Frank Barth-Nilsen from NRK trains mojos, changing the way story telling is done & Reuters Mobile Journalism considers the mojo as a future form of journalism. Hate to tell them, it’s already here! Their toolkit is below:

Being a mojo has its advantages – you can run away faster from bodyguards & there is no heavy camera equipment to slow you down.

“It’s just a phone man!”

Sometimes you can even beat the ‘big guns’ to the punch, like Steve Garfield :

Stories are on the web quicker than you can SMS with live streaming from a mobile using Qik.

In Europe FromDistance is creating waves, specialising in mobile journalism products and services.

In Australia, mojo’s are now being trained up. We are a bit limited, as the availability of unlimited data packages is way too expensive or non-existent with mobile carriers.

I have an X-series Nokia N95 and am with ‘3′, with 200MB a month allowance for $8 on top of my plan. I’m using it more each day; only the other day in the supermarket I did a search on food additives. Call me paranoid.

Smartphones are the most popular for the internet, especially the iPhone. It only has 2% of the smartphone market, yet it is starting to outperform Nokia for internet usage.

Facebook is now on mobile internet. Yes, I have been guilty of checking it, in the dark with the phone on silent (the clicking echoes in the dark), commenting and feeling like a snoop.

Which reminds me … I wonder if I have any comments on this?

Is it internet TV, video journalism or the visual musings of a misguided non-talent? Vlogs offer, in the main, fast paced, quick snippets of visual and the added benefit of stopping content if it bores you to tears in the first minute.

Vlogs allow more human stories at an individual level, such as Alive in Baghdad, not the issue that causes the havoc such as war, filling gaps in mainstream television reporting

However, seeing inside the mind of the operator/performer, which can be messy & damn funny! Ask a Ninja is a twisted yet simple comedy acting as a vlog. Same shtick each week, same formula. Don’t believe me? Check the video below!

Convenience is King. Don’t like it? Stop & leave a comment. Like it? Subscribe through an RSS feed . Interaction feeds the beast and bows to the Vlog God.

Ted.com offers higher quality video, including vlogs and lectures. I posted this video from Mena Trott, below, founding mother blogging. It’s by no means a short piece, but damn funny, informative & self-depreciating.

Traditional journalism does have restrictions on time and space, as recounted by solo journalist Kevin Sites. Elements of the truth can be manipulated in traditional media. Smaller, personal stories can be told which in turn can create interest in a bigger issue, a reason for the successes of OhMyNews & Witness.

Tools for the mojo (mobile journalist) & moblogger are evolving rapidly. From wireless broadband, video & camera enabled smartphones & wireless keyboards for mobiles, for mojo’s on the move, to compact video cameras as seen in the U.S. elections. The internet demands journos multi-task. This is needed for fast uploading of stories – variety & convenience rules.

Cover It Live video blog is used by leading news agencies & has upload capability from your mobile for faster visual story-telling.

Unless it is getting read – what’s the use? How do you tell? Technorati, in particular, ranks sites, with the more you are linked to other sites, the higher ranking your site achieves. You can also see ranking by fan base numbers:

or comments numbers:

You can also try joining a newsgroup as a community columnist, such as on Newsvine, which also pays the columnist 90% of the advertising revenue generated from your column to you!

Still, unless your writing is credible – forget it. Australian sites ending in .gov.au, .edu.au & .org.au contain more credible information & contacts. Check domain names at Whois. The longer they have been around, the more likely they are to be credible.

Write On!

User Generated Content (UGC), on these 2 occasions, changed the news cycle forever. Journalism came into the realm of the reader. It became interactive. No longer did the public just read the news, they made it.

The public took to Citizen Journalism like my kids do with a packet of Tim Tams. Not satisfied with just covering it, they experience it & often get right in the thick of it.

So, how reliable is the information? Do they do this for sensational reasons? Who will be responsible if legal issues arise? If so, will it turn into a David versus Goliath scenario?

Citizens have a DIY mentality. Podcasts have set up people as newsreaders, and Vlogs and Moblogs as news gatherers. These all have a viral capability. if one person gets caught up in the vision, they then pass it on to friends. Just how viral it is determines its success.

Without extremely current news, media groups will not survive. UGC supports on-the-spot reporting. In this era, news groups need citizen reporters.

One thing is for sure, the UGC phenomenon is really only just beginning … and its catching!