Where the Mo-Jos (Mobile Journalists) Live

Victoria Price, Brittany Devane, Marie Torto, Professor Susan Walker, Keesa McKoy, Matt Reed, and Justin Bourke at Getty Images center at London Olympics Press Center.

Photo courtesy of Keesa McKoy.

Ever wonder how 23,000 journalists are able to cover the Olympics, with its scattered venues, enormous crowds and transportation delays? Boston University students visited the Media Press Center at the London Olympics Park to find one of the biggest newsrooms in the world. International journalists connected to their news outlets from hundreds of desks, filing articles, photographs and videos, all from laptop computers. When not reporting and filing, journalists are able to take advantage of on-site restaurants, bars, even a beauty salon.

Hosted by Getty Images manager Eugene Cariaga, BU students were also able to test the new technology being used at the Games, such as the new 3-D images of basketball, requiring special glasses. Getty photojournalists are capturing the highlights of the Olympics, both at the finish lines, but also underwater and overhead with robotic cameras.

Getty Images command control center is staffed by editors who receive images live, directly from Olympic events and are able to edit, caption and transmit those images to international news outlets with an astonishing two minute turnaround time. (Yes, they make mistakes, but also almost instantaneous corrections).

Getty Images photographers are expected to capture more than 1 million images of the London Olympics, publishing nearly 60,000 images with a track record of being the first company to license imagery online.

For more behind the lenses, see this video report by BU’s Brittany Devane.