【The Playbirds】

The The Playbirdsmodern newsroom is facing growing challenges for how to cover conflicts around the world.

With word of a new coup or unrest, news bureaus often have to scramble to send their field reporters to cover the action—and in some cases, by the time they get boots on the ground the presiding government may have shut down the communications infrastructure, making it difficult to broadcast or upload footage without a satellite connection.

Today I awoke to disturbing news about Turkey’s President Erdogan shutting down social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube—and even the WhatsApp messaging service. This is similar to the actions taken during the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, when the president ordered the closure of TV news stations and the Internet, but today's events have larger implications. When Western media attempted to cover the events live, local eyewitnesses had to call in to the news stations to tell their stories, while producers scoured Periscope, Twitter, Facebook Live and other social media sites for recorded video clips. As a result, every major news organization that covered the event had the exact same footage on a loop.Since July’s failed coup, thousands of people have been arrested, an estimated 100,000 government employees have been fired, countless journalists have been detained and media organizations have been silenced. It’s clear that the controlling head of state doesn’t want these events aired. This raises a question: When governments and fascists block the means to communicate, how will news organizations be able to tell the world about the events as they unfold?

Technology’s skeleton key

Modern broadcast newsrooms need a solution that can keep live video airing without interruption, and that can enable a local stringer or freelancer to be up and running in minutes, not hours or days. The easiest way to capture and live-stream the events as they happen is to utilize local mobile journalists.

Mobile journalism has reached a tipping point in the United States, with anyone able to capture police actions, political protests and even sporting events with a smartphone. In just a few clicks, anyone in the world can be streaming exactly what they see, with broadcast-quality video. So why not employ a mobile strategy around the world? According to OpenSignal’s Global State of Mobile Networks report, 70 percent of the populated earth receives 3G coverage at a minimum, if not 4G/LTE coverage.

Cellular networks are the hardest thing to disrupt for many developing nations because the military often uses those networks for their own purposes. In the July coup attempt mobile communications were central to both the military and rebel forces. And the president himself delivered a public statement to the nation via FaceTime. Even if authorities are able to partially disable a network in a particular region, or when just a select few cell towers are disabled, a news agency's mobile app could employ a peer-to-peer (aka mesh network) approach to get the word out by sharing bandwidth to an exit point, thus circumventing shutdowns. There's a huge opportunity for newsrooms to provide dedicated apps that can deliver exclusive content directly to their ingest points and editing bays. Not only can CNN, NBC, Reuters and the AP get people on the ground faster; they are able to represent multiple viewpoints with streams coming in from various coverage areas. Today’s newsroom needs to not only embrace mobile journalists, but equip them with the apps to capture and deliver stories from around the world. And it’s as simple as identifying people who have been streaming in the past and asking if they want to tell their story or show what’s really happening on the ground.

Getting decent results is simple

A quick Internet search for “mobile journalism kits” returns a trove of products to help capture stable video and improve audio quality and lighting. It might take 10 minutes of coaching about what makes a good shot, or how to narrate the story, but in the long run news directors will have more than just footage—they'll have options. The mobile journalist is the key to a future of open communications and the newsroom’s responsibility to deliver a story when it happens. When borders and airports are closed or news stations are taken over by military police, you can’t stop the people who live in the conflict zone from telling their stories. Chris Michaels is the Director of Communications at Wowza Media Systems, which provides streaming software and services to 19,000 customers in 170 countries, including the largest media organizations in the world.