Mobile reporting has changed immediacy when it comes to news. Instead of having to wait for the mornings paper or, that nights television broadcast, people from around the world can see events immediately, or even during the events.
On Feb 16 Sydney Lupkin published a story on ABC’s News website titled “Why Doctors Say Crawling Across the Finish Line Isn’t a Great Idea” about runner Hyvon Ngetich and, how she crawled her way to the finish line during Austin’s marathon over the weekend after collapsing.
Runner refuses to quit, crawls to finish line after body gives out during Austin Marathon: http://t.co/3zxkH5hHic pic.twitter.com/AspeIdZIQT
— ABC News (@ABC) February 17, 2015
Ngetich refused to use the wheelchair race officials were providing and traveled the last stretch of the race on her hands and knees, still managing to come in third place for the marathon.
Female marathon runner leads with 50m to go, collapses, crawls the rest http://t.co/2MvPNCZdms pic.twitter.com/yHU6oDDb87 — MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) February 16, 2015
Mobile reporting allowed ABC, other news outlets and even spectators to get this story, along with photos and videos onto sites like Twitter almost immediately as it happened, showing the world this amazing story of Ngetich giving her all and refusing to give up no matter what.
Kenyan Athlete Hyvon Ngetich crawled on the ground & literally crossed the finish line at the Austin Marathon on all fours- for third place
— Saddique Shaban (@SaddiqueShaban) February 16, 2015
Sites like Twitter now have allowed the story to expand and grow from a local Austin story to an international one, which has no bounds. It has been tweeted and re-blogged countless times, and this story is now appearing on countless news websites globally.
Bizarre beelden van atlete Hyvon Ngetich, die zondag in Austin uitgeput de finish passeerde. http://t.co/EZWQpKRQBK pic.twitter.com/D50MnrekD1 — NOS Sport (@NOSsport) February 16, 2015
Vea cómo una maratonista finalizó gateando una carrera: La keniata Hyvon Ngetich lideraba el maratón de Austin… http://t.co/OOZY8iE9f2
— Andres Moncada (@andreshibrido) February 17, 2015
The photos being posted immediately, and then soon after allows readers to get a quick image as to what it was like to be there and witness the event for yourself. That’s something that’s hard to convey through just words in a newspaper, as it allows for more space even though twitter has a limited character count.
Heroic Kenyan athlete crawls last mile of marathon after attempting to set world record http://t.co/DcPfycer5v pic.twitter.com/D9gdwkbP99 — Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) February 17, 2015
Hashtags on twitter allow reporters, and others, to categorize their tweets so that they easily can be searched or grouped together. Just searching marathon on twitter will pull photos about Ngetich crawling her way to the finish. The hashtag for this is #Ngetich
Overall, using Mobile journalism allows reporters, and even everyday people, to get stories out onto the Internet for everyone to see, read and possibly even share. It can be about anything. In this case reporters covering an Austin marathon suddenly changed to a story about a courageous women, refusing to give up, and its all thanks to Mobile reporting.
