Me blog? No, it's Moblog!

MOBLOG is a weblog created via mobile phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Moblog usually features photographs of the author’s travels or daily life and brief text commentary (O’ Connell 2005). The origin of blogging- the transmission of information from a portable source like mobile phone to a blog; stories like the Internet urban legend. Moblogging (mobile blogging) is much more than an urban legend. Occupying only laptop and a wireless card, moblogging offers potential for hybrid forms of media that is accessible anywhere, anytime. Multimedia news can now travel faster as users call up information and text images from the street via mobile phones. The result; a three way conference call between wireless technology, real time mobility and mobdriven media (Fevre 2003). Rheingold deems that the rise of this new type of subjective media as “the birth of peer-to-peer journalism”.

If something happens, suddenly all these mobiles sort of appear from nowhere, and start taking pictures…you see it everywhere.

(Henry Reichhold)

Screen shot of Blogger Mobile.com

Moblog Journalism

Journalism is not only about the conventional media lending immediacy to their stories with content from ordinary people; it is also about first-hand journalism in the form of online diaries or weblogs. According to BBC News (2008), the application of open source news or moblog journalism has flourished in the recent US election campaign.

Quote the digital artist, Henry Reichold:

Not many people walk around with their cameras, but they always have their mobile phones with them. If something happens, suddenly all these mobiles sort of appear from nowhere, and start taking pictures.

Moblogs are able to offer immediate local news coverage. For example, in an anti-war democratizations whereby activists send still photos and live video to the internet. Meanwhile, in all previous demonstrations, police covered up brutality by seizing cameras and destroying film. Therefore, with the application of moblog, images or videos are not entirely filtered out when they are directly sent to the internet. Take the BERSIH rally which happened in Malaysia for instance. Videos are recorded then dirctly uploaded onto the website; Youtube.

Moblogging feeds human with the thirst for new ways to learn, create and communicate, along with the political necessity for a truly effective journalism as a counter to disinfotainment league. Once upon a time, reporters were seen as heroes. Now, moblogging may revive this endangered yet vital tradition.

References:

1. BBC News 2004, Mobile picture power in your pocket, viewed 15 June 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3991775.stm>.

2. Insafe 2005, Children and young people's use of moblogs, viewed on 15 June 2009, <http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/news/articles/moblogs.htm>.

3. Le Fevre 2003, The three M's of moblogs: mobile phone blogging, real-time mobility and mob media, viewed on 15 June 2009, <http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/ReadMe/article.php%3Fid=120.html>.

4. Rheingold H 2003, Moblog seen as a crystal ball for a new era in online journalism, viewed on 15 June 2009, <http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1057780670.php>.

5. Tekrati 2006, Moblogs destined for continuing niche status, viewed on 15 June 2009, <http://software.tekrati.com/research/8039/>.

6. Whatis.com 2008, Moblog, viewed on 15 June 2009, <http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1180174,00.html>.

7. Youtube 2007, Bersih rally: Tear gas at Jalan Laut, viewed 15 June 2009, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKTBU0D8cBI&feature=related>.