Aca-article: Crowdsourced news reporting - supporting news content creation with mobile phones

As news organizations are moving towards systematically using the power of crowds in news reporting, mobile phones are potential mobile tools for reader reporters. We conducted two user studies to support the development of future mobile crowdsourcing processes and mobile tools for news reporting. In a quasi-experiment on future mobile crowdsourcing process with location-based assignments, SMS messages were experienced as an easy and handy means for news assignments. A customized mobile client prototype was preferred for submission of multimedia content (photo and video), since submission was experienced simple to use and reliable especially for videos. Based on our findings and earlier research we discuss implications for the development of mobile crowdsourcing processes with mobile news reporting assignments.

Authors: Heli Väätäjä, Tampere Univ. of Technology; Teija Vainio, Tampere Univ. of Technology; Esa Sirkkunen, University of Tampere; Kari Salo, Helsinki Metropolia University.

Published in: Proceeding MobileHCI ‘11 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, ACM New York, NY, USA ©2011

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