Jornalismo Digital

Ainda sobre os moblogs, Steve Outing explica como podem ser úteis aos jornais online:

Learn This Word: 'Moblog'
Weblogs come into the picture here in the form of "moblogs" (short for mobile Weblog). A moblog is typically a photo blog where an individual or group of people post images taken with photo phones, plus accompanying text (or even audio).

The moblog concept has caught on in a big way since first introduced in 2002. Many individuals maintain moblogs, and new moblogging services like TextAmerica.com make it super easy to have a moblog; to publish an image, you simply use your photo phone to e-mail it to TextAmerica.com. Some moblogs on that service allow anyone to post a photo -- for example, the Traffic Jams Everywhere moblog
solicits photos from motorists stuck in traffic; Billboards of the World seeks photos of ... interesting billboards, of course.

While photos of traffic jams around the world could be just about the most boring content imaginable, this concept deployed by a local-newspaper Web site actually could be useful. Imagine setting up a moblog to take in photo-phone images of traffic jams and traffic accidents. Assuming some minimal text submitted with photos from motorists stuck in traffic (to identify location), you have a moblog that offers a quasi-real-time visual traffic tool to supplement other traffic reports. (The idea is for commuters to check the traffic blog before heading out of the office.)

Public moblogs, populated with content from a news site's audience, could be on a variety of topics. For instance:

* Celebrity sightings locally. (See Celebs Sighted at Starbucks for an example -- but note that that particular moblog is a spoof.)

* Food. Readers submit photos of their dishes as served at local restaurants.

* Sports. Parents submit photos from little-league games for a kid-baseball moblog.

Think especially of temporary, event-driven moblogs -- say, of a parade featuring shots sent in by attendees; or fan photos taken at an NFL team's public pre-season practice sessions; or images of a political convention taken and submitted by delegates while they're still on the floor.

In all these moblog examples, online news editors need to exercise some caution and some control. You want to make sure you filter out spoof photos, pornography, etc., of course. And to eliminate a long list of boring, amateurish photos, you'll probably want to screen the submissions and only publish the best. Then the public moblog becomes compelling content.

Moblogs aren't just for the public. Think about letting your professional staff -- reporters, columnists, photographers -- create them to supplement their traditional reporting. For instance, a city hall reporter might send in images taken during her reporting that go in a moblog that supplements text coverage in print and online. A society columnist's Weblog might also include photos snapped during parties he attends. A restaurant critic snaps shots while dining for a review. Even a newspaper staff photographer might use a moblog for instantly publishing breaking-news images live from the scene via photo-phone, well ahead of online or print publication of higher-resolution traditional photographs.