Mobile technology making news more democratic, says social media expert

WHEN AL-JAZEERA's Cairo office was stormed during the recent turmoil in Egypt, it was "only a matter of hours before they remembered mobile media-disseminating apps, such as Audioboo", recalls social technologist Christian Payne, aka @documentally.

"They switched over. And the impact of that audio recording, sent from a mobile device, and shareable, was phenomenal. Some people were saying al-Jazeera have just amplified their voice by having their office closed."

For Payne, far from being a temporary make do transmission, al-Jazeera's back-pocket newsdesk is part of an unstoppable democratisation of news that has traditional media outlets floundering and resentful.

"How dare you think that your truth is any truer than anybody else's truth," he says of old media.

"If journalists embrace storymaking, then they will survive. You can curate story-making channels such as Storify now and be nominated for a Pulitzer prize."

Payne was in Dublin this week teaching a video workshop at Windmill Lane. It was attended by businesses, charities and PR firms whose "business model has almost become defunct overnight". It's a point he intends to underline in an address to the forthcoming Mash Media shindig he has called "The Death of the Press Release".

He used to work for a newspaper before becoming a freelance photographer and videographer, travelling to Iraq, Jordan and Pakistan, often at the behest of organisations such as the UN and the British Council.

But it was when he flipped his Land Rover in a rural area on his way to an assignment that he realised the power of social media.

He recorded a short, hilarious, video of his predicament, which was posted to his Twitter account, complete with his location. A follower located nearby asked him if he needed a crane to winch the Land Rover. A car-hire firm rang to offer him a vehicle for the rest of his trip. Someone spotted his registration and reminded him he was a member of the AA.

"I dislocated my shoulder. But it popped back in as I got out," he says cheerfully. "It was the most important video I ever shot, because it taught me about my network."

For his income, he avails of patronisation - "Is that a word?" - sponsorship from organisations, some charitable, some "corporate-y". It means he can travel to places he wants to go, do their project for cash, then his own project for love.

"Sensationalism wins again," Payne says of his Mash Media presentation. "The press release isn't technically dead, it's just regenerated, like Doctor Who in a kind of way - if you want to add a geeky element."

Mediacontact.iewill host the Exploding Media Mash Conference 2011 on May 9th and 10th at Croke Park, Dublin