A french perspective on London Bombings' and Citizen Reporters

Guillaume Fraissard et Michel Guerrin in French daily Le Monde, write about the live pictures/videos captured by citizens' cameraphones at the scene of the London bombings and remind us that this is not the first time citizens have provided the media with pictures or video coverage from a scene of an event or major trajedy.

Air catastrophes have often been documented by amateur videos. But probably the most famous citizen reporting was the amateur video of JFK's assassination in 1966, taken by by Abraham Zapruder and the 90 second video clip of white cops beating up Rodney King in 1991, taken by onlooker Michael Crooks from his patio.

What's really new here, is how images and videos can be uploaded to the Internet in real time, and how with the pervasiveness of cameraphones, anyone will have the potential to become a citizen reporters.

[via Gilles Klein's blog Le Phare]

emily | 11:13 AM | Citizens as Camera Phone Reporters |
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