It’s no secret that news organizations old and new, large and small, are trying to figure out how to best leverage social media and mobile tools to enhance reporting and build audience.

Here is what doesn’t work: a haphazard or tacked-on use of mobile/social based on little more than how we use it in our personal lives.

‘How to Craft a Social First News Strategy’ is a 23-page guide designed to help news organizations establish a professional calibre social-first strategy that works.

Today’s younger, emerging audience expects its journalism to embrace the traditional values of newsgathering, but, at the same time, it expects engagement in the process and almost minute-by-minute updates through video, images and short text blasts. For more traditional news orgs a transition to a social-first strategy can be a struggle. For start-ups just breaking into the market it can be challenge.

So, what does ‘social first’ mean? A social news strategy requires that editorial policy and news coverage are build around social from top to bottom.  Social media sites are a news organization’s front page. A social first news strategy works the audience into the production equation from the outset rather than an afterthought. A social first strategy encourages news organization to hire staff and provide resources with building social audience as a primary goal.

Here are some of the specific section titles from the guide:

• Understand What Makes a Social Story
• Staff a Social First Newsroom
• Plan Your Social-first Strategy
• Understand Your Technology
• Be Competitive in the Market
• Building Audience
• Understand the Additional Challenges to Success

Get the high resolution PDF for printing here. (6.6 MB)

The Guides were produced in partnership with The International for War and Peace Reporting. It is part of a series of upcoming social first reporting guides that will include the following titles: ‘Planning your Coverage,’ ‘Photography for News,’ ‘Planning your Video,’ and ‘Recording Narration.’

In Afghanistan there are some additional advantages to mobiles. A computer will get the attention of Taliban at a checkpoint. It suggests work with government or with Western NGOs. But phones have become so ubiquitous they go unnoticed.

This anecdote underscores the reality here: following the national election earlier this year the potential for citizen journalists using mobile tools to continue to make an impact is great, but the challenges remain substantial.

John Smock 2014

As part of the second Afghan Social Media Summit in October, Small World News provided a four-day training of trainers (ToT) workshop in Kabul. The 15 participants came from 10 provinces. Some were teachers, some students and some journalists or community advocates. All were enthusiastic about the opportunity to take the material presented back to their home province for use in workshops of their own.

The workshops were held at the office training space of Impassion Afghanistan, the organization that organized the ASMS summit. We covered training techniques on material as basic as how a web browser work to topics as advanced digital security and how to build audience around community issues using hashtags. Participants quickly built relationships with one another – and a Facebook group – that will allow them to continue to exchange ideas and resources after they return home.

John Smock 2014

Illiteracy rate in many provinces remain high in Afghanistan and dependable Internet and smart phone use low. Yet Facebook and WhatsApp are widely used, mostly among younger Afghans. During the election Small World News helped develop the curriculum for several election-related projects, including an SMS/IVR reporting project and another to encourage community peace reporting and solutions journalism. Several of the participants in the ToT workshops were part of these earlier projects.

In January of 2015 the United Nations will formally end the ISAF mission. President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah have committed to a variety of good governance programs for Afghanistan. The nation could be heading toward a long-awaited era of peace and development.

John Smock 2014

There is no doubt the citizen journalists working with mobile tools in provinces across the country will play a growing role in monitoring how both local and national government deliver on the opportunity.

Radio Slobodna is the Bosnian affiliate of Radio Free Europe in the Balkans. In June the Prague Freedom Foundation, an independent foundation supporting indepedent media in eastern Europe, asked Small World News and StoryMaker to help reinvigorate Radio Slobodna. SWN worked with Radio Free Europe’s local partner in Sarajevo, providing new equipment and training in multimedia reporting with mobile devices. As the name suggests, Radio Slobodna is primarily a radio agency, but increasingly looks to the internet as a primary distribution point.

The agency produces a daily morning radio program and weekly television program. Thus far distribution via the internet is a secondary consideration. Historically reporters in the field have primarily filed audio dispatches and called in reports. A core team of staff reporters, based in Sarajevo, were responsible for all photo and video content. However, this structure is no longer tenable, increasingly, news agencies must ensure all staff are capable of capturing and reporting news in a variety of mediums, at any time.

With the support of the Prague Freedom Foundation, I traveled to Sarajevo, and delivered 25 android tablets running StoryMaker. Over two one-day workshops reporters with a variety of experience learned the basics of multimedia production with mobile devices and the StoryMaker app, which is now available in nine languages.

Providing Radio Slobodna’s staff Android tablets combined with the StoryMaker journalism app will help them stay ahead of the curve. This combined with an introduction to Small World News’ revolutionary social-first news strategy means Radio Slobodna’s journalists will be ready for whatever the next news cycle brings.

The reporters of Radio Slobodna produced a variety of short video projects during the workshop, including stories about the increasing rehabilitation of Tito’s legacy amongst Bosnians, the only woman copper worker in Sarajevo, and the renovation of the historic hotel Zagreb in downtown.

For reporters with access to professional photography and video equipment, as well as post-production software, StoryMaker provides an interesting addition to their kit. Rather than replacing this equipment, StoryMaker and mobile multimedia production should be seen as an accompaniment. With a mobile device and StoryMaker, journalists can quickly assemble and publish a rough cut of their story, directly from the scene.

StoryMaker will help Radio Slobodna increase the depth and variability of its coverage without investing huge sums in new equipment and training. Just following the workshop, staff reporter Ivana Bilic traveled to Topcic to document the reconstruction. Using StoryMaker she was able to quickly and effectively document the impact of the floods and the state of reconstruction. Check out the video below:

Paiwandgah, is “a social media and mobile-based platform for citizen journalism.” But in order to succeed, Impassion needed the assistance of someone with experience training journalists in difficult places. Small World News was a natural fit. However, rather than reinventing the wheel, and writing yet another journalism curriculum, we convinced Impassion director Eileen Guo to support adapting the StoryMaker curriculum for delivery via radio.

Some lessons didn’t yet exist, in particular content about physical safety and reporting techniques specific to documenting elections and political issues. In two short weeks John Smock and Brian Conley adapted the content, and Impassion Afghanistan had it translated into Dari, Pashto, and Uzbek. During the first round of the election, Paiwandgah received 525 reports from 27 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

We were really excited to be a part of this project, and look forward to what Paiwandgah will provide during the upcoming run-off election next month.

Check out digital recordings of the radio broadcasts on Soundcloud:

Recognizing the importance of telling the story of their work from the field, OCHA’s communications office asked Small World News to provide training and mentoring to their Press Information Officers with the objective of empowering them to tell insightful stories from some of the most vulnerable places in the world. An all-in-one solution to creating and publishing stories, StoryMaker users focus on telling and sharing a compelling story with integrated guides, without being hampered by technical issues. Simple to learn and navigate, StoryMaker scales external communications objectives while supporting the generation of professional deliverables.

The March 2014 program launch transpired in Jordan and included twenty-seven OCHA field officers as well as their headquarters communications team. Equipped with varying degrees of experience in communications and public relations, trainees participated in an accelerated Small World News course in visual storytelling with a smartphone and the StoryMaker app. Despite the unusually brief convening for Phase One of this curriculum, trainees personally experienced great success in both learning the introductory curriculum and realizing the potential of this tool. Actively using StoryMaker throughout the program, trainees recognized diversity amongst their peers as they individually produced stories. These exercises aided in building camaraderie, compassion, and trust among participants allowing them to experience first-hand what information sharing can deliver for a large population of readers.

The trainees worked hard and came up with a fascinating array of interesting stories, from silly to saddening. While the approach varied greatly amongst participants, a number of themes were dominant, reflecting the similarities across much of UNOCHA’s work, despite offices and projects spanning the globe. Three stories, in particular, stood out.

In one case, two participants produced a story focusing on the impact of unemployment and interviewed a man working at the hotel as a chef. It was discovered that he had earned a master’s degree in computer science. Although there is a lack of jobs in that field, he found work as a chef at the hotel and doubles up by providing the IT support to the hotel.

Another group addressed the issue of orphans who have lost family due to tragedy. They made a humorous piece profiling three young cats the hotel has taken an affinity with. Their story profiled the cats struggle to find a place to live, in the face of opposition from hotel guests leading to their displacement.

Finally, the third group, who produced the best overall piece, was a fictional look at a woman displaced by a natural disaster. Although each of the individuals in the piece was acting, the combination of script and well-constructed visuals resulted in the creation of a story that provided each trainee a strong example of what they should try to produce during Phase Two of our program.

As Phase Two begins, Small World News will work closely with program trainees, OCHA field officers, back at their offices across the world. The continued curriculum includes Small World News advising them on choosing shots, interviewing ideal individuals, and coaching them through any technical difficulties they encounter. Sustained collaboration and mentoring will enrich their confidence in using StoryMaker and ensure overall program success for both OCHA and Small World News.

Small World News is looking forward to nurturing a relationship with OCHA. Sharing stories from refugees and people displaced by natural disasters and conflict will put a human face on some of the worst crises affecting the world today.

Please stay tuned for updates including additional outcomes of this program as their stories come in!

For example, while more people join Twitter everyday, there are still many communities not represented there. When I was working in Libya in 2011, we started a hashtag #AskaLibyan to promote engagement between the international community and Libyan citizens. At the time internet connectivity was virtually nonexistent in Libya. Livestreaming would have been prohibitively expensive, if not impossible. However Twitter worked well, and provided a low bandwidth opportunity to create a relationship between individuals inside Libya and those abroad. As bandwidth increased and the Libyans running Alive in Libya increasingly focused their efforts on video production, the #AskaLibyan hashtag was left behind.

I was recently approached by Jessica Christian, Communications Director for Circle of Health International, about livestreaming from the Zaatari refugee camp, on an upcoming delegation to support Syrian mothers. I was initially skeptical, and a quick google seemed to confirm connectivity is very weak in the camp. I asked her a bit about her goals with livestreaming, and primarily she wanted to connect their donors and supporters with the work they helped create. Secondarily, she wanted to reduce the amount of post-production work that remained after the trip.

Livestreaming could be a great way to solve this, however the primary gain from “live” necessitates real-time interaction. Livestreaming has been a growing trend in mobile and social storytelling. It exploded during the Occupy movement, but has been growing for a long time. It’s easy to understand the appeal of “live” due to the increasingly real-time nature of the internet.  For Jessica and her colleagues in Jordan to engage in real-time with their supporters in Texas and elsewhere, she’d have to overcome a nine hour time gap. I suggested she consider the low connectivity in Jordan and the time gap an opportunity to try something different.

Using a unique hashtag she can create an asynchronous dialogue on Twitter that may also engage others outside of her network.  Telling her story in short bites sorted with a hashtag creates a collaborative narrative that her donors and supporters participate in. Add to that Twitter’s new photo-first policy and you have an even greater opportunity. Although much vaunted, video isn’t everything. A series of great portraits, with 140-character quotes from the subjects can bring distant communities to life. Sharing them on twitter, with a replicable hashtag creates the opportunity for a collaborative narrative, and may bring you surprising new voices.

Smartphones have become default cameras for a lot of people, especially because “the camera you use is the camera you have.” A new twist is that a data connection and the ability to upload from the field makes a camera live– crucial for documenting news as it happens. Running an operating system like Android gives phones, and therefore phone cameras, the capacities of a computer.  Finally, you can’t beat the HUGE cost savings over traditional pro gear.

To make the most of the current state of tech, we’re experimenting with various devices and combinations of peripherals to put together a “StoryMaker Kit” for mobile multimedia story production.

After a recent project in southern Libya— 10 days in the field overseeing the production of 20 stories– we can provide some interesting insights about the kit we used. We wanted the best kit for leveraging StoryMaker specifically, and mobile video generally, but many of these accessories will work just as well with a mobile phone, and are not operating system specific.

Everything seen here will run about $1500 for the kit, but is likely overkill for most users.

The components of the kit were teased in an early post about the upcoming project with Germa. Now here’s a full list:

• Samsung Galaxy Camera
• Samsung s4 Zoom
• Rode Videomic Pro
• New Trent backup battery
• Zeikos medium bag
• Sony MDR-NC7 headphones
• Audio Technica Pro88W Wireless mic kit
• Audio Technica ATR3350 Wired lavalier mic
• Cowboy Studio L-Bracket
• Startech TRSS Mic+headphones splitter
• Manfrotto 559B-1 Monopod

First we’ll start with the cameras: yes, two of them. You probably require only one camera, but for producing multimedia journalism, it makes sense to consider two devices. Your first device is one that will always be with you, so it should double as your phone. Until now, that has meant journalists depended on their iPhone. Android phones just haven’t had the same capabilities. In the last year or so that’s changed, after the release of several Android mobiles with quality cameras.

The Samsung s4 Zoom, released this June, provides a great combination of the benefits of mobile form factor and connectivity with point and shoot optics. In other words, it’s a real phone and a real camera. It’s certainly heavier than your typical mobile device, but not by much. It fits easily in your pocket. It has a great phone-feel when you need to take calls from an editor or a source. When news breaks at odd hours-as it will-you can quickly take great pictures that will leave your iPhone-only colleague jealous.

Mobility and convenience isn’t everything, however. Great optics still have value, as many noted when the Chicago Sun-Times laid off its entire photo staff earlier this year. The field is changing rapidly, and while Samsung has released two affordable cameras with good optics, more are on the way, with Samsung releasing an android-based DSLR, and Sony’s new attachable-lens camera just the latest indicators.

While the s4 Zoom provides decent optics, its big brother, the Galaxy Camera, packs a lot more punch, and its manual controls provide a lot of flexibility, though the touch interface takes getting used to. If you want a more traditional device, the Galaxy Camera is the first good option that has emerged for an Android-based prosumer device.

The Galaxy Camera is compact, though not pocket-sized. Attaching external mics or lights feels more reasonable than on the Zoom. In order to attach an external mic to either device you’ll need a mic with a TRSS adapter, which has 3 black lines on the adapter to account for headphones and mic, unlike a standard 2 line stereo adapter. Your other option is to use a TRSS splitter such as this one from Startech, or this one from Rockit. With the splitter, you can connect any microphone with a stereo mini adapter.

As we discussed in previous posts, we tested 3 types of microphone, to provide a journalist with microphones for most use cases. So far, our findings are somewhat mixed. We provided a mic that needs no adapter, for use with the Zoom.  In addition we used a shotgun microphone, as well as a wireless and wired version of the same lapel microphone.

We intended the microphone that plugs directly into your device, the iRig Mic Cast, to serve primarily for audio reporting. When we began testing, we found this microphone also provided a sizable improvement to the audio recorded when shooting video. SWN hasn’t done much prior testing with these mics that are intended to be plugged directly into mobiles, but the results suggest even a low cost external mic with a TRSS adapter plugged into a mobile will greatly improve the quality of sound recorded in your video as well as audio reporting.

A note of caution on the latest versions of Android. Devices running 4.1+ do not universally accept an external mic for video recording, even with this adapter. The Samsung cameras each use a custom camera app, which does recognize external devices. Android 4.0 and earlier does not seem to exhibit this issue. We have not tested iPhones, but assume they will work with any mic using the TRSS adapter.

We’ve been using two shotgun microphones on our projects over the last few years. These microphones, the Rode Videomic Pro and the Azden ECZ 990, span the range from moderately priced at $229 to the affordable but still functional end for the Azden at approximately $80. The Azden has now been replaced by a newer model, the SMX-10, which we have not yet tested. SWN recommends spending the extra money for the Rode. A video story produced with bad audio is no story at all. However those on a budget, or needing even more compact production than the Rode Videomic pro, may wish to try the ECZ 990 or the SMX-10.

The primary issue with choosing a microphone for use with mobile is ensuring it has its own power, and ideally is amplified. This became especially apparent when testing our choice for an affordable lapel microphone. In some cases the Audio Technica PRO88W-R35 wireless system combined with an ATR3350 lapel, or lavalier, microphone worked fine. However, in the case of interviewing speakers with low voices, the signal was not strong enough to be heard adequately on the video recording. We’re waiting to find a good pre-amplified lavalier microphone that doesn’t require XLR-type connectors, so let us know if you have tips!

The Rode VideoMic Pro is made for use with cameras lacking pre-amplification that boosts the audio before it hits the recording device, such as DSLRs, mobile phones, and point-and-shoot cameras. Because of this, it has a decibel control, and is an ideal option for the journalist who can only afford to purchase one microphone. However, the microphone is not ideal for recording interviews, particularly in noisy environments, or when there may be noise behind the subject.

Microphones and devices aren’t all you need for a great kit, however. Much also comes down to the peripherals. As long as you are using a device such as the Galaxy Camera or the Zoom, you can mount your device directly on a tripod or L-bracket. If you’re using a standard mobile phone, you’ll need a Joby GripTight Mount, to hold your device, and provide a tripod mount. L-brackets are necessary to attach microphones or lights, because these devices lack the necessary “shoe mount” standard on video cameras. We have found the L-bracket from Cowboy Studio to be the most durable and reliable bracket. You really want a good bracket, as you’ll depend on it every time you go out to shoot, to assist with stability and mounting your microphone.

You’ll also want a good pair of affordable headphones, a tripod or monopod, and possibly a mini tripod. SWN uses Sony MDR-NC7 headphones and they work great. They also provide some noise canceling which can assist with isolating your sound from background noise. The Velbon Videomate 538F is a great tripod for the money, and more than enough to manage the weight of mobile production devices. The Manfrotto 559B-1 monopod has been especially well-received. In many cases for mobile production, SWN advises that this is a better choice than a tripod. Tripods are best suited for controlled environments such as sit-down interviews and press conferences. Monopods provide greater mobility and flexibility in the field. In addition to a monopod, you might consider a GorillaPod SLR Zoom plus BH1 Ballhead mount. This is small, sturdy, and flexible mount for steady low-angle shots, and it’s large enough for tabletop interview recording.

To carry your gear you’ll need a bag, or possibly two if you have a full audio kit. Small World News found that very affordable options worked great and so far are standing up to pressure. We purchased the Zeikos Medium Camera and Video bag for the video gear, and the AmazonBasics bag for Camcorders. If you want everything in one bag, neither of these will work, and really camera bags are a very personal choice, so look around, and see what you like. The most important issue is be sure you’ll have enough space for all your gear.

In conclusion, your kit really is an individual consideration, and depends on your specific needs and budget. What we can say for certain is that it is now possible to assemble a good all-purpose kit with the mobile phone you already have, for under $300, simply by attaching an L-bracket, mount, and shotgun microphone. If you’re prepared to purchase a specific production device for mobile reporting, you can build a good all-purpose kit for approximately $600. To have a kit that is flexible for many situations and uses will run approximately $1000, and even for all the devices mentioned here, you are in for less than $1500. And that should allow you to produce broadcast quality, high definition video. That would have cost more than $10,000 only a short time ago.

Yet working with English as a second (or third or fourth!) language, especially in software applications, can create a disadvantage and needless confusion. As our goal with StoryMaker is to broaden access to multimedia production anywhere in the world there are stories to be told, it is essential to us that the app be available in whatever language our users feel most comfortable using.

Translating software, with its updates and changes, is a bit trickier than translating normal text. That’s why we use Transifex to translate StoryMaker. Transifex is a web-based translation platform that enables collaboration in translating. We have quite a team of volunteers already hard at work, but we can always use more help.

If you have language skills that you could share with us, to help us deliver our open-source app into as many hands as possible, please take a look at our guide to getting started with Transifex.

With your help we can ensure that StoryMaker can go hand in hand with the spread of smart mobile devices around the world– giving people the chance to get to know themselves, and each other, a little better.

SWN’s Basic Tips for Using Mics with Mobiles

Remember that sound is half the story. Paying close attention to the quality of the sound you’re recording is an easy way to improve the overall quality of your video, and increase the impact of the story you have to tell.

HOW-TO

You need a special type of microphone to connect to a mobile device. If you look at the plug at the end of any mobile headset you’ll notice it’s different from the plug at the end of a regular set of headphones.

Your mobile headset has 3 black stripes. These are: a connection for the microphone, a left ear channel, and a right ear channel. (A normal set of headphones has only ear channels.)

To use a mic, you’ll need one which is made to work with a mobile connection, such as the iRig Cast. If not, make sure to have an adapter, like one shown here:

 4 Microphones: A Live Comparison

Since your equipment will determine the quality of what you capture, we’re going to talk about 4 types of microphones at your disposal:

1. Built-in microphone
2. Shotgun microphone
3. Lapel microphone
4. Hand-held microphone

Watch this video and listen to how each microphone records differently. Which mic would you choose to use to interview someone? What about if you wanted to keep a low profile?

Each type of microphone has benefits and disadvantages. Let’s look at them all.

Built-in microphone

This microphone is a part of any video recording device. Only depend on the built-in mic if you are concerned about safety and don’t wish to be observed.

Advantages:

• Convenient because it is always ready to record.
• Doesn’t call attention to your recording.

Disadvantages:

• Even a slight wind may create a lot of noise with these microphones.
• All ambient sound is recorded, so background noise may be very loud.
• People’s voices, especially when speaking quietly, may not be recorded.

Shotgun microphone

Called a “shotgun” due to its shape and its recording pattern, which picks up sound in a similar path to a shotgun blast (scattering outwards in a cone shape from the tip of the mic). The shotgun mic is great for recording the overall scene and background sounds.

Advantages:

• Comes with a mount, and is ready to attach  to cameras with the corresponding shoe.
• Recording volume of voices and sounds in front of the camera will  be greatly increased.
• Recording volume of sounds outside the frame and behind the camera will be decreased.

Disadvantages:

• Records background noise at a similar volume to voices speaking on-camera.
• The mic may record sounds far in the distance at a similar  volume as sounds in front of the camera.
• Shotgun mics are especially conspicuous and in conflict areas have been mistaken as weapons belonging to combatants.

Lapel microphone

This microphone takes its name from its placement. Lapel mics are placed on the lapel or collar of the subject you intend to record. Also known as a lav, lavalier, or neck mic, among other names. The lapel mic is perfect for sit-down interviews.

Advantages:

• Great for recording an interview with a single subject.
• Little background noise will be recorded.
• Primarily records the subject’s voice.

Disadvantages:

• The lapel mic can only record the voice of one subject.
• Ambient noise may not be recorded.
• Without a proper clip, the mic may record scratching noise from the subjects clothes.
• May not record the voices of quiet speakers.

Handheld microphone

This microphone is commonly seen in the hand of correspondents reporting live at the scene of events. The handheld mic works well for correspondents reporting on-camera, or conducting interviews in a public area, on-camera.

Advantages:

• Records ambient noise and the voice of people being interviewed.
• Enables the correspondent to interact directly with their subject.

Disadvantages:

• The correspondent must maintain control of the microphone at all times.
• The mic can only record a limited area.
• If background noise is too loud, the subject may not be audible.

So in Review:

• Use a shotgun mic to capture the scene
• Use a lapel mic to interview someone, documentary-style
• Use a handheld mic to interview someone, news correspondent-style
• Use a built-in mic when you don’t want to be noticed, or as a last resort.

—

Thanks for taking a look with us at the different types of microphones you can use for making stories with your mobile device. Check back here every Friday for more simple ways to help your mobile production pack a bigger punch.

Mobile Community Zimbabwe has given residents of areas affected by the water crisis the tools to bring us a first-hand look at what life is like when accessing clean water is a bit more difficult than turning a tap in your home.

In Harare, residents sometimes rely on makeshift boreholes for their water. They spend long hours in a struggle to gather the supply they need for daily use.

In Bulawayo, a program known as “water shedding” was enacted by the municipality in 2012. Water supplies were cut off for 72 hours a week after some of the city’s supply dams ran out of water.

In rural areas, degrading infrastructure is leading to serious threats to the well-being of residents, like this failing dam in Gwanda:

In Kariba, the water supply problems are hurting families.

Access to water is a topic that is of great local concern to Zimbabweans, but is hardly examined by international media and which government-run media have an interest in covering up. We hope that tools like StoryMaker and projects like Mobile Community Zimbabwe can fill the gap in coverage. For more great local coverage of Zimbabwean issues, check out MCZ.

To this end, one of the main tools built into the StoryMaker app is a set of overlays that sit on top of your device’s camera viewfinder to help you align the subject of your shot. An example of a medium shot overlay can be seen above. The overlays have various real-world scenarios drawn into them, such as close-ups, landscapes, and portraits, and appear depending on what kind of shot you are trying to get.

Why Overlays?

Framing shots is an abstract skill that has traditionally been learned through trial and error. Different cameras have used different kinds of guidelines. For photography they might have a couple of cross hairs, like this:

This is a common style of overlay you’ll see in SLR cameras, with different parts being highlighted to indicate focus. It’s very abstract, but once you become familiar with it, it becomes a second way of ensuring your shots are in focus.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum there are really literal overlays in use in some cameras. Take for instance this overlay which is increasingly common on trucks and cars.

No longer comfortable with only a rear view mirror, we now have rear view cameras to help truckers see if anyone is driving too close. With a known lens focal length, and an approximate placement, drivers can see in real time exactly how close someone might be tailgating them. As cameras are become more affordable, it’s increasingly easier to use them for single tasks. If you take this camera off the truck, the overlay in this example becomes useless.

In many conversations between Brian and I over the years about how to best teach people different aspects of photography and filmmaking, the overlay idea kept coming back. If we could just put our examples on top of our trainees’ cameras, they could see exactly what we talked about in class while actually shooting their content.

After a human rights conference in San Francisco, I had an 18 hour train ride back to Portland, so I hunkered down and began playing around with the shot example files we had created for our training guide that summer. I played around with deleting different amounts of the overlay while looking at a shot of an interview I had done at an Occupy Portland event. The purpose was to explain the subtle difference between good headroom and bad head room; we used the image later as an example in our video reporting trainings.

Why not put that kind of instruction directly into the camera?

The original mockup of a StoryMaker overlay, with live subject in the frame.

It’s an idea that makes sense for our era of ever-more inexpensive and portable photo and video technology. Saying what makes a shot “well composed” is a matter of taste, but there is a common visual language that indicates production value. Imaging equipment has been dominated by highly technical people focused on technical perfection in the quality of the image. In previous eras when a camera was an expensive tool, it made sense that you wouldn’t buy a camera explicitly built to teach someone how to operate a camera. You would not get the value out of it for the amount of time you would be using it.

StoryMaker’s Overlay System

Camera apps and manufactures are beginning to play with what other options they can offer, with most boiling down to filters for photos in the wake of Instagram. We’re taking a more educational approach, trying to help people understand what they can do from a technical stand point to make their images more appealing. What Instagram does with filters, we want to do with compositions. With StoryMaker you’ll know what overlay is the right choice for your goal.

StoryMaker 5 Basic Shot Overlays, for a close-up shot. Click to enlarge.

Camera guidelines have always needed to be very basic so they could apply in every possible circumstance. That made a lot of sense when camera manufacturers had to provide something that worked in every possible case. Now that cameras are also powerful portable computers (sometimes known as smart phones), we can finally start experimenting with these guidelines and create custom experiences to help people at the point of production. That’s what we’re doing in StoryMaker. Check it out and tell us what you think!

I’ll be writing more about the compositions, and how they evolved in the coming weeks.

–Steve Wyshywaniuk

Germa’s stories focus on fairly standard themes from emerging democracies and nascent media landscapes. Stories vary from municipal issues such as garbage collection and communication services to social issues such as the effect of poverty and the quality of education.

We will be watching the efforts of our colleagues at Germa with high expectations that they will be giving us a rare view into the goings-on in southern Libya, unthinkable just a few years ago.

Photo Credit: John Smock

StoryMaker is intended to enable its users to tell their stories safely. We do this by ensuring StoryMaker is a tool that is “private by design.”

StoryMaker not only helps you tell great multimedia stories with your mobile phone, but to do it safely and securely. If StoryMaker or YouTube are blocked in your country, integration with the Orbot app allows for the sites to be accessed via Tor, the anonymizing network. StoryMaker relies upon Orbot, as Nathan Freitas at the Guardian Project, who leads development of privacy and security features in StoryMaker, explains, “for defending against network surveillance and enabling circumvention on hostile networks.”

If the network operator is looking for people accessing StoryMaker or YouTube, in particular uploading media, Orbot defends against that type of fingerprinting analysis. If a government forces StoryMaker or YouTube to turn over the IP addresses of a user, in order to tie an account to a specific location or subscriber, Orbot and Tor makes that IP meaningless. For more on the technical specifications of this feature, check out the StoryMaker development wiki:

https://dev.guardianproject.info/projects/wrapp/wiki/Secure_Storage_and_Transmission

The upshot is that users in countries where YouTube is blocked (such as China, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan) will be able to publish their videos using StoryMaker.

If you live in a country where simply being found with manuals related to digital security or human rights, or attending a training course abroad, could get you arrested, StoryMaker is for you. StoryMaker receives lesson content via a certified SSL connection to our server, and this content can also be sent via Tor, making it anonymous.

StoryMaker can also be used as a tool for distance mentoring and training via mobile, enabling activists to learn digital security and storytelling skills from the safety of their homes. We are refining a model for this kind of learning at a distance with each new project.

Follow our progress on this blog and on Facebook and Twitter, as we work to expand the reach of storytelling tools where they are needed most.

A rigged election in July 2013 maintained the rule of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, further pushing back reform efforts and disheartening a large and progressive opposition among Zimbabwe’s very young and restless population. Online outlets have become a rare means of expression.  Baba Jukwa, a commentator who used Facebook as exclusive publishing tool, had the fastest growing page in the country as people flocked to hear his opinions. The traditional media, meanwhile, is more or less a laughingstock, shilling for the party in power or publishing stories that are irrelevant to the concerns of citizens:

Some tabloid headlines from popular Zimbabwean papers.

In Zimbabwe’s current atmosphere, developing means for independent voices to express their point of view is a vital goal. The story about the country heard from outside has remained highly negative– mostly concerned with the tense political situation, economic difficulties, and the conflict over white-owned farms– and for the most part, we lack images and stories of the shape and texture of daily life.

Mobile Community Zimbabwe (MCZ) is a project that gives ambitious young Zimbabweans a voice and a platform to share and exchange information through mobile phones, video and social media. Using the StoryMaker app on Android-enabled smart phones, the MCZ project equips young Zimbabweans from across the country with skills to use their devices to tell compelling stories about themselves and their communities.

Starting in May 2013, Small World News assisted Free Press Unlimited in building MCZ with the hypothesis that mobile production is one of the new avenues of expression that have the potential to bring fresh stories to the surface. After leading nearly 50 Zimbabweans— young professionals, civil society workers, freelancers, bloggers, and budding media producers— through a week-long visual storytelling course, SWN mentored trainees for several months while they produced over 200 video reports published on the MCZ website and Youtube.

The training course was held in Lusaka, Zambia, which provided participants with the opportunity to learn in a relaxed environment away from sources of stress at home. Many trainees had never visited their neighboring country before and made connections with Zambian peers in the media and civil society fields.

The videos were stories of local and international relevance. Trainees covered water shortages, youth unemployment, environmental problems, and municipal negligence unflinchingly, with Android smart phones as their only production tool. Local customs, dance, shopping trends, and scenes from daily life rarely highlighted by the traditional media were shown to the world and accessible internationally—a big step towards creating a new generation of media makers to tell the real story of Zimbabwe today.

MCZ is still finding its audience and has the potential to become an influential source of news and features in an environment where independent viewpoints are rarely heard. We are very proud to have participated in the creation of this new platform, and we can’t wait to see what it will turn into.

Sometimes during trainings you get participants who arrive with solid skills and a developed drive to be better journalists. It’s great when it happens. More often you get participants with little experience, an opaque idea of what journalism is and a stifling lack of confidence. The single most rewarding thing about training is seeing the light bulb go on in a participant who falls into the second group. Mustafa Khalifa was one of those participants.

Mustafa is the Germa corresponded in Ghat, a tiny town on the southwestern border of Libya. Like so many of Libya’s new generation of journalists, he began working as a reporter only two years ago during the revolution. Mustafa is Tuareg, a nomadic ethnic minority that live throughout much of the Sahara and Sahel. When he arrived on the first day of training in Sebha he barely said a word to the trainers even though he speaks some English. When asked a question, he would look stricken. “I didn’t know anyone,” he said. “I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect.”

At first Mustafa struggled with the technology and the demands of the workshop format. By day three he had found a voice. His early photo story about a Pakistani tailor and his shop was among the best in the group. With encouragement he began to come out his shell. He even began to try out his English on me during breaks and flashing his broad smile. By my last day in Sebha he was using the elaborate camera kit with ease.

Mustafa explained the transformation in football terms. He played goalie while in school. When he trained for a match and was well prepared, he was better able to trust himself to take the kinds risks that being a good goalie requires. “When I am confident I trust my instincts,” he said. “I like the camera equipment and learning how to make videos.”