A CNN reporter discusses how he (a “he,” I think) used a two megapixel Nokia N90 in reporting from Iraq, including getting a scoop on television, according to an article in the Dubai-based 7Days.
The first person account article doesn’t include a byline so I’m not sure who’s the author, but it’s a journalist on assignment overseas.
The reporter writes how he was allowed to visit — sooner than he expected — a secret government torture chamber bunker in Baghdad. Although the interior minister had invited him to film the visit, the guards forbade him to take a camera.
N90 saves the day
“We were closer than any other journalists had been to this huge story and we just had to get a picture and my Nokia N90 was going to be the only way the do it,” he writes.
“I discreetly pointed the phone at the guards and the gate meantime engaging my producer in casual conversation. It worked: We got the pictures we needed and quickly headed back to base.”
He used the phone’s Bluetooth capabilities to transmit the images to his Apple G4 computer, inserted them into Final Cut Pro and sent them to his editor. The video (photo?) was used on Prime Time USA and CNN International that night.
Final Cut Pro is a video editing tool so I am assuming he used the phone’s video recording capabilities, but I’m not sure. The article doesn’t specifically say whether he took photos or videos.
Great reporting tool
The reporter says since that story, “I’ve discovered what a wonderful broadcast tool the camera phone is.
“By putting more cameras into the hands of more staff on the front lines of news we increase our ability to cover more angles of more stories.”
He imagines a time when he can use the N90 to transmit live video from news events as he’s reporting them or sent to CNN’s live streaming Web channels. Because the screen swivels 180 degrees so it can be used like a typical camcorder, “a reporter like me can shoot and transmit his own live shot from quite literally anywhere there is a 3G phone service coverage.”
Barriers being removed
The report says, “Far be it from me to write my erstwhile cameraman out of the equation, but barriers are going to be brought down by these phones.”
He notes that he’s not going to sneak around taking inappropriate images. “We’re not going to suddenly drop our ethical standards and use the N90 to secretly record conversations or break confidences previously agreed to.
“In short we use it responsibly, professionally and ethically.”
Use camera phones or sink!
He concludes, “I don’t profess that CNN has discovered all the answers to what we will do with the torrent of live, streamed video soon to be washing up in our newsroom. But what I can say right now is we are using a camera phone to break news at every opportunity — and it is working.
“At this significant checkpoint in technology I’d also venture that those failing to have the courage to fully exploit the oceans of programming opportunities offered by camera phones will sink and few people will have the time to notice them going down.”
I am testing the N90 and you can see, as I’ve written before, photos and two videos from a day I spent on a boat to and touring Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.
Comments