Mobile Media Toolkit

Janet Gunter, our guest writer, describes how reporters at @Verdade, a newspaper in Mozambique, used mobile phones and social media to cover a hotly contested election.

Note: This guest post is the second in a series by Janet Gunter that looks at how a newspaper in Mozambique is using mobile tech to engage readers. Here is more information on how to submit a guest post.

In December 2011, weekly newspaper @Verdade deployed journalists to three key central and northern Mozambican cities, where mayoral by-elections were held. The small team of three, supported by newsroom staff and editors in Maputo, were able to provide real-time coverage of these elections via mobile phone. The newspaper’s Facebook wall and Tweets became a crucial source of information for the whole country. 

While mayoral elections may seem insignificant, this election was seen as an important test of Mozambique’s democracy in advance of 2013 presidential elections. All eyes were on Quelimane, the capital of Zambézia province, where candidate Manuel de Araújo’s proven popularity had the country wondering, was it possible for the opposition to win another major city?

Real-time Reports Let Your Audience Follow Along as Events Unfold

The newspaper’s Facebook page served as the communications hub during the elections.  An editor aggregated tweets into mini-posts and posted photo albums and videos that the journalists sent in with their Blackberrys to the over 8000 active fans in Mozambique. 

The editor also curated content from other sources on the Facebook wall, such as Facebook posts from De Araújo’s campaign (ruling party Frelimo did not make similar use of Facebook), from a TV journalist, and from citizen reporters like an NGO worker who was also reporting via mobile in disputed Quelimane city. 

Prior to the election, @Verdade’s reporters participated in a Twitter and social media crash course. Trainers used the Mobile Media Toolkit, specifically its tips on photography and mobile reporting “preparedness.” 

All of the reporters used the Blackberry Twitter app. Blackberries are the most common smartphone in Mozambique. 

Each reporter tweeted using his personal Twitter handle: Editor Rui Lamarques is @LamarquesRui in Quelimane, Northern correspondent Hélder Shirangano is @Shirangano in Cuamba and reporter Víctor Bulande is @VictorBulande in Pemba. (There was some drama when Shirangano’s Blackberry was stolen in the days before the election and the newspaper had to scramble to get him a new one.) (Twitpic of Cuamba, left.)

Newspaper owner Erik Charas -- who has a global following as @ECharas -- also contributed on his personal Twitter stream from Quelimane. The newspaper’s Twitter handle is @VerdadeMz. At the time, it had around 1600 followers, and it retweeted most of the reporter’s tweets using Tweetdeck, amplifying the individual coverage from the reporters. 

A number of electoral violations were reported in real-time, such as the presence of police in close proximity to the polling stations in Quelimane. The newspaper also followed opposition candidate De Araújo as he sought to find out why police had arrested one of his youth campaigners, tweeting images of the sleepy police station.

Reporters in Pemba and Cuamba reported frustrations of voters with incorrect lists and low turnouts, respectively. (These examples are taken from a collection of the highlights from the coverage on Storify.)

These tweets, photos, and videos gave readers the feeling of accompanying the process as it unfolded. While radio and TV were able to report at key times of the day, they were not able to sustain a steady flow of information from the opening of the polls until the vote counts finished. 

Hotly Contested Quelimane

There were fears that the election in Quelimane would be too close to call and that fraud was possible after the evening’s vote count at polling stations. The newspaper planned to have reporters photograph each of the dozens of declarations of vote counts that were posted outside of Quelimane polling stations, so that they could be scrutinized by citizens if there was any discrepancy with final counts released by the National Electoral Commission. 

Reporters in the field were armed with extra batteries and strong flashlights to transmit these images via Blackberry. The newsroom had alerted its production department that they would need to be on standby to edit poor-quality images (for example, this one). Moreover, if there was real fear of a contested result, the production department was on call to prepare the images of the biggest polling stations for the print edition, which had to go to press the morning after the election.

None of this turned out to be necessary given the crushing victory of opposition candidate Manuel de Araújo. The tweets, photos and video sent by newsroom chief Rui Lamarques from Quelimane convinced incredulous Facebook readers in Maputo of the defeat of the ruling party. (Even though some reported only believing the results when state TV transmitted images of crowds cheering Manuel de Araujo.)

The Future of MoJo Election Reporting 

Reactions from readers were overwhelmingly positive. A reader thanked the newspaper on its Facebook wall the day after the election for its comprehensive coverage “starting from the eve of elections to the day, narrating the bureaucratic hurdles whether fraud or police involvement or in the vote count [...] this is first rate journalism”. 

Readers were aware how new this kind of reporting is, with one saying “congrats for keeping us informed in real time”. Another reader praised what he called the “collaborative” coverage - alluding to the use of citizen reports. 

A reader in Capetown pointed out in a tweet, “This helps us Mozambicans outside of the country.” 

One reader said he did not know how to pay back the newspaper, “but I will give you all I have now, my time reading articles and also reporting.”

Facebook statistics indicate a spike in views of posts (green) on the newspaper’s page on the day of the vote (December 7).

The most commented and liked item was a mock-up of the cover of the print edition with a photo of De Araújo that played with the name of the newspaper (The Truth), reading “It’s true”.

Obviously, the numbers, with views in the low thousands, cannot compare with broadcast media. Perhaps the apt analogy is Facebook users in Mozambique are like Twitter users in the rest of the world - a small group, but potentially quite influential.

While exhausting for the small team involved from @Verdade, the feedback from journalist peers and readers contributed to a feeling that this kind of reporting is way forward. Given how labor intensive and ultimately local this kind of reporting is, is is questionable how to achieve this level scrutiny of the process in a national election in a country with a largely rural population. Clearly, “MoJos” need to figure out to scale their work in collaboration and partnership with the systematic SMS election monitoring efforts in many elections, as well as crowdsourced citizen reports tha both will play a critical role in covering a national election. 

Local mobile journalism successes like that of Verdade’s coverage are most definitely a start.

Janet Gunter is an American/British novice anthropologist and blogger, an ex-“aid worker” interested in communication, technology and new economies. In 2011, she worked as an adviser for @Verdade newspaper in Maputo, Mozambique.

Here is more information on how to submit a guest post.