While the traditional media – TV channels, Newspapers and News Agencies will still cover most popular events, Citizen Journalism is a way to get the untold stories into the public domain. So if you have a story to say, or want to report on something that impacts your life, how do you get your story across other than writing a letter to the Editor, making a comment on a website or sending a text message to be played on the ticker on television? Well, we think you will be surprised at the multitude of options you have to get your story across. There are several ways of doing so. The first is via the traditional media approach, that is, by sending content to well-established publications or TV News channels. In India, CNN-IBN is one channel which offers viewers the ability to capture photos or videos and send them through Multimedia Messaging (MMS) to cj@ibn live.com, or users can register at a portal for citizen journalists have the opportunity to comment on stories uploaded by other citizen journalists as well. The network also occasionally ends up using videos shot by these folks, including the recent dramatic video captured of two nothing happened to those two men but the culprit was caught on the basis of the gory video evidence captured by a citizen journalist.
Getting your story out has never been easier. Mobile devices are not just a way of talking to your friends and colleagues, but using the powerful tools on your mobile device you can take pictures, record video and conversations, which by using tools available on the internet, you can spread to the entire world. The tools available on the internet have dramatically changed the way professional media persons report and research stories. You cannot imagine a story done research stories. You cannot imagine a story done without some basic research being done on Google or not using Wikipedia as a reference tool. WHILE that is the way ‘traditional’ reporters work, the emergence of the internet, rather the second generation of web-enabled services on the internet, something popularly called Web2.0, has made it possible for everyone to post their stories for the world to see. Zeiss lenses allowing you to take high-resolution images and broadcast-quality video as well as the ability to record hours of sound, make N-series devices the perfect tool for the Citizen Journalist.
Music is the most fascinating thing on a mobile phone. It is likely that you and many of your friends store copious amounts of music on their phone and if you travel by Mumbai or Chennai’s suburban trains of Delhi or Kolkata’s metro systems you might see hundreds of people with their ears plugged in listening to FM radio, but equally as likely listening to music stored on their mobile devices. But there is a problem. Downloading music is not terribly easy. You often have to visit a multitude of sites and often end up with an illegal and often a horrible sounding copy of a song you really like. While you can use Nokia music manager from PC suite to transfer tracks from your computer to the device, what would you do if you are on the road and want to listen to one song? Well, in a few months time you will be able to download and listen to music directly onto your mobile phone thanks to the upcoming Nokia Music Store.