The role of citizen journalism has been clear in the horrific London bombings. Media ask citizens to send in photos and videos from recent events, the latest example from CNN, asking for footage of hurricane Dennis (via Tim Porter). Here are some articles about the role of citizen journalism in the London incidents.
– Editor & Publisher: Newspapers Aided By Phone Cameras in London Coverage
“Within minutes of the first blast we had received images from the public and we had 50 images within an hour. Now there are thousands. We had a gallery of still photographs from the public online, and they were incredibly powerful.”
– The Guardian: Public provides new dimension to media coverage
“Several U.S. television executives said that as far as they knew, it was the first time video taken from a cellular phone was used during coverage of a major story.”
– SR P1 Kulturnytt: Bloggar och privata mobiltelefonfilmer kompletterar nyhetsrapporteringen
“Journalistik och ögonvittnesskildringar smälter samman när bloggar och privatpersoners mobilfotografier blir en del av nyhetsmediernas rapportering om Londonattentaten.”
– The Christian Science Monitor: Citizen journalists pass the test in London
“The BBC later reported that its website had received almost 1000 photos taken by cellphone and 20 pieces of amateur video.”
– The Boston Globe: Camera phones play major role in coverage
“The London news service ITV News began to periodically display phone numbers to which viewers were invited to send text messages or video phone pictures. It and other networks have since broadcast many viewer-created pictures and video clips.”
– The Washington Post: Witnesses to History
“Rather than relying on unfocused, rambling blog entries, the London papers and the Beeb ran pithy postings from the people who were there. They ran alongside the staff reporters’ accounts and presumably with the same amount of editing.”
– The Washington Post: Eyewitness Journalism: Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster
“Some of the most intimate images of yesterday’s bomb blasts in London came from cell phones equipped with cameras and video recorders, demonstrating how a technology originally marketed as entertainment has come to play a significant role in up-to-the-minute news.”
– Tim Porter: London Bombings: The Unread Newspaper
“The first-day story no longer belongs to newspapers – and hasn’t for a long time. It isn’t even the property of professional journalists any longer.”
– The Wall Street Journal: Bloggers and Photographers Chronicle Chaos in London
“As journalists scrambled to cover the London bomb blasts, ordinary citizens went online to share pictures snapped by cameraphones and reports of what they saw. At Technorati.com, a search engine for blogs, eight of the top 10 searches Thursday were related to the blasts.”
– The Salt Lake Tribune: Technology is changing how big media cover stories
“Welcome to the world of citizen newsgathering, where technology and the age-old desire to communicate hot information, be it hard news or soft gossip, are converging and forcing traditional news outlets to dramatically change the way they cover big news events.”
More: some 10,000+ posts about the London bombings via Technorati.
Some links via Hypergene’s linkblog.
Technorati Tags: London 7/7, London Bombing