Shaping the media with mobiles

Four weeks on from the London bombings, the news business in Britain has changed forever. The BBC gives us here a detailed account of the photos they received from citizen reporters and how they - and other newsrooms used them.

"The BBC received 50 pictures from the public within an hour of the first bomb going off on 7 July. By the weekend it had 1,000 images and dozens of video clips sent by e-mail and direct from mobile phones.

Two mobile phone sequences were used on the Ten O'clock News, powerfully conveying the claustrophobic atmosphere on the smoke-filled underground, and a still image from a phone dominated the BBC News website. Around 22,000 texts and e-mail messages poured in with personal testimonies on the first day.

Other newsrooms were also inundated, and soon actively soliciting the public's help.

By 21 June, the day of the four attempted bombings, and the arrest of the suspects a week later, a routine had been established. Everyone with a mobile phone or a DV camera knew the power of their images and eyewitness accounts - and what to do with them.

... Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, said the public is "much more media-savvy" than before.

Most images from mobile phones won't be paid for. The BBC insists the pictures it receives are royalty-free, to be published in any way it chooses. Sky News says it depends on their quality

... The rise of the citizen-journalist is a global phenomenon - witness the Toronto plane crash this week, in which escaping passengers took the time to photograph the scene.

It does raise issues of concern: About privacy - if you're a victim do you want your picture plastered over the front pages?; authenticity - how can you tell the images are genuine?; and possible interference in the course of justice - the police ordered a news blackout on the morning they went in to arrest suspects.

But the mobile phone genie can't be put back in the bottle."

emily | 5:46 PM | Citizens as Camera Phone Reporters |
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