How the smartphone has changed political journalism

If I want to clarify a politician’s position on a detail of policy for a comment article, a request that could have taken hours in pre-smartphone days can now be dealt with in seconds

When I started reporting in parliament for The Independent, in 1995, most of the business of journalism was conducted by email, landline and pager. If you needed to speak to an MP, you had to phone their office or their pager service and ask them to call you back.

Occasionally you got through to the person him or herself straight away. I was one of many who got through to Denis Healey, former deputy Labour leader, then in the House of Lords, when he pretended to be a Chinese laundry.

Now everything is faster and more transparent. If a journalist wants a comment from an MP about a breaking news story, it is probably already on their Twitter account. Otherwise a text or WhatsApp message will often produce a quick reply.