NewsBeat

July 2017 NewsBeat 11 The biggest myth in mobile news, Ho said, is that mobile = short. "This is a very common idea, and it's also wrong," he said. "And it does a lot of harm." The idea that mobile must be short happens when someone in the news business gets "mobile religious," he said. This happens when someone suddenly becomes obsessed with mobile after not paying attention to it for a long time. The sign of a mobile religious, Ho said, is when someone says something like: "Have you seen all those people on the metro? They're all on their phones. We've got to do something about this!" What usually follows is a directive to make everything short. But the problem, Ho said, is that mobile does not equal short. Mobile equals relevance. "Mobile is about things that matter to people," he said. "It's about filling needs and solving problems." The goal of mobile should be to fill a variety of needs. Sometimes that may require short content, but sometimes it may require a longer experience. This is crucial to understanding what mobile can be for the audience, Ho said, because it is past time to figure it out. "Mobile is not the future, despite what you've heard," he said. "Mobile is the present." To illustrate what mobile can be, CNN Senior Reporter Yusuf Omar went live as his wife Sumaiya Omar streamed a live video on the screen and on Facebook, Omar asked where the audience went last night to find news about the bombing of a concert last night in Manchester. Omar looked for stories from people on the ground at the event. "I'm here to tell you that the singular biggest revolution in mobile is the stories format," he said. On a platform like Snapchat, users can search for content real time. This content can be layered with photos, facts, and dates to help with verification. It also provides capabilities to curate and aggregate voices of people on the ground. When he worked in South Africa, Omar trained 12 Millennials and armed them with phones. It is a strategy he used himself as a journalist on location: "I regard myself as a jeans journalist. Everything I need for journalism can fit in my jeans." What makes mobile journalism even easier, especially for those intimidated by social storytelling, is the stories format. Stories allow the user to tell a story from their point of view, edit in information, and edit snippets together in their feed. The simplicity of the stories format is why Omar uses it to train other journalists. "We did it through the stories format because it's as simple as holding down the red button," he said. The stories format itself is also a great way to reach audiences. The fast, digestible content can be easy to search and consume for users already plugged into their phones. It is about making content the audience wants, Omar said. "I fundamentally believe a lot of us are not making the same type of mobile video we are consuming," he said. Using Kahoot.it, Omar took an interactive, live survey of people in the room. 1. In what format do you watch videos online? The majority (74) responded that they prefer landscape, and 50 responded vertical. Omar said this was surprising, as it contradicts audience data, but said perhaps the audience watches more long- form. 2. How long are the videos you consume? The majority (66) responded that they are usually one minute, 35 said usually about 30 second content, 20 responded it is usually 5 minutes, and 10 said content is usually 6 minutes. "That's pretty much spot-on with analytics," Omar said. 3. Do you skip or fast forward through videos? The majority (97) said yes, and 33 said no. "But the vast majority of the platforms we are using to watch video content are not built for that purpose," Omar said. 4. Where do you watch videos online? The majority (112) responded they watch content on mobile, while 19 said desktop. "And that's probably representative of your audience if you look at your data," he said. The point is to make sure news media is where the audience is, like Instagram, Omar said. Instagram and stories, he said, is an amalgamation of everything news media could want. "If you want to know where the future of social media is going — we can look at what they're prioritizing," he said. "And right now they're prioritizing stories." CNN Senior Reporter Yusuf Omar went live during his presentation about mobilr during Tuesday's World Congree Session. Continued on next page

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