India is the world’s fastest-growing mobile and smartphone market with more than 1.2 billion mobile and 600 million smartphone users. Mobile phones have become one of the most efficient and important mediums to communicate.
Mobile journalism, or MoJo, is a new and emerging medium of journalism where the reporter or journalist uses mobile phones or devices to reach their audiences. Mobile journalism helps reporters reach the masses faster and drastically reduces costs. Journalists also find it easy to carry mobile devices to remote places, and it helps them access areas that are closed and difficult to reach.
Apart from these technical benefits, mobile journalism has transformed Indian media by democratizing newsrooms. Journalists from even the remotest areas can start reporting, reducing the glass ceiling and other biases. Mobile journalism also helps get different perspectives and strengthens the ground reporting mechanism of any organization. Over the last few years, reduced internet costs have helped this area expand, with numerous journalists offering new perspectives, interesting content, and uncovering truths from the ground. Even traditional media giants are adapting to this new trend by collaborating with these reporters.
Famous TV journalist Barkha Dutt also started her own venture named MOJO Story. Another MoJo platform, Editorji, is also gaining popularity among audiences.
MoJo impacts traditional journalism in many ways. First, it is much faster because it directly transmits information to the masses. Second, it reduces the cost of production. Third, MoJo gives a personal touch to stories because the reporter is involved in recording and editing. It has also opened doors for newcomers and people from the ground, removing all bottlenecks.
However, MoJo has its own cons. The biggest challenge it faces is credibility. Due to the ease of starting and running a show, several mobile journalists spread unverified or incorrect information, sometimes due to a lack of access to real sources. Because there is little regulation on internet content, many MoJo professionals are involved in unethical practices. Additionally, MoJo is accused of creating echo chambers, where only particular ideas and ideologies are promoted to please a certain category of audience, hindering access to fair information.
There is no doubt that mobile journalism, as an emerging field, can be beneficial for budding journalists and can transform traditional media hegemony. However, this can only be ensured through proper checks and balances in the system, along with self-regulation and guidelines.
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