Multi-Media Journalism

The i-Mate Jasjam enables reporters to file stories wirelessly while on the go. The $1300-a-piece MoJo (mobile journalism) tool captures stills, video, and audio and can be used to rapidly file content to the editiorial team in the newsroom.

The Jasjam will empower newspaper journalists to stay ahead of the competition, to lead the race for reporting a breaking story before their radio and television reporter counterparts do. Still – and thankfully – the Jasjam is not intended to replace staff, or photojournalists for that matter. “If you want a terrific image, you still need a photographer taking pictures ”, says Mike van Niekerk, Fairfax’s online editor-in-chief.

The Jasjam’s real value is in helping reporters capture more breaking news and making this news available to the public immediately, in a variety of formats. Simply providing these devices to reporters helps them think in “platform-agnostic terms”.

The Jasjam will be the future for journalists. Eventually, reporters will file their story, in a variety of media. Editors sitting at the central hub will instantly receive it in the queue, and then dispatch it to the medium they deem appropriate. A few minutes later, the story will be online, complete with stills. Fifteen minutes later, the text will be updated with new information and briefly edited video with complement coverage.

Related links:

http://www.imate.com/showProducts.aspx

http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2007/09/fairfax_trains_all_reporters_t.php