MojoCon Ireland – Morning of Day One

March 27, 2015 Eleanor Mannion Slider, Technology 2

MojoCon Ireland stage - Photo Credit: Eleanor Mannion

Well it was a jam-packed day today – full of all things mojo and discussions of what the future of journalism is in this digital age. It was a super day and here are just some of the highlights.

Speaker RICHARD SAMBROOK

Richard Sambrook – Professor of Journalism and Director of the Centre for Journalism at Cardiff University – was the first speaker. He spoke of how audiences in this digital age are all about the “news snack”. This poses challenges for newsrooms across the world with heavy-hitters such as NY Times, BBC and Yahoo reporting year on year increased traffic to their site via mobile devices. Sambrook advises, in reaction to this appetite for “snacking”, news content needs to be tight, timely, relevant and fast.

Speaker GERD LEONHARD

Gerd Leonhard at MojoCon - Photo Credit: Eleanor Mannion
Gerd Leonhard at MojoCon – Photo Credit: Eleanor Mannion

Self-described Futurist and Nowist Gerd Leonhard said the world of journalism is moving from broadcasting to “broadbanding”. Broadcasting was creating awareness of news but “broadbanding” allows for participation in what the news content will be. In the future, Leonhard warns, routine will be automated so his advice – “don’t be routine”. Use technology but don’t become the technology. Machines are for answers but humans ask the questions.

Speaker MICHAEL ROSENBLUM

Michael Rosenblum spoke of how we no longer live in a static world and “where we are now is already dead”. Instead we should “look at where we’ll be in 5 years”. His other sage words advised attendees not to “force your architecture on technology, listen to technology..it will tell you what to do”.

Speaker PATRICIA O’CALLAGHAN

Patricia O’Callaghan is a mulitmedia journalist with RTÉ and has produced many mojo reports for RTÉ News. She gave practical tips about what it means to be a ‘mojoer’ and what mobile journalism means for her work life. There are nearly 50 mojo packages produced by the journalists of RTÉ News and all of them can be viewed below.

For more basic mojo filming tips check out my other article here.

Speaker BILL CARTER

All speakers were unison in their assertion – despite emerging technology and the ever evolving digital age –  that at the heart of everything is the story and the art of story-telling.

One of the most inspiring speakers, for me, at today’s conference was Bill Carter  – Director of Miss Sarajevo which was produced by U2.

Miss Sarajevo tells the hard reality of what was happening in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1993 and was made using video material Carter shot during his stay in the besieged city. He also managed to get the attention of Irish rock band U2 and they soon supported him in highlighting the horrors that were happening in Sarajevo at that time. During that summer of 1993, U2 were touring in Europe with a huge show.

Bill Carter and U2 decided to set up live satellite link-ups every night during U2’s concerts to make the audience aware of what was happening in Bosnia. Here is a sound clip from Bill Carter talking about these satellite links into U2 concerts at today’s conference.

Well that was just a handful of highlights at today’s Mojo Conference. Keep an eye out for more updates from me about today and also the workshops that are taking part tomorrow as part of day two of the conference.

Big thanks to organiser Glen Mulcahy and all the helpful conference volunteers for a wonderful day.

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