Mobile phones and putting PR on the ‘fourth screen’
February 5th, 2009 by Tim Greenhalgh
I’ve just stumbled across a really sharp scholarly entry on Wikipedia, via Plumbot, on the mobile phone and documentary practice that made me wonder again about the use of the device as a rich-media communications tool in PR. In Documentary Practice the authors pull together a fascinating set of articles and links as they examine the theory and forms of creating documentaries.
It’s good to be reminded that all visual forms of communication are constructed and focussed through the point of view of the creator, either consciously or unconsciously distorting a ‘truth’. But also, the Wikipedia article brought out the need for everyone in the creative arenas to examine the use of the “fourth screen” – mobile phone – as well as its three older siblings, film, TV and computer.
The article describes, among many other good things, how in 2007 graduate students of The New School in New York produced an experimental five-minute meta-documentary shot on three mobiles. The author describes how it “explored the possibilities of mobile media devices as a medium for documentary practice by using them to restate Dziga Vertov’s perspectives on filmic truth as expressed in his film: Man With a Movie Camera.”
At the risk of tipping into pseudery, that is one of my favourite films, an exhilarating and challenging piece of art from the Soviet era, before the implosion and decay of the system. Anyway, I wonder if we can use the fourth screen, and play to its unique qualities, both as a display device and a capture tool. Could we respond rapidly to breaking news or comment by filming our clients’ responses, our own views or have them film their own views to send to us for distribution?
Would we then distribute the file across the mobile web or via a website? Would we have time to rapidly edit and make a richer response with elements from other sources?
The impact might be significant and would also help to shake us out of the text-driven responses (including this!) that dominate the way we work at the moment. It would be great to hear your views.
Tags: documentary, Man with a Movie Camera, mobile phone, mobile PR, The New School, Wikipedia
