July 11, 2005
Mobile phones in the news
Jonathan Steel's Blog on Silicon.com, goes against the trend or simply plays devil's advocate, by raising the issue of the reliability of citizens' cameraphone video and picture reporting down the road.
"Like blogs, who will attest to the accuracy and veracity of the pictures? Will such blanket coverage help or hinder our understanding of events such as the bombings last week? Will it afford us an unequalled opportunity to get closer to what it was actually like? And do we really want to? Will it give us more information or is it just voyeurism?
Up to now, news managers have used their discretion (and sometimes Photoshop) in this respect - but how long will it be before the pressure to shock anew will lead to unedited and unexpurgated pictures? And what would it mean with regard to the rights of the victims or their families?
I suspect that this issue will be one which we will be grappling with in the very near future. I only hope that some form of sense prevails."
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