Going Mobile in Journalism Education: How Media Students Perceive Mobile Journalism as a Professional Practice

Introduction

Mobile journalism, defined as “a new workflow for media storytelling where reporters are trained and equipped for being fully mobile and fully autonomous,” has been a key facet of the digital information and communication revolution of the 21^st Century (Shoulderpod, 2019). Spurred by the proliferation of online and social communications, advances in mobile devices' technical capabilities, and the development of powerful audio-visual editing and publishing mobile applications, mobile journalism has come to embrace both traditional and web-based journalistic practices. One significant outcome of this mobile journalism development has been the rise of a citizen journalism movement that promotes greater engagement of non-professional journalists in telling and sharing stories relating to public events and issues. In the professional arena, there is compelling evidence that mobile devices have already been deployed into journalistic works in physical and virtual media contexts (Perreault, & Stanfield, 2019). Advances in the technical capabilities of mobile devices, coupled with the changing habits of news consumption, are substantially contributing to online news content on both mainstream and citizen media outlets (Cervi, 2019). This presents opportunities and challenges as well. On the one hand, the cost of creating and delivering news has decreased markedly, opening the field for independent journalism and for creating opportunities that had not previously existed. In media education settings, this trend has enabled more student access to digital storytelling learning resources. On the other hand, this rapid development presents challenges pertaining to public, institutional and professional perceptions of the practice as well as mobile device manufacturing and app development industries’ interest in engaging with this emerging trend (Burum & Quinn, 2015).

Parallel to the deployment of mobile devices into online and conventional news practices, the media education sector has turned into a new frontier for integrating mobile journalism into curricula (Bui & Moran, 2020). Around the world mobile journalism training initiatives from the University of London, the Knight Center for Journalism in America, Salisbury University, American University of Sharjah, UAE, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Ithaca College suggest growing interest in preparing a new generation of mobile journalists for conventional and online news reporting careers. The introduction of university curricula that embrace mobile journalism as a key feature of student training does not only bring journalism education into closer alignment with smart learning trends, it also helps to sensitize future communicators to the changing nature of their profession in an expanding virtual sphere. This study seeks to address one question relating to the relevance of using smartphones and tabs for preparing journalists of the future. A survey of mass communication students at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates revealed support for mobile integration into the journalism profession in both conventional and virtual contexts. The findings of the survey show that while students are cognizant of some challenges with this issue, the emerging mobile journalism field presents young practitioners with ample opportunities for successfully engaging with the multimedia facets of the digital and networked communication environment. While respondents’ favourable perceptions of integrating mobile devices into journalism practices seem to bode well for the future of this profession, the writers believe sustaining students’ interest in this mobile journalistic feature requires support not only media education and professional media institutions but from the smart mobile industries as well (Adornato, 2018).