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5 highlights from MoJoCon Day 2

Updated / Thursday, 13 Jul 2017 10:53
Snapchat sensation Nusaiba Murabak made a splash at the second day of MoJoCon.
Snapchat sensation Nusaiba Murabak made a splash at the second day of MoJoCon.

Eleanor Brooks brings you choice moments from the second day at RTÉ's international media conference focusing on mobile journalism, mobile content creation, mobile photography and new technology.

1. Snapchat Storytelling: Reaching the Millenials

The second day of MoJoCon kicked off with an all-millenial, all-female panel who were keen to impart their knowledge to some of the older audience members about how Snapchat can be used to reach out to a younger audience. There were two big takeaways from the discussion:

1. Know your audience and engage with them

2. Understand the difference in style of content between the various platforms.

The discussion culminated in a battle between Snapchat and Instagram stories, with the final speaker Emma O'Farrell, founder of Bloggerconf, championing Instagram. "For what I do, Instagram stories is the way forward."

2. TRT World - Nusaiba Murabak

Showcasing Snapchat storytelling at its most powerful, Nusaiba Murabak showed the audience some video footage that she had shot of Syrian children while covering the refugee crisis. Although the footage was fun and playful, with the children trying out adorable animal filters, Nusaiba grew emotional just watching the footage, and had clearly been profoundly touched by the experience. The videos offered a rare insight to the day-to-day life of children in Syria and showed Snapchat in its rarest, purest form.

3. Two All-Female Panels

There were two consecutive all-female panels on day two of MoJoCon, the first session titled Snapchat Storytelling, and the second Women in MoJo: Why Aren't There More?. In the second session, the panelists - which included Mashable editor Anne Marie Tomchak - said that in order to reduce sexism in the journalism industry, it needs to increase female leadership at all levels and encourage women to embrace their talent. Speaker Emma Messes from Centre for Community Journalism celebrated the accessibility of community journalism afforded by the low cost of MoJo: "MoJo and CoJo: low cost, accessible, no barriers and not gender specific."

4. "MoJo is a state of mind, not a phone."

So said MoJoCon organiser Glen Mulcahy. The same sentiment led Jamie Starboisky of the Queer Media Festival to launch a mobile filmmaking workshop called MobDoc. His workshop trained people in the LGBT community to use mobile filmmaking technology, which they then used to shoot short documentary films about issues that they felt were underrepresented in the mainstream media. His incentive captures the heart of mobile journalism - empowering individuals to create the kind of content they want to see more of.

5. So You Want to Build an App (And Become a Millionaire)

Everyone wants to become a millionaire these days - and app development might be your golden ticket. Moderator Marc Settle grilled the four panalists (non of whom, they admit, are millionaires) for their best tips, and they each offered some nuggets of wisdom. Matthew Feinberg of KineMaster emphasised getting a working product out as soon as possible, and worrying about viability later. Peggy Anne Salz, Chief Analyst of Mobile Groove, recommended thinking about your monetisation model from the early stages and mapping out your user journey. Last but not least - decide how you're going to spend your millions...

Eleanor Brooks

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