The Mobile Journalism Collective (MojoCo) is a citizen journalism training/self-publishing program operated by the National Black Programming Consortium. The idea of MojoCo is to provide citizen journalism training and tools to non‐traditional media making constituencies, providing them with a platform to publish their stories and share them with a wider audience via BlackPublicMedia.org/MojoCo.
The MojoCo website on BlackPublicMedia.org provides online tools for learning best practices of citizen journalism captured using mobile cameras, smart phones, and other small-format video recording devices. Currently there are three Mojo cities within the US, located in Jackson, MS, Atlanta, GA, and in the border areas of South Texas.
View MojoCo Reporter Map in a larger map
MojoCo stories come from all across the US, check out the map and see where MojoCo journalists are based if you want to work with them. These citizen voices use small-format technology like the Flip Video camera, to caputre local stories, sometimes with a national connection. Check out their reports in the "Mojo Reports" section.
To view all the "Mojo" reporters in a region, click on the "+" button to ZOOM in. Click on a point to see the reporter's topics of focus.
If you are a media, or direct service non-profit organization seeking to bring your community into the collective, visit the "Training & the One-Shot" section.
The MojoCo program is a proud participant in the Flip Video Spotlight program, enabling the use of video technology for positive social change.
To browse reports use the "<" and ">" arrows on the player left and right. Hovering over the lower edge of the player will give you a series of all reports. To see more details on each report, click "YouTube" to see the full page on YouTube.
The main goal of the MojoCo training program is the empowerment of new, rarely heard, and unconventional voices; bloggers, bloggers-to-be, activists, community leaders, journalists/transitioning journalists, community volunteers and more. It is ideally a 2-day training designed to imbue these voices with agency and authority for engaging their local communities in important discourse – MojoCo training can be part of a festival, media conference, or even built into high school or college curricula.
With the advent of new portable digital technologies that greatly reduce the barrier to production NBPC has developed this citizen media training program to tackle basic skills needed for independent new media production, storytelling, ethical and legal use of content, and a robust understanding of effective self-publishing/distribution.
As trans-media platforms and protocols evolve we reach a tipping point that produces many authorities on the “official story” instead of the traditional few sometimes corporate-incentive media monopolies. The MojoCo training further eliminates barriers to effective media making by tailoring new media content production and distribution training to a broader audience. Training is categorized in two parts, production (technology, and tactics for online production/distribution) and ethics (traditional and evolving standards of journalism, information verification, and content authority building).
Production: Training, Technology & The One-shot Technique: Developed through previous iterations of NBPC’s New Media Institute training program the “one-shot” technique trains media makers in efficient storytelling requiring no editing. The “one-shot” was designed to streamline the online workflow of video story telling; eliminating separate-skill and cost intensive areas like editing as participants are taught to capture stories in moments; preserving the authenticity of story telling by promoting a style that fosters journalistic transparency; and, most importantly, equipping the widest range of new and emerging online producers with the language and tools essential for improving online digital authorship, and civic engagement.
Ethics: Information Ethics & Content Authority Building: Given the potential dangers of unverified information this training will also introduce participants to certain bedrocks of traditional journalistic ethics alongside new tools for independent information vetting, and sourcing. All citizen voices who ultimately become MojoCo reporters n=must sign agreements tailored to protect the journalistic integrity of their reporting. This training will illustrate the strong link between building trust and a personal audience through consistent, dependable information. We will also be sharing case studies, instructive exercises and other citizen media producer success stories.
If you are seeking a collaboration with MojoCo, or to discuss implementing the MojoCo training curriculum at your event, please contact us. It is best to reach out to us at least 6-8 weeks before the scheduled training date.
