a little spiel about how to use the built in camera to take videos and photos and told them basically how to use our recommended application, 1stVideo, and sent them on their way.

Granted, they had a story to gather and edit before the news aired later that evening, so we couldn't expect them to devote too much time to testing our gear. They returned with a couple photos, a short video and an edited video between three of them. Not too shabby for our first test group. Unfortunately, the edited video ended up on one of the iPhone 4s, and it has since stopped working. Apparently this happens sometimes, and AT&T can replace it, but we haven't gotten a chance to watch the video.

The reporters told us the reason they didn't play around was mostly because of their time constraints. They all said they didn't read our guide, which was apparent when one video was taken vertically. I feel like this is just a product of our generation though. No one wants to read guides, we'd rather just figure it out. They all said the process was time consuming, but that if they knew more about the technology it wouldn't have been difficult to get extras to at least put on the website.

We don't pretend to think mobile tools should be used if a more professional camera and editing programs are available. Breaking news and small addons to stories are your best bets, but if nothing else is available mobile devices are a good option. Print reporters could add more multimedia elements without dragging around heavy equipment most wouldn't know how to use anyway. Teaching a reporter mobile devices isn't difficult, the few we taught seemed to understand the concept and the one that edited said it was easy enough. Our general guidelines gaurd against common mistakes and give helpful tips it might take a while to discover, and simply playing around helps you get the feel of the applications. If we get to perform this again, we'll need to send reporters out with only the task of collecting small reports with solely their smart phone. Then we can really see what they think without distractions.

Anyway, students at the University of Missouri are now required to have either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, so we might as well try to teach them ways to incorporate them into their reporting.

WordPress

WordPress is a free application that allows you to control your WordPress account through your mobile device. If you like WordPress already you’re going to like this application. Personally, I find it kind of obnoxious to navigate. The site on a desk or laptop is irritating enough for the casual blogger, so the application isn’t much better. It is pretty handy in that you can take pictures and video through the application as well as import them from the camera roll. You can type up a post and publish it all from the palm of your hand. You can even organize and approve comments you receive. You can even add pages. That’s great if you want to do that from your phone, but it makes things a little difficult. It’s not a straightforward application. If you already use WordPress this is a handy tool, but if you have the choice to go through another blog host, I’d go with that if you want to blog from your mobile device. If you’ve done some blogging in the past and are used to different hosts you may be all right, if you are a first timer this will be difficult to learn through. Because it’s free though, if you’re interested, try it out, it couldn’t hurt.

Catch Notes

Catch Notes is a simple application that allows you to type out notes, add pictures and hashtags to keep yourself organized. The hashtags allow you to search for specific notes on a certain topic. Just like Twitter, similar ideas are bundled together. Pictures allow you to remember snap a shot of something you want to remember. An interviewee perhaps, or a detail of your surroundings. It’s a simple format and helps when you’re out in the field interviewing and trying to remember what actually happened at an event so you can review your notes later.

There are other cool features that really come in handy. If you set up an account online at Catch.com it allows you to pull up those notes from the web on your mobile device. This way a links, facts or question you wrote can be easily accessed in the field. You can also backup your notes and save them on this account directly from your phone. This is a reassuring ability, because you never know when you might lose everything when you’re working with technology.

It's a good application, but there are other great note taking applications that pass this one up. It's free, so if you're looking for something that is simple for note taking and storing pictures to jog your memory, this works fine. It doesn't have audio or drawing capabilities like some other good note taking apps. It really depends on what you're looking for and what you'd use. The Internet account portion is definitely worth having.

VeriCorder MiniMic

I was not a fan of this microphone. It’s a couple inches long so really it doesn’t help pick up sound. It doesn’t capture any more audio than your camera’s built-in microphone does. If you tap it at all you get a terrible noise that is incredibly distracting and definitely not something you want in your videos or sound bites. If you have an OWLE Bubo, this microphone attaches to it. That would come in handy if you had one, but still, the microphone doesn't help enough to make it worth it. There are so many other types of mics you could and should be using over this one.

You just put the microphone in the headphones jack and go. If you want to use a microphone at all get a chord to attach a stick mic. This tiny piece of equipment doesn’t help any more than your actual phone, so I’m not sure why you’d want to spend your money on it. You’re also risking the quality of your audio or video if you happen to bump it. Not a fan, spend your money elsewhere.

Fring

Fring is a big money saver. You can chat, and call from your phone all through this one application. This way you don’t have to worry about your phone contract. You can IM on GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo, and view Twitter messages among other services. You can call from this application. Essentially this is just a way to keep all of your social media and communication connected and in one place.

Personally I find this really distracting. If you hook up your Facebook and Twitter your stream of statuses and Tweets gets hard to keep track of. Also, they recently took away the video chat capability when Skype split from them. It’s not worth the capabilities you get. Actually, if you don’t continually check on your stream with Fring you end up having a ton of messages built up depending on how many of your friends Tweet and Facebook. Honestly, I don’t really know why you’d want this unless you’re planning on only using a few applications. The Facebook and Twitter applications themselves are easier to use than this, so there’s not really a good reason why you’d want to use this.

Jelly Filter Lens

We had two jelly filters to test, one was the starburst filter, and the other was the wide-angle lens. They come in other filters, vignette, antique, you can take your pick. They are small and portable and easy to attach to your device. They have a jelly, sticky ring around the lens that allows you to attach the lens right around the camera. It sticks just as well as the magnetic lenses do. Apparently you can clean the dirt off the sticky part with water, but eventually it’s going to stop sticking.

Honestly, I don’t know why you’d need these filters. A lot of the photo editing applications already have these. If you use the applications you can have the original picture as well without the affect already on there permanently. I think the wide-angle lens might be the only one that is worth anything. You can get more in the shot by using it. If you’re too close to an object or scene to get everything or everyone in it, it definitely comes in handy. The problem is the lenses bend the photo a little on the edges. Also, you can’t use a flash with these lenses. If you do the lens is caught in the flash and you can’t see anything except the lens. Really, I think these are a waste of money since you can doctor your photos with other applications.

Qik Video Camera Pro

Qik is one of the most popular, and easy to use applications for mobile devices. The app has numerous uses from a journalistic standpoint as well as in your everyday life. For example, if you are hanging out at a local venue and you run across an interesting performer of some sort you can take a video and upload it to Qik right then and there. It’s the same for performers that have family and friends that can’t see their show. Just tell people when and where to go to see it broadcast. In terms of journalistic value, this application can be used for breaking news. Not by newsrooms, but a free lance journalist could be the first to get footage of a breaking news story in the field. That footage could then be picked up by stations in order to tell the public what’s going on.

It is incredibly useful for vloggers. While you are filming video for a blog a person watching can send you comments that appear in your screen, which you can then respond to right then in the video. It’s just an interesting concept and allows for a more open discussion with your followers. It opens up so many more doors than simply having a comments box under a blog post or video.

Qik even has the ability to save your videos if, for some reason, you lose your signal. As soon as you regain Internet access the videos are uploaded without anything getting lost. The application offers many effects like frosted glass and black and white. It’s one of the fastest ways to upload to Facebook and YouTube, as well as many popular blog hosts and Twitter. The render time isn’t long so you have a little less frustration.

Right now there’s no way to edit your videos, so what you record is what you get. That means be careful. Don’t say anything you would need to edit out then.

PixelPipe

Pixelpipe is one of the applications that really does everything. They try to combine all of your favorite social media sites into on application. This way, you only need one app to control your social life. You can store email addresses and social networks within the application. This allows you to send photos, or videos to anyone you want to. You can update your blog, Tweet from multiple accounts, and check other social media sites. All you do is check the sites you want your content to be uploaded on in the settings menu. I can send multiple pictures from my camera roll to my Pixelpipe account. It sounds great, but there are definitely some bugs. They’re actually kind of large kinks that really dissuade a user from picking this platform.

Here’s the problem, it doesn’t work as well as it’s marketed. It is incredibly slow when you have big files, or too many pictures. Photos go up relatively easily, sometimes videos have issues uploading. It gets pretty frustrating. Also, it has recently been taken out of the iTunes store. This isn’t the first time this has happened. If you’re going to go for a file transmission app, you should probably find one that is more stable than Pixelpipe. I can still see the videos I’ve already uploaded to the website, and their blog is still around and says they’ve completed Symbian signing. Before that their post was about Pixelpipe for Android. I don’t think this application is worth the hassle, considering now you can’t even find it on the iTunes store. There are other apps out there that have similar functions that work better overall.

For more file transfer applications, check out Jennifer's DropBox post.

UStream Recorder and Broadcaster

There are two different UStream applications. One is UStream Recorder and the other is UStream Broadcaster. The differences between the two are pretty self-explanatory. Both have their own uses that would benefit you in different situations.

The UStream Recorder is a good tool - it’s easy to upload videos that are in your camera roll. You can also record a video in the application but you have to be careful. If you don’t hold it the correct way the video may end up side ways or upside down when you upload it. This can happen with the camera roll videos as well. Overall, it doesn’t take long to upload to UStream and it has similar qualities to Qik. I happen to like Qik a little more. UStream is a bit laggy sometimes and the videos come out dark if you don’t have excellent lighting.

Now, UStream Broadcaster allows you to see people tweeting at you while you’re actually broadcasting live. Some people find that distracting, but it’s an interesting concept. Say you’re filming a vlog or a show; you can answer those tweets as they come up on your screen. It would be incredibly useful to cover a concert or performance. If you alert people before the actual event they can tune in and watch as you stream it. This can be a little laggy as well. As technology improves I’m sure this will stop being such a problem.

You can’t edit these videos either. So again, be careful with what you say when you’re streaming live, or if you want to upload the videos. Technically you could just edit the video in a different application, save it to your camera roll and upload it from there. That’s always an option.

To see UStream in action, check out Jennifer's election day coverage post.

Cover It Live

This would be a great idea if all the features worked how they are supposed to.

You are able to broadcast your written messages and photos easily. Essentially what you’re doing is live blogging an event of some sort. It is very simple and has great potential. You can use video captured on your phone or you can capture video through the application. It works the same with photos. Audio is captured through the app.

Right now it needs an upgrade though. It keeps saying something is wrong when I tried to upload audio or video. It didn’t matter if I used the video already stored in the camera roll, it still didn’t work. I tried making the video shorter, that didn't help at all. Same with audio. I can try to capture audio through the application and it still says I'm doing something wrong. The audio can only be 30 seconds long anyway, so shortening that didn't do anything. It is glitchy and gets frustrating if you’re trying to cover an important event. I think that if they fix the kinks, it will be a really good tool to use. They just need to tweek a few aspects. Multiple aspects actually.

For more on CoverItLive, check out Jennifer's election coverage post.

Freedom Pro Keyboard

This wireless keyboard is easy to set up and doesn’t require a lot of stress to get it working. Just follow the instructions and you'll have it up and running. The Freedom Pro works with the Android and iPhone. We tested it at a decent distance and it worked even when we were in different rooms. It’s so much easier to type notes and get things organized with a keyboard. The small screens are frustrating to type on especially if you have clumsy, fat fingers. There’s nothing better than being able to type without correcting your spelling errors every two seconds.

The best feature about the Freedom Pro has to be its ability to fold up. That’s my favorite aspect of it. It fits wherever you need it and comes with a case so you never have to worry about destroying it. The keyboard is a little cramped because of the folding, so it does take a little getting used to. It’s not a big problem, but it is annoying at first. I'd take getting used to this keyboard over the tiny iPhone or Android ones any day though. I think a wireless keyboard is definitely a good and necessary investment. It’s too difficult to keep up with notes and internet searches without being able to type.

The Bottle Cap Tripod

Along with the Monster Pod, this is another very strange invention for mobile journalists. You take a bottle of water or pop, and place this tripod over the cap. There’s a cold foot on top, so be sure you have a way to screw your device into it. It’s a cheap way to keep your video steady. It actually works like the Zgrip in a way, and is sort of a cheap alternative to the expensive Zgrip. The Bottle Cap Tripod is a little unstable, but it’s better than nothing. It’s kind of cheap, so you might want to invest in something sturdier if you're serious about using a tripod. Using this tripod is better than nothing, but it's not great. Also, I don’t know how many people would take you seriously with your camera mounted to the top of a Coke bottle. Without the bottle, it’s the smallest tripod you'd carry around. That’s a perk, overall it’s kind of just a silly novelty tool. It's not expensive, so you can have it in your arsenal just in case you want a slight improvement over holding the phone.

The Monster Pod

The Monster Pod is the strangest piece of equipment I’ve ever used or seen. It’s a tripod that sticks pretty much wherever you need it to. It stays on branches, rocks, brick, glass, you name it, and it sticks there. Just be careful. If you leave it for longer than 10 minutes it starts to either slide down the wall, or fall off the surface where you stuck it. The circular tripod has an orange Silly Putty like material on the bottom. Simply screw your camera onto the tripod mount and you’re set. You can use your mobile device as your camera; you just need to attach something to your phone that allows you to screw it into the Monster Pod.

It works in any situation. The problem is, it’s very flat, so you might have to be creative with where you stick it to get the shot you want. It’s small enough to fit in your backpack or pocket. It’s also a really light tool. If dirt gets stuck to it, all you need to do is wash it off with water. Also, remember to put the cap back on it when you’re done so you don’t get orange goop on any of your belongings. It’s not a bad piece of equipment, just different. Make sure you have a way to screw your mobile device into it, and make sure you can figure out a place to stick it or you might be in trouble. There are other tripods out there that offer you a more traditional approach to tripods, but it definitely has its place.

Mophie Juice Pack Air and Boost

I think this is the best battery to use when you’re on the go. All of the external charges need to be plugged in so they can charge, so that’s something you need to do before taking it to report. But this particular tool saved me when we went to cover an event once. Let’s say you completely forgot to charge your phone and now you need to go out and report. Or you have been using your phone all day and then a breaking news story erupts but your phone might die at any moment. This tool comes to the rescue.

The Juice Pack Air is light and fits right onto the phone. It’s not distracting or annoying to try and store. It basically just feels like you have a case on your phone, but it's really a battery. Certain external batteries get in the way when you’re trying to use the phone to capture audio and video, but this one does a good job of being mobile. It’s secure and you don’t need to baby it or hold the phone a certain way. Just leave it on your iPhone until it’s charged, or keep it on until you’re done with your assignment. It can really be a lifesaver.

The Boost is something you'd use if you didn't bring your charger. It's not really a mobile battery, it's something you'd plug into your phone and leave in until it's ready to go. It's just another option. It's useful if you don't need to actually do any work right away. They both charge the iPhone within a couple of hours. If you leave the Air on, it doesn't really matter how long it takes to charge because you can use the phone while it's doing its job.

Zgrip

I love this tool from Zacuto because it’s hand held. I tend to have an issue with setting up tripods; they’re ungainly and take time to stabilize and balance. This handy piece of equipment allows you to simply hook your iPhone into the device and hold your camera without worrying about your shaky hands. There’s a mount at the top for a mic adapter or external light and another on the bottom of the grip that can be screwed into a bigger tripod if you need to get stationary shots.

I feel like this is a fabulous way to easily gain some stability without sticking a tripod in one place or sticking something like the MonsterPod onto something. This way you can achieve pans and control zoom because the device is always by your hand. This would really be perfect for documentary filmmaking, in journalism we don't tend to pan very much. It is a little more expensive than the other tripods out there, but if you’re looking for something that will come in handy in most situations, this is it. It's durable and well made, so it is built to last. The Zgrip is especially good for events where there is a lot of movement and you might need to move quickly, like sporting events or breaking news.

Purchasing the Zgrip depends on how serious you are about using your mobile phone in the field, and how serious you are about your content. Because of its price it is a tool you really have to want.

Camera Plus

I love this application. It’s not a fancy app, but it really does good work. All you do is take a picture and the application allows you to make it black and white or crop it. The cropping is probably the best part about this tool. You can choose from a circle or rectangular crop. Then once you get the size you want you can turn the crop any direction you need. There’s a zoom capability, but as always, it makes the picture fuzzy, so be careful what you use it for.

You can send the finished picture to your camera roll, or you can send it straight to Facebook, Flickr or Twitter. You can also attach it to an email. It doesn’t take long. The application would allow you to cover stories then immediately display your photos on whichever medium you choose. Again, breaking news stories or events would be good places for this. You could live Tweet from an event and add in some pictures of the goings on. There are other applications that act similarly, but it does the job and is trustworthy. Plus, it’s free, so it couldn’t hurt.

There is an upgrade you can purchase called Camera Plus Pro that allows you a lot more flexibility and options on doctoring photos. Recently, the manufacturer took away the video zoom capability, which has upset many users. If you need video zoom, don’t buy this app. Overall though, it looks just as simple as the free version, just with a ton of more options.

Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express is a very simple photo editing application for the iPhone. The best thing about this application is that it is free, unlike many of the other photo applications we tested.

There are five buttons along the button of the application: Adobe, Edit, Online, Upload and Settings. Adobe is simply sample photos and links to more effects, tips, etc... The edit tab is what you will probably use most. On the edit tab (see photo right), you can crop, adjust the exposure, saturation, tint, contrast or make the photo black & white. The next button over is used to give the photo effects such as sketch, soft focus or sharpen. The final button on the top row (the stars) allows you to add more effects, such as vibrant, pop, vignette blur, etc... and borders.

Those are your only options, but that should be enough for journalistic uses. The bottom buttons let you cancel, redo/undo and save. Under the save menu, as you can see in the image, you can save and exit, upload (Photoshop.com), post to Facebook or TwitPic.

This application is geared for quick edits to photos. To edit a photo, click a type of edit that you want to make, such as Saturation. It will give you a tip (unless you turn them off) on how to best use this edit. For instance, the tip on how to change the saturation says "slowly slide your finger left/right over the image to adjust the saturation level." All you have to do is pinch or push like you would to zoom in/out and the levels will change.

I would definitely recommend this application. It is easy, powerful and free.

Gowalla

This application is a lot like Foursquare in that it is a geo-location tool. You can see where your friends are and where you’ve been in the past. You can collect pins and items that people “drop.” It’s a good way to learn a city and know about hot spots and get tips.

However, in smaller towns this application is definitely not as affective as it would be in say, Chicago, or other larger cities. There are less people that actually play along with “dropping items” for you to find. There are also fewer locations that people have added in smaller cities and towns. I found myself adding a lot of locations to the application. That just means there aren’t many people using it in my area.

In terms of journalism it’s a good way to learn about the area you’re in if you’re not familiar with your surroundings. It’s also a good way to connect with others in your immediate area. It’s more of a game than Foursquare, but there’s no becoming mayor in Gowalla.

The user interface has a better design that FourSquare, but for an application that is all about finding friends it fails, simply because you (probably) won't find as many friends using Gowalla.

iMovie

I’ve used iMovie multiple times for various videos and I’ve found that it works best as a tool to put together clips in a string, and that’s about it. I am a big fan of the application, it’s easy to use, doesn’t glitch, and exports quickly to your Camera Roll. It’s incredibly easy to get off of your iPhone when linked to your computer and simple enough to upload to whichever video site you want.

The issue is you can’t do voiceovers like a conventional news story because there’s no multitrack editing. You would need to time your clips and voiceover separately, which would really defeat the purpose of mobile journalism. So if you are doing breaking news and film a standup of yourself at the site and then edit different b-roll with an interview clip, that would be your story. No voiceovers, trust me. You can’t actually control the volume of the sound, which can get unfortunate if your video was taken from too far away and without a stick mic.

10.10.10

Our team decided to participate in One Day on Earth. In the next week we will put up our one-minute clips that shows you a day in our lives. Visit http://www.onedayonearth.org/ for more information.

What is One Day on Earth? from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

On October 10, 2010 (10.10.10), across the planet, documentary filmmakers, students, and inspired citizens will record the human experience over a 24-hour period and contribute their voice to the largest participatory media event in history.