Reports in and from smartphones: A new way of doing journalism

Abstract

In the current ubiquitous society mobile devices have a predominant role. Over time they have permeated the global culture and have become the main authors of a journalistic change which affects numerous levels: emission, transmission and reception of information. While it is true that, in its conception, the information designed to the "fourth screen" had to meet the patterns of brevity, clarity, concision and accuracy, mobile editorial platforms such as The Atavist or The Atlantic have demonstrated that the "new journalism" have also a place in handheld devices. This communication meddles in the presence of the journalistic report in the web and mobile app versions. The aim is to determine whether the contents addressed in depth have also a place in the new platforms and to discover whether we are faced with the appearance of a new genre with particular characteristics. To that effect, the mobile apps of the four most read digital media of Spain, according Comscore (2015) to are taken as a reference. The method is based on an analysis of content which deals with issues related to the quantification of this genre, its structure, design and the presence of the multimedia language, interactive and hypertextual. The study is complementary with a reflection about the features which should be followed in order to produce specific contents from mobile phones. The results show that the report has a secondary role in the mobile apps of the analysed newspapers, besides lacking self-identity.