smallworldnews:

Small World News is excited to announce that we are designing a yet to be named android app. The app will support citizen journalists and professionals alike in the production of multimedia news packages.

Specifically, this open source app enables existing and aspiring journalists all over the world to produce and publish professional-grade news with their Android phone, as safely and securely as possible. It provides an interactive training guide, walkthroughs, and templates for users to follow as they plan their piece and capture media. The app then helps assemble the content into a finished format, with cuts and basic graphics.

Our long time colleagues at the Guardian Project will be handling the development work for the app. They’re one of the best android development organizations out there and we should know. We’ve been testing out their amazing suite of applications for a few years now.

Poor digital and mobile security are an increasing threat to journalists and their sources. Partnering with the Guardian Project, will enable us to produce an app that considers the needs of media producers and sources over the entire journalistic process.

Initially, this work is being sponsored by two organizations, Radio Free Asia and Free Press Unlimited.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine native Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries.

Free Press Unlimited is a Dutch media development NGO active in over forty countries, focusing on strengthening the capacity of local media professionals and media organizations.

This app will help improve the quality of mobile reporting, while ensuring a more safe and secure model of connecting creators with their audience than currently exists. We’re thrilled to be envisioning what’s next for mobile journalism. We will be blogging our work as we complete different parts, and we’ll be inviting beta testers to get involved later in the fall. So follow along our blog if you’d like a chance to be included in the early tests.