Locative journalism: Designing a location-dependent news medium for smartphones

Abstract

This article provides an account of the tensions between locative context-awareness and the act of writing journalistic copy for a mobile application. Based on the field trials of the interdisciplinary LocaNews project, the article discusses locative media's potential for spatially sensitive news journalism.In 2009 researchers in Norway made a medium design called LocaNews, and tested it out with pre-planned procedures for the two fundamental activities: production and reception. Of those who participated, 12 people worked as journalists, editors, technicians, and they generated 93 journalistic stories that were read and watched by 32 test-users who were interviewed. The present article deals with findings regarding the production of news content, and presents the strategies used to reinterpret the traditional news criteria of journalism to be fit for a GPS-equipped smartphone. First, the article discusses the connection between journalism and cartography, and then introduces the experimental method used for this research. The bulk of the article consists of an evaluation of the experimental attempt at practising location-dependent journalism. It deals with four issues: putting stories on the map, the characteristics of 'zoom in stories', the construction of an implied position for the readers, and finally the formulation of news criteria that focus on spatial proximity instead of temporal actuality.

Location sensitivity in locative journalism: an empirical study of experiences while producing locative journalism

“…At the same time they had a problem identifying this as journalism, rather than an information service. Nyre et al (2012) discuss the design of LocaNews as a news medium and conclude that it is easier to design a new medium than to establish a new journalistic practice.…”

Place-Based Knowledge in the Twenty-First Century

“…Few people were able to understand how to view the news through this location format and the reporters had issues in categorizing and classifying news to a specific location. Nyre et al (2012) had three versions of stories in the digital tool categorized by "here," "nearby," and "far" to tie to three aspects of proximity. Nyre et al (2012) stated they had challenges in setting up criteria for the reporters to know which of the three categories to choose when marking the location for a story and for the readers to understand which category to view from depending on where they were.…”

“…Nyre et al (2012) had three versions of stories in the digital tool categorized by "here," "nearby," and "far" to tie to three aspects of proximity. Nyre et al (2012) stated they had challenges in setting up criteria for the reporters to know which of the three categories to choose when marking the location for a story and for the readers to understand which category to view from depending on where they were. The researchers concluded that it was easy to build the digital tool but harder to change journalistic practice.…”

“…The impact of location-based services within the journalistic context has only been addressed in a handful of studies to date. Nyre et al (2012) developed a location-based news project called LocaNews that had two interfaces: one was a digital tool for people to access news on their smartphone, and the other a digital tool for the reporter to access via their smartphone in order to write the story and incorporate location into their story.…”

Nyhetsjournalistik i en mobil tidsålder: En genomgång av tio viktiga forskningsområden

“…Ett område som utforskats är exempelvis s.k. locative journalism, där nyheter knyts samman med plats (Nyre, Bjornestad, Tessem & Vaage Oie, 2012). Andra viktiga områden är s.k.…”