Nokia and Reuters announced a collaboration to bring a new mobile journalism application that will enable reporters to file and publish articles, audio, photo and video content directly from handheld devices.

Reuters and Nokia Research Center are working on the new mobile journalism project that may lead to important changes in the way journalists file news reports from the field. The mobile application will make use of a lightweight toolkit developed to provide reporters anything they need to file and publish articles from all over the world, even the most isolated regions. The application is already in use, through a trial that started this summer: selected Reuters journalists use it around the world to edit, combine and file articles, images, sound and video streams (live or recorded), creating and publishing multi-media stories without leaving the interest area.

"This is a very easy-to-use application that takes account of the demands placed on journalists in the field," says Nic Fulton, Chief Scientist of Reuters Media. "By running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene. This saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date."

Although the mobile journalism application's use would primarily help professional reporters, its implications can be much wider in the future. "The term 'citizen journalism' has been in use for several years," said Timo Koskinen, project manager with Nokia Research Center, "but technological innovations - particularly the introduction of mobile multimedia computers - have transformed the concept. 'Citizen journalism' is beginning to embrace a wide range of public engagement with the media, from groups of contributors organized around subject or geographic areas to the casual participation of observers who are lucky - or unlucky - enough to be at the scene of a newsworthy event."

A lot of mobile phones have advanced multimedia capabilities and the mobile journalism application is combinig these capabilities in creating an intuitive toolkit to fit as best as possible any journalist's needs.