Jornalismo SMS | SMS Journalism

Não sabemos já viver sem o telemóvel. Serve para tudo, até para telefonar. E se o usássemos activamente para assumir o papel de Cidadãos Repórter? Esta é a ideia do projecto liderado por Guy Berger, que promove  workshops para alunos do secundário aprenderem a escrever notícias em 140 caracteres, na África do Sul. Agora só falta aproveitar o resto das funcionalidades para ser realmente jornalismo do cidadão móvel – e intrinsecamente, pelas características técnicas do aparelho-  multimédia. Charlie Beckett falou da importância que o jornalismo do cidadão terá no continente africano graças a estes dispositivos móveis. A ideia é, no mínimo, interessante. E há uma questão pertinente em cima da mesa: poderão as mensagens ser escritas com as abreviaturas em voga para sms, para serem depois descodificadas nas redacções?

We can no longer live without a cellphone. It can be used for anything, even for phone calls. But what is we used them to assume our role as Citizan Journalists? This is the starting point of the project headed by Guy Berger, that is promoting workshops for high school students in South Africa, to learn how to write news in 140 characters. Now it only takes to use the rest of the features to become truly mobile – and intrinsically, due to the technical characteristics of the device- multimedia citizen journalism. Charlie Beckett wrote extensively about the importance of citizen journalism in the african continent thanks to these mobile devices. The idea is, to say the least, interesting. And there’s a question apropos: can those messages be written in the current sms abbreviations to be later decoded at the newsrooms?

In August, we start some initial workshops with high school learners, to discuss with them what it takes to be “citizen journalists” – contributing content that the mainstream will publish.

What’s more, the content is constrained by being 140 characters long – sms is the method of comms for now. Over the course of 8 workshops, 80 learners in their penultimate school year will be trained about optimum Cit-journ in this way … all over two months.

Getting closer to sms journalism