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Day in Life of a Mobile Journalist–A MoJo

Washington Post chronicles activities of a MoJo, a mobile journalist, at Gannett’s Ft. Myers, Florida newspaper. He works out of his car with no office, no cubicle. He is one of 14 MoJos at the paper, soon to be joined by 16 more.

Look, I love the fact that the reporters get out of the office. However, when I read the story, I wondered if in this drive to citizen journalism, mobile journalist, hyper-local journalism, there is an idea that we have to lower standards.

The answer from my point of view is quite the opposite. All the new technologies mean we can practice better journalism, be more complex, and cover our communities better.

I want to be on the record right here: Blogs, vlogs, citizen journalism, crowd sourcing, collective intelligence, should all be aimed at improving journalism, improving our understanding of public life and getting the citizenry more involved in that public life. If journalism comes out for the worse in all of this, we have failed.

Thanks to Grayson for the tip.




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5 Responses to “Day in Life of a Mobile Journalist–A MoJo”

  1. Bryan Murley Says:

    He works out of his car with no office, no cubicle.

    Who says he has to work out of his car? He could just as easily work at the local starbucks, or the library, or a “cubicle” in his home. There’s nothing magical about the cubicles at a downtown building. At the first newspaper I worked for, I often thought a lot of the city reporters’ desks were wasted space precisely because they were gone all day. At that time, we didn’t have the technology to send everyone out as a “mojo” (I think people use that term derisively), but the tech is so much better now.

    That said, I agree with you that anything that is attempted should be aimed at improving the craft (profession). As we’ve seen from the layoffs and industry estimates, a journalism that isn’t economically viable isn’t going to be better.

  2. Grayson Says:

    These MoJo’s will burn-out really quickly and write nasty things about their company — in their blogs of course.

  3. Leonard Witt Says:

    Hi Bryan and Grayson:

    For me working out of the car isn’t the issue, although I have been advocating for setting up ad hoc offices, as Bryan suggests, in coffee shops, barber shops, community centers and then moving them around.

    I am more concerned that the new technologies will be used as an excuse to dumb down news rather than smarten it up. The promise is improving, not denigrating journalism and that must be in every news leader’s mind. Anything else is intolerable.

    By the way, Grayson, thanks of pointing me to the Post story.

  4. Grayson Says:

    Glad to be of service.

  5. Bryan Murley Says:

    I am more concerned that the new technologies will be used as an excuse to dumb down news rather than smarten it up. The promise is improving, not denigrating journalism and that must be in every news leader’s mind. Anything else is intolerable.

    I’m not clear what you’re getting at. Perhaps you could blog more about where you see the danger here.

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