Five mobile journalism basics to remember

We talk about apps and frames, quick-to-social and between-casts. And we talk about when we should and shouldn't use mobile devices for journalism. Well, let's stop talking about application and talk for a few minutes about execution.

Let's go back to basics with a few mobile journalism tips to make your life easier, regardless of the equipment you're using. The inspiration here is the number of outlets that are having reporters shoot video on phones and the resulting number of videos that are painful to watch.

First basic

Hold the phone sideways. You want video that fills up the 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio of the device your audience is using to watch your video. Portrait (that is, vertical) video doesn't work except in limited circumstances such as SnapChat and the startup VerVid's site. Will we eventually go to more vertical video and be less annoyed with it? Yes. But as long as TVs are rectangles, narrow up-and-down video with black bars or generator graphics around them are going to be ugly. Besides, video is about immersion and showing, not telling; you should use every inch of the screen that you can. 

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