Pulitzer Prize winning reporter searches for his own mojo!

By Nai'a Watson and Rachel Manuel

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As mobile journalists, known more commonly as Mojos, are being hyped as the new-and-improved breed of reporters, Hawai‘i-born Byron Acohido, who is a mix of a traditional newshound and a multimedia-savy news producer, seeks to find his own niche as a writer. Acohido, who is an award-winning business and technology reporter for USA Today, was recently at UH Mänoa to speak to journalism students on the presently changing landscape of the news industry. He said that in the past, 80 to 90 percent of his main job as a print reporter was getting the basic facts. He added however, “Now I have to think about … this notion of being a Mojo, a mobile journalist who thinks of everything from audio to video and mutli-media."

Hawaii-born Byron Acohido, who is a reporter for The Seattle Times, was recently on campus to address the Journalism 401 class on the rising breed of reporters, known as Mojos.

The mobile journalist

Mojos are reporters equipped with laptops, cameras and audio recording devices, allowing for news stories to be uploaded in minutes, right from a reporter’s car.

Gannett Inc. is at the forefront of the Mojo movement, and Acohido’s employer, USA Today, is one of Gannett's largest holdings. Acohido said that smaller, local newspapers are benefiting the most. He said that USA Today is making the transition into a more Mojo-styled journalism, but its reporters are still a long way from carrying their own cameras and microphones. He said that because USA Today is such a large corporate entity, that change is happening more slowly.

In a December 2006 blog article posted on The Editors Weblog site, titled “Mobile Journalists (Mojos) are getting back to grassroots,” Mojos were described as reporters who are, “truly going back to grassroots journalism…. but with the aid of new technology.” The story said that smaller, local papers are benefiting the most from the Mojo phenomenon because local communities are able to get news that is more relevant and almost in real time.

Conversion in the journalism industry

But Acohido also said that the era of the Mojo is having a strong effect on the way he tells stories; as he initiates each story, he must think ahead and consider what the photography staff needs, how to better illustrate ideas with charts and graphs, and how he can recreate stories across multiple platforms from print, to web, to video and even blogs. “The whole newspaper industry, the journalism industry … is in a real interesting time," Acohido said. Though he thinks it is exciting, he adds it is also overwhelming. "It’s trying to figure out how to bring together this whole convergence thing; to bring the internet and print and broadcast together …” He said that the next generation, be they true Mojos or just well-studied reporters, has the opportunity to bring the internet and the information age together with fresh, creative and new ideas.

Acohido said that since people are demanding more information, at a faster rate and with more bells and whistles like video packages, collaboration between everyone in a newsroom has become mandatory. He said that it is through this pressure to produce, and to do so at an ever increasing speed, that the idea of a Mojo was brought to life.

Myth of the mojo

But is it realistic to turn every reporter into a Mojo? Acohido said, "I think the pure mobile journalist is just sort of this mythical thing almost. It's the guy you send to Iraq and run around with the troops."

The source of the pressure to produce and to hire more Mojos is that the newspaper business does not know what to do about the loss of readership, the loss of circulation and the loss of advertising, according to Acohido. The current frenzy within the news industry to find a solution is simply fueled by the prospect of a Mojo because it seems like a good way to produce more with less expense. The article from The Editors Weblog site said, "The cost of technology in the form of mobiles, laptops and digital camera’s is unlikely to outweigh the cost of keeping someone in expensive office space."

Whether this shift is good or bad, Acohido is unsure. He sees both opportunities and drawbacks. His main concern is the quality of news ultimately be produced. “You can’t really fight the system … the pressure is always there to produce and move on, produce and move on … so you have to work and deliver in order to get to do the bigger stories,” Acohido said. “But every individual has to push back and say ‘But yeah, what about the quality?’” he said, mentioning that the pressure is only getting more intense as the industry evolves. “I mean really, at the end of the day, it’s really the content that matters.”

He said one cannot lose sight of content, though it is easy to. Communication between reporters, editors, photographers and designers and giving each other ideas has become more important than ever. "Whatever job you end up with, you have to team up. You have to collaborate to deliver that content. “I’m not going to be a total mobile journalist. I’m too late in my career for that,” said Acohido, who believes that the news industry will benefit more from the fact that the next generation of reporters has been raised in a different kind of society and they innately think in a different way.

The digital generation

"You're digital natives, so to speak," he said to the journalism students. "You're more absorbed in this whole thing...I think you guys have broader bandwidths than I do," he said and added that while he can only do one thing at a time, the younger generation has an easier time juggling. He said he works harder now, than when he started, just to keep up. Acohido feels it would be much better for up-and-coming journalists to “have a broad sense of all the pieces” so they can move between various media with ease. "I think if you specialize and become really good at one part and then be able to work with other pieces, that's what's really going to take you ahead.

"So if you guys go for it, you'd be the generation that really makes the power of the internet and information- age come together."

Acohido, 52, was born and raised in Hawai‘i. He is a 1973 graduate of Damien Memorial High School and a 1977 graduate from the University of Oregon’s highly respected journalism program with a BA in journalism. He is was in Honolulu to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Society of Professional Journalists' fall Press Club event, which gives gave UH journalism students a chance to meet with industry professionals. Acohido won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for uncovering aviation safety issues while reporting for the Seattle Times. His series on cyber crime, Zero Day Threat, has won him awards and he is currently working on a book covering the same topic.