Mobile Journalism : Using smartphone in journalistic work

Mobile phones have had a drastic influence on media production, by providing a ubiquitous connection. This revolution has come about when smartphone turned into a powerful tool to do almost all the production-related work that was done previously by specialized equipment and computers. This has encouraged ordinary individuals to involve in media work and emerging the phenomenon of mobile journalism, where citizens and individuals can engage in journalism work carry out a job that was supposed to be done only by journalists for a long time ago. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of prosumers and amateurs who are making and covering news by their smartphones and contributing to journalism work. This has become particularly apparent in relation to reporting from remote and risky areas, where journalists cannot reach easily or may not arrive on time while important events occur. This was obvious during the Arab-spring - The role of smartphones in feeding both social media and traditional media with instant photos and videos taken by protesters themselves. This thesis focuses on the role of the smartphone in facilitating the work of journalists. As a part of the literature review, the author has gone through many texts, watched videos and listened to radio shows with journalists and workers in media spheres, in which journalists talk about their own experience with practicing mobile journalism. Then from a phenomenological perspective and framework the experience of technology and user aspects of mobile journalism are investigated. As the aim of this thesis is not to validate a hypothesis or a theory, a qualitative research method is used to come to an evaluation and explanation of the phenomenon of using mobile in journalism. For that purpose, several qualitative methods have been used to collect data such as auto-ethnography, observation, interviews and focus groups. The data are collected mainly from Kurdistan region in northern Iraq where journalists were covering news of war in dangerous and risky battle fields. The findings from the results showed that the main factors that make smartphones powerful tools for journalists are: the low budget required for acquiring a smartphone compared to expensive equipment used in traditional media, the freedom and independence that a mobile can give to a journalist, the design aspects which provide a pocket-size tool with unsuspiciousness feature that make it possible to be carried and used even in areas where journalistic work is not allowed. The ubiquity feature of mobile has helped to cover news in areas where traditional media cannot be existing or cannot reach easily. The ability of individuals to obtain a smartphone in one hand and the universal design of mobile in another hand have helped to be used in journalism work by many people with no necessary training courses. This situation has created a good opportunity for media institutions and TV stations to expand their correspondents’ network all over the countries