NEW YORK - Anchor and special correspondent Soledad O?Brien stressed the importance of mobile devices for her reporting and for CNN?s brand during the opening keynote address at the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Forum.

The nature of media has changed?publishers and broadcast networks can no longer simply count on consumers sitting back and consuming their content passively in front of a television or desktop computer. CNN prioritizes engaging consumers by encouraging them to interact with reporters, and thus its brand, via Twitter, the mobile Web and applications, and even participate in the content-creation process.

?We are on many platforms?on TV, online and now on mobile,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?People are not necessarily in front of their TV, they?re not necessarily on their computer, so now we go to viewers wherever they are, which helps us build our brand and leads to better journalism.

?I want people to connect to what I do, and what I do is tell stories,? she said. ?The more I reach out to them, the more they reach out to me, which creates a virtuous circle.

?It builds my brand, it builds CNN?s brand and it leads to better journalism, so it?s a win-win-win.?

The mobile channel has become a top priority for CNN.

In March, Turner Broadcasting expanded its partnership with mobile broadcast television company Flo TV Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., to bring consumers CNN Mobile programming (see story).

Many brands have advertised on CNN?s mobile Web site and within its various applications (see story).

Mobile reinventing media
Ms. O?Brien said that before the advent of mobile devices, she had to be swift on her feet, because when a story was breaking or a court case was wrapping up, reporters would try to bully people out of the way to beat each other to the pay phone in order to file their story first.

Then came the days of pagers, and a thing called the Internet, which initially only one person could access at a time in the newsroom in which Ms. O?Brien was working.

?As reporters we relied on what we gathered in the field, but the Internet was user-unfriendly and you couldn?t take it with you,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?It was not mobile in ways that were useful in the field.?

As the technology got smaller and faster, the relevance for reporters in the field began increasing dramatically. When the Internet moved onto mobile devices, the benefits for reporters?and publishers?increased exponentially.

Ms. O?Brien cited her work in Haiti covering devastating earthquake as a good example of how mobile has the potential to make her and her peers better reporters.

After being choppered in to the United States embassy in the Dominican Republic en route to Haiti?s capital of Port aux Prince a stone?s throw from the presidential palace, the first priority for CNN?s team was to set up communications.

While there was Internet, generator power at their makeshift headquarters was limited to a relatively short window from 6 p.m. to midnight.

?We figured out how to get communications in first then started bringing the story to the world,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?Our mobile devices allowed us to tell our story around the clock and get tremendous feedback from the audience, which was able to improve our reporting.

?I was astounded that I never lost my T-Mobile BlackBerry connection,? she said. ?We drove through Port Aux Prince, taking good pictures on my BlackBerry, Tweeting and working on my story for the evening news cast focusing on orphans and orphanage stories.

?People joining me on Facebook and following me on Twitter had children in Haiti they were trying to get out, so there was a two-way flow of information, which notably did not require us to go through government, rescuers or law enforcement.?

That constant level of interaction with her audience raised the quality of Ms. O?Brien?s coverage?and the level of engagement with her audience?to another level.

?People following me on Twitter and the mobile Web site 24 hours a day even though I was only reporting live on the morning shows and evening shows,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?I could update everyone as I traveled through the country using my mobile device, which in many ways is upholding the promise of the CNN brand.

?Adoptive parents who saw the child they were working on adopting would reach out to me saying ?Have you seen my baby,?? she said. ?People were using their mobile devices to donate to the cause, delivering food and supplies to the very orphanages we were covering.

?I was filing updates via Twitter and the mobile Web?mobile makes us better reporters because our mobile devices gave us a way to continue telling that story beyond the live shot that evening.?

In the wake of a ?terrifying? aftershock when Ms. O?Brien witnessed someone jumping out of a window to save himself, she began sleeping in her shoes, ready to flee her room at a moment's notice.

?I kept around only the items I would need: my notepad, my BlackBerry and my charger,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?I tweeted, reported online and on the mobile Web, and I was the first person to report [the aftershock] for people who were not in front of their TV or computer.

?I used my mobile device to let my family know I was safe and to give our viewers a sense of what people in Haiti were going through, how terrifying it was to be there,? she said. ?Reporting over Twitter was the only way we could report from the field to a live audience.?

Mobile lent Ms. O?Brien?s reporting a sense of immediacy that was impossible in past eras.

?I was able to take pictures using my BlackBerry and post them immediately,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?I was able to capture the sense of emergency, because we were there, we never stopped working and we continued to report behind the scenes.

?Parents, family members and friends were also following on their mobile devices or online,? she said.

CNN is creating content specifically for mobile, which is an area of huge growth from a business perspective and a reporter?s perspective.

CNN?s mobile site is available in 100-plus countries, and Ms. O?Brien said that the mobile audience is more diverse than the wired Web news audience, with 12 percent more unique mobile visitors being Hispanic and 20 percent more African-American.

?The ability to personalize that content is critical to our success and provides a way to have an individual connection with the people, reaching out to them on all platforms to serve them better, and let them connect with me,? Ms. O?Brien said. ?The better relationship I have with the audience, the more they follow me to the next story

?That builds loyalty in the audience and builds a virtuous circle when they reach out to us with stories,? she said. ?Much of that is done on mobile devices.

?To be able to join in a conversation about my work with viewers is a big plus.?

Mobile marketing on display
After mentioning the fact that CNN?s In America series is continuing with ?Gary and Tony Have a Baby? on June 24, Ms. O?Brien asked the audience at the Waldorf=Astoria to text the keyword SOLEDAD to the short code 21534.

Those who did so received an MMS with the text ?For more information on Soledad?s upcoming documentaries this year, go to http://m.cnn.com/campaign/inamerica and a link to a streaming video preview of Gary and Tony.

Mogreet powered the mobile video/MMS campaign, as well as the on-site Mobile Experience Lab.

?Soledad?s keynote was a really big moment that showed how mobile has impacted her stories from around the world, especially her coverage of the Haiti earthquake,? said James Citron, CEO of Mogreet, Los Angeles. ?Attendees that text in SOLEDAD to 21534 get a killer MMS about stories that she hasn?t shared, upcoming stories she?s about to release on CNN.

?We?ve been working with Soledad and the MMA to put this together,? he said. ?It?s part of a bold effort to integrate mobile technology throughout the show.?