YouTube Direct: Why Citizen Journalists Shouldn't Care

PC World on YouTube Direct, launched yesterday and which enables amateur videographers and reporters to upload their footage to news Web sites.

For the mass media, it's a great tool. They get first-hand footage of breaking news without even having to look for it, probably for free (YouTube says the news sites can work out their own terms of service, which I assume would include the right to publish, transmit, re-publish, and so on). Precious time and money is saved.

What's in it for the so-called citizen journalist? Not much, unless you're still clinging to the idea that getting your name and 15-second video clip on a news Web site or broadcast is a big deal.

... YouTube Direct is a nice gesture from Google to the mainstream media. It's an attempt to connect news organizations to the citizen journalists they secretly loathe, but it assumes, falsely, that those citizen journalists need the news organizations in the first place.

The Guardian on TMZ reporting

A very interesting read in The Guardian on TMZ and Harvey Levin.

This part of cameraphone contributors:

... The site is updated constantly, feeding its readers tips and stories almost as quickly as they come in. One story last Friday on an American reality TV star boasted it had been posted just 30 minutes after TMZ staff learned about it. The site is full of vidoes, taking advantage of its staff, freelancers, tourists and just about anyone with a camera phone who happens to spot a famous face. TMZ is the main beneficiary of a technological culture which makes doing anything private almost impossible.

TMZ has pushed the boundaries of what journalism means, not only breaking old-fashioned scoops, but also relying on video content sent in by a vast network of staff, contacts and ordinary people.

Read full article

Google chief: Iran can't control the net

Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt, speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, said that it was at their "peril" that regimes such as Iran attempt to impose blackouts on media such as TV, internet, radio and mobile phones. The Guardian reports.

He added that the search giant, which owns video sharing website YouTube, always tried to explain to regimes that restrict communication that, ultimately, attempts to isolate a population fail.

"We have lots of lawyers, lawyers in every one of these countries," Schmidt said. "We explain if they do this [block freedom of speech and communication] what will happen. Sometimes they moderate their behaviour and sometimes not. If they don't listen to us it is at their peril."

Speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk following the seminar, Schmidt expanded on this point: "By 'peril' I mean it is what the citizens will do, citizens can no longer be restricted by the kind of strategies evil dictatorships do... you can't keep people in the dark."

Image from Wired.

CNN: We Don’t Need YouTube and Twitter to Tell Us What’s Going on in Iran–We’ve Got iReport

CNN's iReport is the news service’s attempt to create its own user-generated news hub. It’s supposed be to be able attract eyeballs on its own and in some cases, feed the Web site and the cable channel with free content donated by viewers. Peter Kafka reports for All Things Digital.

CNN says it has been using the site heavily to augment its Iran coverage. From a press release it sent out earlier this week: “Since last week, we’ve received 4555 iReport submissions related to Iran–including more than 1600 this past Saturday and Sunday alone, and an additional 689 just yesterday.

To date, 150 of the Iran-related iReports have been vetted and verified by CNN producers for use on CNN air or online–something the likes of YouTube or Flickr just aren’t equipped to do given their lack of newsgathering infrastructure.” (Yesterday CNN told me it added another 399 Iran-related iReports, and that seven had made it onto air. Presumably those numbers are still increasing.)

CNN producers have contacted the people who sent in all of the Iran-related iReports it has featured on the network and at least verified that they are who they say they are. That in itself seems worthwhile, and maybe even worth bragging about.

Related: - Unverifiable Citizens' Journalism in Iran

Iran bans prayers for 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan

This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community.

Iran's regime has issued a ban on memorials for a young woman whose death has become the focal point of protests against the clerical regime. The Telegraph reports.

Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was dubbed the Angel of Freedom after a video which appeared to show her being shot by a government sniper was posted on the internet.

Graphic scenes show Neda – her name means "the call" – walking with her father among demonstrators, then separately when she was shot as well as attempts to save her life.

Some online posts speculated the image would rank alongside that of the unnamed man standing in front of a tank in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the summary execution of a Vietnamese Communist prisoner by Colonel Nugyen Ngoc Loan in 1968.

Footage was posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was viewed by tens of thousands. Messages of sympathy and outrage flooded the internet following the posting of the videos.

The Iranian authorities have now sent out a circular to mosques banning collective prayers for the woman.

Mobile footage sent to BBC Persian TV shows

People in Iran are continuing to contact the BBC's interactive services with their accounts and pictures of recent unrest as tens of thousands again take to the streets of the capital, Tehran, in protest at election results.

Read full article on the BBC.

Jimmy Carr could face police investigation after 'taking photo inside court'

UPDATE MAY 15:Jimmy Carr, will not face legal action after apparently taking a photograph inside a court building and posting it on microblogging site Twitter, police have confirmed.

Initial post May 14: British comedian Jimmy Carr is facing a police investigation after apparently taking a photograph inside a court building, reports The Telegraph.

Carr, 35, who was in court on Wednesday to answer a charge of speeding at 50mph in a 40mph limit posted the picture on his Twitter website.

He is believed to have used his mobile phone to take a picture of a sign banning photographs from being taken inside the magistrates court in Sudbury, Suffolk.

The Suffolk Magistrates Courts' notice stated: "It is a criminal offence to take photographs in court buildings".

Seems pretty harmless. It's clear he meant no disrespect because he didn't take a picture inside the courtoom. Read full article.

Taliban gunmen shooting couple dead for adultery caught on camera phone

Taliban gunmen have been filmed executing a surprised couple whom they repeatedly shot for the alleged crime of adultery, reports The Telegraph.

Their deaths were squalid, riddled with bullets in a field near their home by Taliban gunmen as the execution was captured on a mobile telephone.

In footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen. But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt.

... Their "crime" was an alleged affair in their remote mountain village controlled by militants in an area that was only recently under the government's sway. It was the kind of barbarity that has become increasingly familiar across Pakistan as the Taliban tide has spread.

[via The Huffington Post]

Video of Taliban Flogging Rattles Pakistan

Mobile phone footage of a teenage girl being flogged publicly in Pakistan’s Swat Valley is now circulating widely.

The video, reports The New York Times, shows a young woman held face down as a Taliban commander whips her repeatedly with a leather strap. “Leave me for the moment — you can beat me again later,” she screams, pleading for a reprieve and writhing in pain.

The woman in the video is a 17-year-old resident of Kabal, in the restive Swat region in northwestern Pakistan.

The images, which have been broadcast repeatedly by private television news networks in Pakistan, have caused outrage here and set off bitter condemnation by rights activists and politicians.

It was not clear what the young woman was accused of.

One account said she had stepped out of her house without being escorted by a male family member, according to Samar Minallah, a rights activist. Ms. Minallah said she distributed the video to local news outlets after it was sent to her by someone from Swat three days ago.

Another account said a local Taliban commander had falsely accused the teenager of violating Islamic law after she refused to accept his marriage proposal.

Read full article in the NY Times.

Fighting Crime With Your Cell Phone Camera

Rob Wilcox wants you to pull out your cell phone, shoot photos of people you do not know, and text or email them to his startup company, FaceFile, just in case they turn out to be psycho killers.

If you sign up for a free account at face-file.com, you can take a photo of anyone you meet, store the photo online, and alert friends and family, who can access the photo and call the police if anything goes horribly wrong. Really.

[via Foxbusiness]

Brits to protest new law that lets the cops throw you in jail for ten years for photographing them in action

Britons are planning on rallying at Scotland Yard on Feb 16 to protest the new law that lets the cops throw you in jail for ten years for photographing them in action, if your photo is "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

[via boingboing]

Citizen journalism photo agency Scoopt closing

Digital media agency Getty Images announced plans on Tuesday to close down Scoopt, a citizen journalism photo agency based in Glasgow which it acquired two years ago. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The site (scoopt.com) itself will remain active until March 6 but from February 6 we'll not be accepting any new imagery," Molly McWhinnie, a Getty Images spokeswoman, told AFP.

McWhinnie said the decision to close Scoopt, which was purchased by Getty Images in March 2007 for an undisclosed sum, was made to allow Getty "to focus our energies on more of our core products in news, sports and entertainment."

She said Getty Images, which is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, remained interested in user-generated photos.

Links to previous articles related to Scoopt.

Say Freeze: Brits Go Pics Crazy

Housebound Britons went text and picture crazy yesterday as they rushed to share their snow fun. From Sky News.

Text and picture messaging went through the roof and mobile phone companies reported a huge rise in internet traffic through mobiles.

As Britons pulled open the curtains on Monday morning, the first thing many of us did was call the office to say we would not be in.

Then followed a quick text to mates to compare snow depths followed by numerous texts and picture messages to friends and family living further away to tell them the news.

The Youth Ball Welcomes Obama with a Sea of Digital Cameras

This is an amazing picture posted on VentureBeat from the Youth Ball on Inauguration Day.

These people are all looking at LCD screens instead of the new Presidential couple standing in front of them.

[Gizmodo via Kate Heffernan]

Call for Inauguration Photos

The New York Times wants to publish your photos related to the inauguration of President-elect Obama.

Send an e-mail to pix@nyt.com with your full name and the location where the picture was taken, and attach your photograph(s). They will present an online collage of reader photographs beginning on Sunday, Jan. 18.

CBS Mobile calls for user-generated video submissions

CBSNews.com and CBSNews.comCBS Mobile are inviting Americans to submit their videos and photos as part of a multi-platform project exploring the challenges facing the country as President-elect Barack Obama takes office. Fierce Mobile Content.

CBSNews.com and CBS Mobile will accept user-generated clips and images during the first 100 days of the Obama Administration, with a select number of submissions entered prior to the Jan. 20 inauguration to be featured on a primetime special that evening, hosted by CBS News anchor Katie Couric.

In addition, CBSNews.com and CNET.com will partner for a live, Couric-hosted Inauguration Night webcast.

Web videos of Oakland shooting fuel protests

More than 100 people were arrested in downtown Oakland on Wednesday night when a protest turned violent, fueled at least in part by videos that quickly spread online of a subway policeman fatally shooting an unarmed man while he was lying on the ground restrained by another officer. cnet news reports.

The case--and the overall intense community response to it--highlights the impact technology can have on news events. The devices people carry in their pockets give them the ability to turn what would normally be a case played out in the courtroom into one in which anyone with an Internet connection can serve as virtual judge and jury.

BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, allegedly shot Oscar Grant, 22, early on New Year's Day after Grant was pulled off a BART train following a scuffle among riders. Outrage over the incident spread quickly after videos--taken by onlookers with their cell phone cameras--started appearing on TV and the Internet.

Links to videos of the incident quickly circulated via e-mail. One of the first videos posted on YYouTube was a KTVU Channel 2 news broadcast, which includes live video clips and an interview with a woman who took some of the video. (Note: We included YouTube links because of compatibility issues.)

This video, also from a KTVU broadcast, was later posted on YouTube. It appears to show the gun. Another video shows the scene from a different angle.

Read full article.

Links to Related "Rodney King" incidents

Have cellphone camera, will capture news

The news is changing, as more ordinary people become citizen journalists, reports the Canadian Press.

Armed with cellphone cameras and Internet connections, they are taking pictures, shooting video and messaging eyewitness accounts of terrorist attacks, political rallies and natural disasters. They're making the unfiltered information available almost instantly, faster than traditional news organizations.

"I am no longer going to look at the news because it's something historical and something I want to see," said Leonard Brody, chief executive and co-founder of Vancouver-based NowPublic, which calls itself a "next-generation wire service."

In NowPublic.com's list of the Top 10 moments in user-generated news for 2008, the Mumbai attacks take the No. 1 spot.

The website also cited the role of SMS texting, blogging and the online photo management site Flickr in other news moments on the list.

Mainstream media organizations such as CNN and the BBC are among those using news material from citizens..

Read full article.

Allvoices.com lets Citizen Journalists Share Events in Gaza with the World via Cell phones

Allvoices.com has set up a page called The Events in Gaza, tinyurl.com/97v9go - to which citizen journalists can contribute via their cell phones.

Erik Sundelof of Allvoices says, 'The whole world is turning their heads to events in Gaza. The effects will be long lasting in the region as well as around the world. Ultimately this will cause suffering to a lot of innocent people on both sides in the area around Gaza. I believe it is time for us to open a dialogue about these events and what they mean to us as a global society. '

The ubiquitous availability of web-accessible camera phones has increased the incidents of direct reporting from event eyewitnesses. The recent events in Mumbai and now the Middle East have proven this, and we now know the best resources come from inside the story.

[via PR Inside]

Bild turns to the public for photos

Bild, the largest newspaper in Germany, is looking to expand - and not by hiring anyone.

Bild has partnered with the German discount grocery chain Lidl to sell a basic digital camera in a bid to recruit a legion of citizen journalists to contribute images to its coverage.

[via IHT]

Video Allegedly Shows India Terror Arrest

Grainy cell-phone video obtained by CBSNews shows the moments before police in Mumbai arrested the only living suspect in the 60-hour terror rampage that began last Wednesday and eventually left at least 170 people dead.

Highlights from the polls

Check out the latest citizen shots posted on the Pollling Place Photo Project. Above, voters line at West Village NYC.

CBS Gets a Rude Lesson in Citizen Journalism

Like a lot of news networks, CBS jumped on the citizen journalism bandwagon with a free iPhone app, Eyemobile for iPhone, to make it easy for users to upload news to its user-generated news site, CBSeyemobile.com.

Interesting, though, the citizens' definition of "news." AdAge reports.

"Karl Johnson, chief operating officer of BrandContent, a Boston-based agency, uploaded the app last night and saw a picture of a young woman bent over her kitchen stove, her skirt hiked up. Later he saw video of three women performing sexual acts on one another.

... CBS does have a moderator, but it seems the system isn't working, or perhaps not as well as they would like."

Camphone footage of Qantas Airways Emergency Landing

A Qantas Airways plane made an emergency landing July 24 in Manila on Friday after part of its undercarriage blew off, triggering a loss in cabin pressure during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

One passenger took video footage with his mobile phone and posted it up on YouTube.

Related: Qantas passengers tell of near-death experience

Great Photo on Flickr? Getty Images Might Pay You For It

According to Bits, Yahoo and Getty Images said Tuesday that they have entered into a partnership under which Getty editors will comb Flickr in search of interesting images.

"They will then invite photographers to participate in the program and ensure that their images have the proper releases to be licensed legally. Those who are included in the program will get paid at the same rates that Getty pays photographers who are under contract with the company."

Photos revealing everyday life in Iraq. By Citizen Reporters

Photos revealing everyday life in Iraq, stories usually left untold. They form part of Geert van Kesteren's new book Baghdad Calling, but the photographer - author of Why Mister, Why? - didn't take any of them.

... Baghdad Calling is a collection of more than one hundred of these pixelated amateur images. Taken by Iraqis both living in and outside the war zone, it gives them a voice and allows them, for once, to take control of the narrative.

It also shows the importance of mobile phones in a country at war, in which utilities such as landlines have broken down and such phones are the best way to stay in touch with kidnappers - and coroners.

Since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime, the number of phone owners has jumped from 1.4 million to 7.1 million."

Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images

Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images far quicker than video is for broadcasters, and even Bill Gates's privately held image bank, Corbis, is having to reinvent itself. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

"So dramatically successful has been the arrival of online sites aggregating and selling images created by hobby photographers and artists that the global head of Corbis, Gary Shenk, predicts sales of amateur snaps will triple in the next five years to control 25 per cent of the $US2 billion ($2.1 billion) global market."

Fish dumping caught on phone camera

tvnz reports that "secret filming by a trawler's crew member has led to New Zealand's biggest prosecution for fish dumping.

The practice, which has been labelled robbery on the high seas, threatens to wipe out seafood stocks.

Between 80 and 311 tonnes of perfectly good fish being thrown overboard was captured on a crewman's cellphone camera.

It cost the skipper of the Aorere $45,000 while two crewmen were fined $20,000. All have lost lost their jobs."

iReport: Now anyone can be a journalist (for free)

If you fancy being a journalist, there has never been a better time – provided you don't mind giving your services for free, writes The Guardian.

"Following the successful launch of South Korea's OhMyNews in 2000, dozens of websites now want you to report for them, especially if you have been involved in an earthquake or flood, or been on site during a campus massacre. Train and helicopter crashes, forest fires, robberies and countless other events can at least make local news.

Among these websites is CNN's iReport. All you have to do is upload your story, photo or video. Last month, CNN featured 915 user reports drawn from more than 10,000 submissions. Both numbers are expected to grow."

Camera phone footage a new factor in Lebanon fighting

During last year’s fighting between the Lebanese army and the Sunni Islamist group Fatah Al-Islam in the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr el-Bared in Northern Lebanon, which was notoriously off-limits to journalists, most of the existing images were from soldiers' camera phones, writes Mensassat.

"Afterwards, camera phone footage of Fatah al-Islam prisoners being mistreated by Lebanese soldiers also made their way to YouTube.

During last week's fighting in Beirut, many TV stations relied on camera phone footage provided by residents in neighborhoods too dangerous for camera crews to enter.

But if some of this camera phone footage qualifies as "citizen journalism," last week's Halba video is more akin to "mob journalism."

NSW Police ask public to be cameraphone cops

NSW Police Minister, David Campbell, has revealed details of a new project encouraging citizens to capture video and photographic evidence of crimes on their phones and upload it securely over the Web to law enforcement agencies.

"The initiative -- expected to cost around AU$8 million -- is currently being developed under the working title of Project View (Video Image Evidence on the Web), and was conceived in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots and London bombings, after cameraphone footage capturing the events was used extensively in the investigations of both incidents.

... "The community is one of our greatest resources when it comes to solving crime. This role has increased with the development of mobile phone cameras and sites such as YouTube," said Police Minister Campbell.

"Footage of a bashing, a sexual assault or car hoon activities might be found online or captured on a video phone… if the location, offender or victim in these alleged crimes can be identified police will be able to follow up on the matter."

Live from your mobile. The next big thing?

What would happen if everyone, anywhere, could have their own live television station from a mobile phone? The BBC has an idea.

"A number of services including Qik and Flixwagon, are competing to make "live" the next big thing in web video, and YouTube is poised to introduce its own live service.

... Eran Hess, the chief executive of Flixwagon, has made a deal with MTV which has seen the station give phones with Flixwagon software installed to what it calls "Street Journalists" to cover the primaries in the United States.

Their clips are shown live on the web - whether it's an Obama victory speech or vox pops with New York voters - and some make it onto MTV itself.

Eran Hess also revealed that he had just done a deal with an Israeli news channel which will supply similar phones to citizens in the towns of Sderot and Ashkelon where rockets fired from Gaza have been landing.

So a phone and a piece of software - and a 3g network - are you all need now to start putting your message across to a live audience. It promises to give new vigour to the whole idea of citizen journalism, and poses a challenge to existing broadcasters.

Because of course these citizen journalists are not bound by any code of taste, decency, truth or impartiality, which could give their broadcasts a dangerous, edgy quality which might appeal more to viewers than the professional version of television news.

Welcome to a future where everything may be televised - live. I'm not entirely sure I like the idea."

On Qik you can watch and listen to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, filmed by Robert Scoble for Fast Company.

UK launches Counter-Terrorism advertising campaign

Londoners are being urged to help stop terrorists in their tracks by reporting suspicious behaviour, in a new counter terrorism advertising campaign launched February 25.

The Metropolitan Police Service is asking people to trust their instincts and pass on information about any unusual activity or behaviour to the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321.

Information can also be passed on via the Met website homepage by clicking on the red and white 'If you suspect it report it' icon.

If you suspect it, report it', is the key message of the new campaign. Advertisements will run in London newspapers and on the Capital's radio stations for five weeks.

The Internet will also carry the advertising. Peter Clarke, Specialist Operations Assistant Commissioner, said just one phone call could contain a piece of vital information which could help disrupt terrorist planning and save lives.

"Terrorists will not succeed if suspicious activity is reported to the police. As people go about their normal day-to-day lives they may spot something which strikes them as suspicious.

"We want people to look out for the unusual - some activity or behaviour which strikes them as not quite right and out of place in their normal day to day lives."Terrorists live within our communities, making their plans whilst doing everything they can to blend in, and trying not to raise suspicions about their activities.

"They have a lot of work to do before they attack. They need money and may commit cheque, credit card and identity fraud to finance their activities.

"Terrorists use chemicals. Do you know someone buying large or unusual quantities of chemicals for no obvious reason?

Handling chemicals is dangerous, and maybe you've seen goggles or masks dumped somewhere?

"Observation and surveillance help terrorists plan attacks. Have you seen anyone taking pictures of security arrangements such as CCTV? Has it made you suspicious?

"Meetings, training and planning for terrorist attacks can take place anywhere. Do you know someone who travels but is vague about where they're going?

"Terrorists use computers - do you know someone who visits terrorist-related websites?

[via ektopia]

First exclusive footage of Jérme Kerviel filmed by an amateur

A video on TF1's 50min Inside, shows the incredible manhunt by paparazzi from around the world who had converged in Paris to hunt for Jérôme Kerviel, and how an amateur snaparazzi got the scoop, by filming a scene through a window the night Kerviel was being interrogated by the French Financial brigade.

Paris Match paid close to euro 20,000 per picture ($29,000) and the price of the video went for much much more, tens of thousands of euros according to TF1, who would not reveal the exact amount.

MTV’s mobile Citizen Journalists covering Super Tuesday

This just in from MTV… via SmartMobs.

MTV’s army of Street Team ’08 citizen journalists will cover the youth vote like no one else on Super Tuesday, delivering the first-ever live mobile-to-web broadcasts – from polling stations, caucuses, candidate rallies and everywhere young voters congregate February 5th.

The real time, on-the-spot reports will be streamed live all day from correspondents’ video-equipped mobile phones to MTVNews.com and ChooseorLose.com.

Throughout the day, MTV will regularly break into programming and showcase news featurettes excerpted from the live reports.

The effort is part of MTV’s constantly evolving, Emmy-winning “ChooseorLose.com” campaign and will offer the network’s citizen journalists an unprecedented stage – with the potential to reach as many as 100 million viewers – as they bring all the Super Tuesday action to America’s youth as it happens.

Photograph Your Polling Place

The image left by “Anonymous” captures a scene at a primary election polling place in Reno, Nevada and illustrates The Polling Place Photo Project, a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism launched by The New York Times that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election.

By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

[via SmartMobs]

Hubei man killed for recording protest with his camera phone

A story has sparked outrage throughout the Chinese blogosphere and revived talks of disbanding the chengguan - the urban pseudo-police force used to scare away migrant workers and DVD salesmen.
Shangailist reports.

"Clashes started last Monday over a failed promise by the city government to move a garbage dump away further away from a residential area. About fifty or so chengguan (城管) or 'city managers' were called in to control the crowd.

Wei Wenhua, a manager at a local government-owned construction company with no apparent connection to the protest, was driving through the area when he stopped to get a better look. At this point he took out his camera phone and began recording the incident.

Once the chengguan noticed his presence, he was yanked out of his vehicle and then brutally beaten unconscious over a period of ten minutes. He was carted off, along with other injured protesters, and died en route to the hospital."

MTV Taps into Citizen Journalism

MTVs MTV“Choose or Lose ‘08″consists of 51 youth reporters (one from each state) that will cover the election through short videos, photos and podcasts to be distributed via mobile and the MTV and Associated Press web sites.

Using short-form videos, blogs, animation, photos and podcasts, the reports will be distributed through MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com, more than 1,800 sites in The Associated Press' Online Video Network and a soon-to-launch Wireless Application Protocol site. The Street Team '08 reporters were carefully selected after an extensive nationwide search, and they represent every aspect of today's youth audience — from seasoned student-newspaper journalists to documentary filmmakers, the children of once-illegal immigrants and community organizers.

[via NewTeeVee]

The Top Ten Camera Phone Images That Made The News

Photopreneur has listed the eight amateur shots that made headline news.

1. The London Underground Attacks

2. Cocaine Kate

3. The Subway Cellphone Pervert

4. Sleeping Boothy

5. Banksy in the Act

6. Harry the Nazi

7. Saddam’s Execution

8. Kennedy Assassination

citizen journalists covering the wildfires in California

From dramatic cell phone camera images of flames as they choked off neighborhood escape routes to chilling online narratives of evacuation, citizen journalists covering the wildfires in California this week gave new meaning to the concept of reporting a natural disaster from the ground up. The Baltimore Sun reports.

"I'm not knocking what we do in the mainstream media, but citizens are bringing the highly personal, close-up nature of these fires home to viewers in a way that traditional reporting just doesn't do," said Nancy Lane, senior vice president/editorial at CNN.

Iran students protest over jail sentences

Iranian students on Monday staged a protest against the jailing of three colleagues, shouting slogans against officials and proclaiming the prisoners' innocence, Iranian news agencies reported, according to the AFP.

"Three students from Tehran's Amir Kabir University were last week given jail sentences of up to three years on charges of anti-Islamic images in four student newspapers.

... Photos taken by mobile phones at the scene showed students holding pictures of the jailed students and banners held by protesters had slogans against some of the country's officials, the ISNA report said.

ISNA had blurred the faces of the students at the gathering in their pictures for their security."

Picture and related article from RadioFreeEurope.

TIME Seeking out Cameraphone Photographer of the Year

Attention all aspiring photographers: The Times continues its search to find the Cameraphone Photographer of the Year, in conjunction with Sony Ericsson and Times Online.

"The competition sets a new theme each week and readers are now invited to send in their images for the fourth assignment, entitled “work”.

For details of the brief, how to enter and prizes – including a nine-day holiday a weekend break in one of five European cities and a Sony Ericsson K810i phone and Bluetooth printer – visit timesonline.co.uk/cameraphone

[via the Times Online]

Related: - World Press Photo of the Year 2006

Myanmar junta can’t murder in darkness

A wonderful opinion piece from NewsTribune.

"Myanmar’s besieged dictatorship declared war Friday on the Internet and cell phones, shutting down the former and confiscating the latter. Too late.

... There’s no telling now how this struggle for Myanmar’s soul will end. But if the democratic forces do prevail over the military junta, the victory will owe something to today’s extraordinary communications networks. If the junta ultimately prevails by force, the same technology will have indelibly exposed its depravity to the civilized world.

Contrast this with the violence the junta unleashed when it originally seized power in 1988. Then, too, it had to contend with a powerful challenge from pro-democracy forces on the streets. But there were no camera-equipped cell phones and no Internet. There was barely any television; phone service, such as it was, was all landline.

Today, even after its crackdown on communications, the regime won’t be able to cut Myanmar off from the world. It will never be able to confiscate every cell phone. And while it has shut down the country’s Internet service providers, foreign companies and embassies can stay on the Web via satellite.

Some of history’s greatest crimes against humanity, including the Holocaust and the Turkish genocide of Armenians, were committed in darkness. Whatever the Burmese junta does, it will have to do in the harsh light of international scrutiny. Myanmar’s democracy movement has a precious ally – instant, speed-of-light communications – that past victims of brutal dictatorships couldn’t have dreamed of.

Picture from the BBC

'Citizen Journalists' Evade Blackout On Myanmar News

In the age of YouTube, cellphone cameras and text messaging, technology is playing a critical role in helping news organizations and international groups follow Myanmar's biggest protests in nearly two decades. The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Citizen witnesses are using cellphones and the Internet to beam out images of bloodied monks and street fires, subverting the Myanmar government's effort to control media coverage and present a sanitized version of the uprising.

... The BBC, which has a Burmese language Web site and radio service, is encouraging its audience to send in photos, like the ones it received of a monk's monastery that had been ransacked by authorities.

Time Warner Inc.'s CNN, which had its own reporter in Myanmar on Wednesday, has also been airing 65 clips and pictures from tourists and Myanmar residents sent in via its "ireport" citizen-journalist system.

"When traditional methods and professional journalists can't provide footage, and personal safety allows, citizens rise to the challenge time and again, often with remarkable material," said Ellana Lee, the managing editor of CNN Asia Pacific in an email. "Even in countries like Myanmar, the spread of the Internet and mobile phones has meant that footage will always continue to get through and the story will be told, one way or another."

Still, working with inexperienced journalists can be a challenge for news organizations that want to publish credible, balanced information. Reuters, which has a reporter stationed in Yangon, says content from citizen journalists is rigorously checked for accuracy.

Speaking of his correspondents, Aung Zaw, the editor of Irrawaddy, says, "They are doing their job on the ground, and nobody is even giving them the assignment. It is our job to check again with our sources, to see how close to the truth it is."

Burmese Monks Protests captured by cameraphones

Buddhist monks gather and pray at Shwedagon pagoda before taking the street in a march protesting against the military government in Rangoon, Burma. Voice of America reports.

"...The demonstrations have persisted and spread in part because of new technologies - such as camera phones and Web-casting - to relay news.

"We actually are seeing an unprecedented wave of media technology being used in Burma and we're seeing this not just in Rangoon but also in Mandalay, in other parts, other states and divisions in Burma," said Debbie Stothard from ALTSEAN Regional Human Rights Network in Bangkok.

"So, the eyes of the international community are firmly on Burma but this information is also being broadcast back into Burma to the general population through radio services such as the Voice of America and other radio stations and that has actually helped the people of Burma to be better informed."

Previously: - Myanmar (Burma) cuts phone service to activists, journalists