Follow Friday: Mobile-First Journalist Leonor Suárez

One of the first recipients of the world’s most creative mobile journalists in 2016, Leonor Suárez produces innovative reporting on a weekly program for a regional public television station in Asturias, Spain, as well as making documentaries with mobile devices.

A seasoned print reporter, she picked up an iPhone 5s six years ago, went inside Bolivian silver mines to shoot this award-winning story, and never looked back. Opting for a mobile-first approach provided her an access and intimacy that larger equipment can prohibit.

Being an early convert to mobile journalism, Suárez credits the transition for her ability to work through the height of the pandemic. Shortly after the coronavirus spread across Spain, she successfully continued producing her television program “Asturias Semanal” without ever leaving home.

En estos momentos la noticia está en tu casa. Por responsabilidad, para protegerte y protegernos, no podemos estar ahí. Así que tú tienes que contarnos tu historia. En @RTPAOficial queremos pasar a tu lado, sin riesgos, esta #cuarentena #Asturias #coronavirus #covis-19 pic.twitter.com/w0cy7ewqdq

— Asturias Semanal (@asturiassemanal) March 16, 2020

English translation: Right now the news is in your house. Due to responsibility, to protect you and protect ourselves, we cannot be there. So you have to tell us your story. At @RTPAOficial we want to pass by your side, without risks, this #quarantine #Asturias #coronavirus #Covid-19

Suárez pivoted quickly and used her creative thinking and willingness to break from traditional approaches to newsgathering, allowing her to leverage the ease and advantage of mobile devices. She and her production team began coaching non-journalist contributors in shooting their own video.

She summarized and shared her approach for coaching her innovative newsgathering process in this interview and the thread following this tweet.

Since returning to recording in the field, she continues to find new adaptations, advancing mojo practice.

In this recent piece, Suárez combines a number of apps to render a video package that pushes the boundaries of what can be produced entirely on mobile devices.

While viewing work by Suárez provides an opportunity to learn, she regularly offers glimpses behind-the-scenes of her process and workflow. In this tweet, she reveals how she combined and chartmaking app Chartistic with the video editing app LumaFusion to include full-screen graphic data presentation as part of the video package.

The apps Chartistic and @LumaTouch get along well for editing #mojo stories with charts like👇🏻https://t.co/zMhuqV1iH6

Chartistic gives endless possibilities for📈@LumaTouch allows 6 video + 6 audio tracks

👇🏻 Don’t panic with timeline. It’s easy to do

Story: @RTPAOficial pic.twitter.com/8huS7J5ezn

— Leonor Suárez (@Leonorsuarezro) December 6, 2020

The whole experience of becoming a mobile-first journalist has inspired her practice and inspired a path of continued learning as she overcomes challenges and widens her efforts.

Her mojo evolution has inspired additional side projects such as this new documentary previews.

First summer at home in years gave me time to start a #mojo project I had been researching a long time. This video promo is just the first step. The goal is producing a web series and an interactive documentary. Shot with an #iphone7plus w @FiLMiCPro, edit on #iPad w @LumaTouch pic.twitter.com/1tq8WP4nlP

— Leonor Suárez (@Leonorsuarezro) August 31, 2020

To learn more, follow Leonor Suárez on the following platforms.

Twitter – @LeonorSuárezro
Instagram – @periodismoconmovil_mojo
YouTube – Leonor Suárez Periodismo con móvil #Mojo

MoJo, short for mobile journalism, is redefining the news industry across the globe as journalists increasingly leverage the power, creativity, and technology available with the smartphone to produce and publish media storytelling for distribution across a range of platforms. 

This series will highlight reporters leading the field of mobile journalists.