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Welcome to Day Two of Echoing Green’s Mobile Technology in Social Innovation online series. Today’s focus is on Journalism.

Panelists: Esra’a Al Shafei from MidEast Youth and Melissa Ulbricht from MobileActive.org

How does your organization use mobile technology?

Esra’a Al Shafei: MidEast Youth has focused on smartphones because our audience are outside the region so that people can be better informed of what the people here are talking about. We have an iPhone and BlackBerry application that basically provides various sources on the latest news in the Middle East, anything from major news outlets or independent blogs, to tweets of people in the region (organized by country), access to Facebook pages of movements/human rights activities, and our podcasts. We also have an iPhone application called "Mideast Tunes" which allows people to stream tracks of underground musicians in the Middle East and North Africa.

Melissa Ulbricht: MobileActive.org focuses on the role of mobile technology in social change. While our entire staff uses mobile phones to communicate internally, our work focuses on the role of mobile technology in an international scope. We write case studies and how-to-guides, report on new mobile tools, and work with programmers and developers who create mobile apps to better protect journalists and human rights activists.

We also implement specific mobile-related projects in the areas of human rights, media development, and democracy and good governance. We are currently working in Egypt, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Serbia, and Nicaragua.

How is mobile technology transforming journalism?

Melissa: Mobiles put the power of reporting (creating, editing, and sharing content) into the hands of many. Mobiles are a portable way to record video and audio, track location, and communicate with sources and media organizations.

Esra’a: Mobile technology invites crowdsourcing—it has made a lot of useful and vital information accessible as users can immediately transfer information captured through their mobile, specifically in times of crisis, such as a brutal crackdown on a peaceful protest or an environmental disaster.

Melissa: Journalists can use video-enabled phones to film in places where camera crews are banned, or use mobiles to quickly and efficiently record sources. Location-based mobile tools can help reporters reach more specific audiences.

Esra’a: We see the true value of this in the number of media outlets that have now embraced crowd sourced material for their own reporting, anything from videos to photos to live updates of a situation.

What are the advantages and disadvantages in citizen journalism?

Esra’a: It has complemented journalism in many ways as it provides significant on-the-ground material of events that not many people could have captured otherwise. Journalists are then able to use this information to use for their reporting as a source of evidence.

Melissa: The ubiquity of mobile phones also creates opportunities for bottom-up reporting and grassroots-level viral information sharing. Mobile tech is relatively low cost and allows for increased efficiencies and vast reach.

But, mobile phones present specific risks to rights defenders, journalists, and activists. We believe that it is critically important to know that mobile communication is inherently insecure and exposes rights defenders and those working in sensitive environment to risks that are not easy to detect or overcome.

This is why we run a project, SaferMobile, to help activists, human rights defenders, and journalists assess the mobile communications risks that they are facing, and then use appropriate mitigation techniques to increase their ability to organize, report, and work more safely. Here are some recent resources: Mobile Risk Primer, Mobile Tactics for Participants in Peaceful Protests, and a Guide to Mobile Risk Assessment.

What role does mobile technology play in sharing stories in conflict zones?

Esra’a: A big role. I was even further convinced by this through our project CrowdVoice.org, a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world by crowd sourcing information.

Melissa: Mobile phones are powerful because they’re pervasive, personal, and capable of authoring content. Reporters and citizen journalists can use video-enabled mobiles to film in places where camera crews are banned, or use mobile phones to record sources who might otherwise be uncomfortable with a full recording set up.

Esra’a: Many of the videos and photos featured are captured by mobile phones, collecting this information and amplifying it is important especially in cases such as the Libyan uprising, where the media blackout meant that even mainstream news outlets relied on YouTube videos and photos from local sources to accompany their reports.

Melissa: Here is an account of how an organization trains citizen journalists to use mobile phones to report from the front lines in Libya. And here are lessons from Al Jazeera in recent mobile coverage of events in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.

What could be the next big innovation in using mobile tech to grow, expand, or innovate the field of journalism?

Melissa: We are about to launch the Mobile Media Toolkit, a comprehensive site for journalists, citizen journalists, and media organizations that will help make sense and provide directions for mobile tech in journalism. This includes how-to guides on using everything from the most basic Nokia phone to the newest smartphone tools and apps. It is important to make this information accessible and available in multiple languages so that everyone can better use mobile tech to report breaking news and hold local government accountable. Localized training on mobile phones in journalism will help expand the field.

Esra’a: So far, a person is still required to be a bit tech oriented in order to be able to quickly snap and share information online via their mobile phones. In order for it to be more accessible the innovation would come in both, making this easier and more straight-forward, and making the process more affordable so that the person doesn't necessarily require a very strong network (thus expensive) connection in order to submit the information.

How will mobile phone technology be different in 5 years?

Melissa: Innovation in mobile tech will continue to grow in the next 5 years. We see an increased role for audio in mobile tech, especially integrated voice response and reporting in conjunction with community radio. This helps reach and involve larger rural and illiterate populations. Here is an example of how radio stations in Africa use mobile tech in their work. Outside of journalism, there are countless opportunities for mobile tech in social change. Mobile technology will continue to be used in the wake of disaster, in elections, and in sectors of banking, energy, health, and data collection. And while innovation and creativity is key, it is also important to learn from and share our failures.

Excerpted interview. Download full transcript.

Add your voice to the conversation by commenting below or on Facebook and Twitter (use hashtag #mobileinnov).

Join us tomorrow to discuss Learning and Education in Mobile Technology, and for the global Twitter chat on June 22, 2011 from 1-2:30pm EST.

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