The Smartphone as a Communication Tool

For modern-day communicators, the smartphone represents an all-in-one communication tool that enables on-the-fly social media posting, email messaging, text messaging, picture taking, video recording, audio recording and other tasks. Journalists, in particular, can benefit from the ability to do mobile reporting via a smartphone. For instance, reporter Neal Augenstein of radio station WTOP in Washington, D.C., covers news employing just one tool: his iPhone. “Being able to record and edit audio and video, take and edit pictures, write Web stories, and do social networking on a single device has revolutionized my job,” Augenstein told the Poynter Institute.

While it’s smart for a communicator like Neal Augenstein to embrace the smartphone, the tool can’t do the work automatically. A communicator must learn, for instance, how to properly record audio and video, and how to properly take photos. Furthermore, the smartphone communicator must be trained how to effectively and quickly write effective Facebook posts, tweets and other social media messages, particularly given the brief nature of these messages.

Sources

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/11/what-ive-learned-3-years-after-ditching-radio-recording-gear-for-an-iphone314

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/digital-strategies/200418/5-ways-journalists-can-use-smartphone-apps-for-reporting/

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/195707/wtop-mojo-pioneer-donates-iphone-to-the-newseum/