Mobile war reporting through live streaming

What war reporting on social media can learn journalists about building live audiences.

War journalism. Courtesy of Shutterstock - Royalty free.

In short

The last decade, the media landscape has changed rapidly. Mobile technologies and live streaming through social media came into the world and changed the way people consume and produce news. This white paper addresses the advantages and risks for journalists using live streaming to report during war: what are the issues at stake, which different positions about this change exist?

The paper provides concrete advice for professional journalists to engage with live streaming:

1. Combine professional with citizen mobile journalism: if journalists don’t want to dependent on mobile citizen journalists, a combination of their own mobile reporting and that of citizens is recommended.
2. Invest in authentication: there should be methods to authenticate information in mobile journalism. Journalism as institution can do that by introducing a common information collecting body to collect all the mobile reporting information.
3. Reflect on ethical issues before going live: if journalists answer ethical questions honestly, then they can make the right call.

Live streaming: the basics

Live streaming can be considered a form of mobile reporting, a trend emerging in the field of news and content generation. The term describes the use of mobile phones as a reporting tool. The user creates text, photo and video. The content is edited on the phone before being uploaded to the Internet. If we speak of mobile reporting by professional journalist we speak of mobile journalism. Mobile journalists are journalists who use mobile devices (extensively) in their news reporting. Such practices have grown considerably around the globe. But citizens are also engaging in mobile reporting, posting media directly from a mobile phone to the Internet. Mobile journalism is a new way of reporting incidents live. [6][7][9] [8][10] [11][12]

Live streaming from the White House. © dapd

Live streaming specifically refers to the broadcasting of real-time, live video to an audience over the Internet. All you need is an Internet enabled device, like a smart phone or tablet, and a platform to broadcast on. With the popularity of live streaming platforms, more conventional social media platforms have branched out into the world of live streaming with for example Facebook Live. While all live applications are widely used for entertainment or social communication, they also hold a great potential for journalistic live coverage. Of course, live coverage in general is nothing new since mobile crews and transportable equipment have provided reporting for decades. [13][14]

Mobile phones are used for reporting live from both everyday life events and more significant events such as wars and riots including recent occurrences such as the Arab spring. A number of studies worldwide have noted a use of mobile technology at moments of crisis. In the case of war, citizens are usually seen as people to be rescued, rather than as active participants. The widespread adoption of mobile media and the abundant production of content generated by ordinary people has marked a significant change in the exploration of disaster contexts and allowed analysis of the tragedy from a completely new perspective: that of the victims.

Coverage, reports and footage from conflict and crisis areas have increased substantially due to mobile (citizen) journalism. The immediacy of media, the expectation that we can be anywhere now, is changing how people experience crisis. Mobile reporting and live streaming, a foundation of war reporting, has been democratized and disseminated in new ways. Facebook live and other social media coverage may be the future of war news. Geopolitics and the ubiquity of social media have made the world a smaller, seemingly gorier place. If Vietnam brought war into the living room, the last few years it has been put at our fingertips. [15] [16] [17][18][19][20][21][22]

Live streaming the war: the issues at stake

The technology for distributing content in various forms has become easily available, offering more opportunities for media companies to reach their audience. Today the mobile phone feels like an ‘all-in-one’ device, and in combining all forms of content, becomes truly disruptive, especially for journalism. The changing ecosystem does result in opportunities for quality journalism disappearing, but the opportunities are different and people have to find new ways of providing it. Media convergence, where information flows across multiple old and new media, is also reshaping the relationship between media producers and consumers. [23][24] [25][26][27][28]

Tension between journalists and ‘the audience’

Citizens in this information age are provided with different opportunities not only for accessing information such as news, but also for producing and sharing such information themselves. Many people have access to updated news in any place and at any time, since some sort of medium or ICT is seldom further than an arm’s length away. Mobile phones allow the audience to become its own broadcasters and reach large numbers of people at trivial costs. These developments have a major impact on the exclusive position media corporations used to possess. Today, sharing and publishing news is no longer only reserved to professional reporters since a new form of journalism has originated: citizen journalism. The disruptive dynamics of the Internet have opened up practical opportunities for individuals to adopt a more interactive and participatory role. This change has not been welcomed by all media workers.[30][31][32]

Changing journalism

Mobile technology has changed broadcast journalism rapidly, making news reporting more efficient in times when the number of journalists in many legacy news media organizations is shrinking. Journalists are learning to use new technologies to change daily basic work habits, and are adapting to new job requirements in order to maintain job security and to be successful in their career, as mobile journalism also disrupts the news market. News gathering’s potential boost up is due to increased numbers of mobile phones equipped with cameras and which are making live streaming of videos way more easy. [33][34][35] [36]

Nevertheless, legacy news media have taken divergent approaches to employing mobile phones for reporting from the field, which lead to what we now call ‘mobile journalism’. On the other hand this has also fuelled a rapid growth in citizen journalism. Mobile video has created a gold rush among wireless carriers, media companies and content developers. High-speed wireless networks promise to transform the mobile phone into the fourth screen, after television, cinema, and the PC. More recent technological landmarks have significantly improved the possibilities. Especially in countries with less developed media landscapes, live streaming through mobile phones can have a transformative power for journalists. In rural areas journalists as well as citizens are now able to share their stories and impressions to both local and international audiences. This capacity to report unfiltered content is even more crucial in countries where regimes censor or influence media outlets. [37][38][39][40][41][42] [43]

Content made by citizen journalists is radically transforming traditional news organizations. Mobile citizen journalism is about live pictures and videos. The ability of local populations to source, share and transmit information is being completely transformed. This shift and transformation profoundly affects media organizations. The technology of the mobile phone has been seized upon by a new breed of citizen journalists, who have creatively harnessed digital media platforms to report on the unfolding events in conflict-afflicted countries and to exchange ideas, information, content and opinions. This trend came of age during the Arab uprisings, with citizens filming demonstrations on mobile phones. While citizen journalism does not negate the work of professional journalists and news organizations, it is a crucial part of the changing character of news reporting, particularly in conflict situations. [44][45][46][47][48]

In the last few years, the tools provided by social media and the spread of digital devices to a great part of the world’s population have helped to change the practices of ‘traditional’ journalism and the press. Today, there is a trend for professionals to use ever more citizen reports. Seemingly reluctant to relinquish their historical authority and control, the long-established ideologies and practices of legacy news media continue to guide their approaches to participation in general and mobile-enabled citizen journalism, in particular. [49][50][51][52]

However, some news organizations are not only waiting for what citizens contribute, but moving towards more systematic recruiting and asking for content on specific themes. For example mainstream broadcasters including the BBC and Sky have online services dedicated to citizen-generated images and videos largely taken using mobile phones. Professionals are tasked with viewing and sifting through massive volumes of eyewitness media — raw, unedited, authentic footage now captured regularly on smartphones — to enhance their investigations, reporting, operations, prosecutions and advocacy. It seems though that journalists have not fully embraced producing mobile phone content. Many use mobile phones as a back up or to take audio notes. Some journalist use it also when they are in the field in difficult circumstances where you don’t want to trigger a lot of attention or when you need to file a quick news spot from a location of breaking news. It is a good back up when your equipment fails. [53][54][55][56][57][58][59]

Live streaming: friend or foe of war journalists

The use of mobile phones and live streaming through social media in journalism, and specifically in the case of war reporting, has advantages and disadvantages, and different positions amongst scholars, professional journalists and citizens can be distinguished.

Friend…?

First of all: Scholars, professional journalists as well as citizen journalists agree that unfiltered video streaming can be an advantage for journalism. There is no censorship involved and journalists can provide their audience with first hand images of live events. Mobile phones and live streaming gives real news, in real time, delivered directly to the audience so immediacy compresses time and space and viewers experience what the journalist experiences. [60] [61] [62][63][64]

Secondly, mobile reporting gives journalists flexibility because all that is needed is a smartphone and journalists are able to report from anywhere in the world. It requires only a single person to produce content. There is also a potential positive impact for developing countries. News content can be produced very easily and cheaply with live streaming so this is making it affordable for smaller media outlets and freelance journalists. The mobile phone is a tool that is cost-effective. Especially when today, editorial staff are expected to produce three times as much content as 20 years ago. [65][66] [67][68][69]

Thirdly, when an employer of Twan Spierts, a mobile journalist, found out no in-house cameras were available and he was ready to pay 300 euros to hire what he needed he just said: ‘No, we are not going to do that. It’s a waste of money and a waste of time. I’m going to do those post-match interviews by myself with my phone.’ He underlines the speed of mobile journalism, which is especially important when it comes to breaking news. There is no point in a broadcast journalist standing around at the scene waiting for the camera crew to arrive when he has what he needs in his pocket. Especially live streaming for journalists is handy for events that are unfolding quickly, allowing them to share breaking news and information as it happens. In that sense, live streaming on social media is also bringing accessibility. Mobile journalism gives journalists better access because of the less intimidated feeling by a smartphone camera so that people are more willing to open up. [70][72][73][71] [74]

‘mobile journalism doesn’t just get the job done more quickly — it can also get you better access’. Dutch journalist Twan Spierts

As such, mobile reporting and live streaming on social media leads also to more audience engagement. It’s useful for an audience to ask questions, which provides journalists with direct feedback. In times of measurable user reach this is an advantage to journalists. Using live streaming helps to create an interactive journalistic experience that elevates users from mere spectators to participants.

Lastly, mobile reporting is empowering citizen journalists. Entirely free from camera teams or editorial boards, citizen journalists can stream live events. Blacktoviche was one of thousands of ordinary Syrians who raised their smartphones and took to social media to document a conflict that otherwise might have been hidden from the world. Foreign journalists were barred from covering demonstrations and faced imprisonment or worse for trying to cover them. Citizen and professional journalists agree that individuals with mobile phones and other media tools are able to capture ‘news’ in real or close-to-real time — much more immediately and rapidly than professional journalists. [75][76][77]

Or foe…?

First, quality journalism rests on a foundation of journalistic values and ethics. Live streaming the news takes away the editorial control of reassessing, fact-checking and researching the news.

• Reassessing. Journalists believe that no smartphone can replace having an editor, who bounces around story ideas with you, suggests a different lead, or goes to battle for you against angry readers the way a good editor will. Also, and this is very important in crisis coverage, an image once shown, can’t be undone: people’s identities cannot be obscured, their faces not blurred or blocked and filming victims goes against accepted ethical codes. By going live, broadcast and web-based news outlets give up the time that was a friend to judgment. [78][79][80][81]
• Fact-checking. When live streaming on social media, stories are often not checked. It is possible that people who give news via mobile phones may lie. And if that happens, it is the media organisation that will lose its credibility after publishing false stories, especially if journalists do not verify the information they get through mobile phones. Since some professional journalists rely on mobile journalists to feed them with tips or breaking news, the trend might be abused by feeding journalists wrong information. [82]
• Researching. Traditional broadcasting, especially if not live, always operates in conjunction with an editorial board, researchers, and technical experts, whereas with live streaming the reporter is on his own. This can lead to a credibility problem for mobile journalism not being taken seriously precisely because the conventional work routines aren’t followed. So new media gives new problems: verification, reliability and curation and editing. [83][84][85]

In the future, a too strong reliance on citizen mobile journalism can lead to journalists decreasingly going to research events ‘on the ground’. Some journalists explained how they tried to avoid using news from citizens:

“Before the question was : can we trust mobile citizen journalists and do we need it? Now the question is: can we do without it?”

It’s a circle: mobile citizen journalists became more aware of certain needs of editors and media organizations, so mobile citizen journalists made it easy for editors of mass media to use their content by helping them in providing this little bit of accuracy that was needed. [93][94][95]

A second point of attention when using mobile phones to report and live stream are the technical issues that may arise. Live streaming is dependent on internet connections. Mobile internet can be unstable, depending on the connectivity of certain places like rural areas and damaged war zoner, or the saturation of the networks when many people try to connect, for example in crisis situations. Together with these more structural issues, there are more hands-on technological limits to consider. All background noise is recorded so the reporter needs to stand really close to the person he is interviewing. Journalists also get frustrated that the screen of their phone is so small it makes it difficult to edit their material. And then there are surveillance risks: whenever a mobile phone is on, the location is known to the network operator. [88][89][90] [91][92]

And last but not least, there are ethical issues. Different approaches are concerned whether the images captured during an attack using a mobile phone constitute a new kind of mobile witnessing or veer into mere voyeurism. It is difficult for media users to process the latest viral video of a cute baby alongside live footage from a war zone, particularly on a small screen that we must hold close to our eyes. Seeing graphic imagery when we’re not prepared for it is not the same as watching a television news bulletin we have deliberately chosen to consume. Next to ethical concerns for media users, there are also such concerns related to how journalists work, for example regarding the potential interference with emergency operations. In the midst of the Brussels lockdown, the police asked citizens and journalists to stop live streaming about any operation taking place in Brussels, as the terrorists who were still on the run could also read them. In emergency situations it is more important to guarantee that police and other action forces can work without interference from journalists.[96][97][98]

Recommendations for journalists

Combine citizen and professional mobile journalism

Collaboration with local eye-witnesses can offer journalists the necessary access to on the ground information that is difficult to gather. But complete reliance is not recommendable. For example, as journalist you can count on a citizen in a rural area of war and you can have breaking news from a place people otherwise don’t hear from. But it is still important that journalists still go to that area for meeting those citizens and create a certainty for trustworthy news. In that sense, using mobile live streams from citizen journalists or sending in reporters is a continuous consideration to make. THis includes taking the risks into account. If journalists dare to take the risk to stay for a long time in a warzone their dependency on citizens is less. If they don’t want to risk their lives, the dependency on mobile citizen journalists is increasing.

Of course, journalists have to protect themselves with the right equipment and training for hostile environments. For that, the internal management of journalistic institutions has to warn their journalists and give them tips to secure themselves when necessary by giving them training. This includes digital and cyber security training to help protect their identity, sources, information and even location when reporting and travelling for work. [102]

Develop authentication mechanism for live streaming

Live streaming takes away the chance to reconsider, evaluate and journalistically assess news content and that can lead to a violation against accepted ethical codes. There should be methods to authenticate information in mobile journalism. Criteria should be developed for authenticating the content. For example, if more people report about the same information, it may be considered more reliable. If as journalists you can’t verify it properly, you only use live streaming videos if there is no other way to get video of that event and if everything is happening too fast to report it afterwards. So journalists should be monitoring the live streams and need to stop when needed. [103][104][105]

Go over an ethical checklist before going live

Is a (live) video captured during an attack using a mobile phone a new kind of mobile witnessing or mere voyeurism. There is very little critical public discussion regarding the ethics of people live streaming in a situation of atrocity.[106]

For that, as Poynter.org suggests, it would be smart for newsrooms and anyone else practicing journalism to think about the following questions before going live:

1. Beyond competitive factors, what are your motivations for going live? Why do your viewers need to know about this story before journalists have the opportunity to filter the information offline? What verification processes are you willing to give up in order to get information to viewers quickly? How would instantly available live information help the public to stay safe and minimise chaos and quell rumours?
2. Are you prepared to broadcast the worst possible outcome that could result from this unfolding story, such as a person killing himself or someone else during live coverage?
3. What are the consequences, short-term and long-term, of “going live” with the information? What are the consequences of waiting for additional confirmation?
4. We have already seen cases of shooters who are streaming their grievances live on social media. How willing are you to give that person a live unfiltered public platform?
5. What is the tone of the coverage? Can you raise awareness of a significant event while minimising unnecessary hype and fear?
6. Have you considered adopting any safety nets that could minimize harm?

If journalists answer those questions honestly to themselves, then they can make a right ethical judgment. In turn, journalistic institutions have to make sure they give journalists room to be journalists. Being live for the sake of being live is a pretty hollow achievement.[107][108]

Final notes: the road to live streaming

Live streaming is the broadcasting of real-time, live video to an audience over the Internet with a mobile phone. Mobile phones are used for reporting live from both everyday life events and more significant events such as wars and riots. Due to the change in communication technologies, there are more opportunities for journalists to reach their audience, which is reshaping the relation between producer and consumer. The tension between those two parties has transformed. Mobile technology generally stands out as making news reporting more efficient in times when the number of journalists in many legacy news media organizations are shrinking. Rather than using the mobile only for traditional reporting, journalists have also used applications for live video streaming and live blogging which leads to what we call today ‘mobile journalism’. On the other hand, this has also fuelled a rapid growth in citizen journalism. [109][110][111] [112][113][114][115][116][117][118]

Mobile reporting can have advantages and disadvantages for journalists. Unfiltered video streaming can be an advantage for journalism. Mobile phones and live streaming give real news, in real time, delivered directly to the audience: immediacy. Secondly, mobile reporting gives journalists flexibility because all that is needed is a smartphone and journalists are able to report from anywhere in the world and it requires only a single person to produce content. Thirdly, there is the speed of mobile journalism and live streaming, which is especially important when it comes to breaking news and gives accessibility. As such, mobile reporting and live streaming on social media lead also to more audience engagement. Lastly, mobile reporting is empowering citizen journalists. [119][120] [121][122][123]

Mobile reporting can also lead to risks and disadvantages for journalists. First, live streaming the news takes away the editorial control. Secondly, journalists have no control over what could happen in live crisis situations. This can lead to the potential interference with emergency operations as well as to a dependency on Internet connections. Last but not least, there are ethical issues and the existing of a new kind of spectatorship or voyeurism. [124][125][126]

For all those risks and disadvantages we have some advice to professional journalists:

1. Combine citizen and professional mobile journalism,
2. Edit your mobile (live) reporting,
3. Think about a ethical questions before going live.