ron salaj's List: social media

• In October, we took the same equipment with us to Ferguson: 4 x Apple iPhone 5’s; 2 x monopods; 2 x small RØDE shotgun mics; 2 x Audio-Technica wired lav mics; 2 x ikan LED lights; 2 x metal housing for the iPhone with a wide-angle lens adaptor; 2 x wide angle lens; 2 x T brackets; 4 x external battery packs.

• But when there were many users in one place the network would overload and data rates would drop. Sometimes we had to run or even drive away from crowds to transmit full HD footage.

  Another major challenge we all faced was weather. It was pouring rain when we first arrived in Ferguson during a week of protests designed to renew attention around the killing of Michael Brown.
• Yet another obstacle was audio. There’s no way to monitor sound with the iPhone’s native camera app. We chose not to use apps like Filmic Pro or ProCam, because although both allow monitoring, they were too buggy.
• Quality is huge issue, brought up most to me as an argument against mobile by television/documentary people.
• Soon enough, Brooke and I were so efficient at delivering footage that we were told to slow down. We were covering protests nearly nonstop, from the morning to early morning hours the next day, tweeting from our accounts while feeding breaking video to our social media team on the real-time messaging service Slack.
• At AJ+ we deliver our news solely on social media and mobile platforms, so it’s only natural that we also captured the news with phones.
• I’m in the camp that believes the social media audience appreciates seeing raw video — despite the quality — because there’s a layer of trust built when there’s no editing.
• At AJ+ we’re moving closer to embracing this new form of journalism, and incorporating it as one of the many tools at our disposal when it comes to delivering breaking news to our audience. At the #Mojocon conference in Dublin, Ireland, where I’m speaking this weekend, I’ve met people who are innovating this technology, who have been teaching journalists how to use mobile phones to report for years, and who are creating documentaries with mobile phones.

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