We have been told by various speakers during our online lectures at Cardiff University School of Journalism that the technological advances of the past twenty years are great, because they hand over the powers of publishing and mass communication to the general public. This gives us all greater power to participate in the democratic process and communicate our beliefs, so those in the public eye can respond appropriately. They also give us the power to create great news and entertainment of our own making.
There are numerous positive examples of this:
- The 7/7 bombings, it has been argued, ‘democratised’ the media. With the advent of mobile phone cameras, the general public were able to capture videos and pictures live from the scene that the broadcasting media – for all of their technical know-how – would never have been able to get. The general public brought accurate news to us in greater detail.
- This trend was continued, with ordinary citizens producing aerial photographs of the Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion, which took place months later on December 12, 2005, and sending them into the BBC.
- Fans are inreasingly seeking a creative role in the plots of their favourite shows by writing about them online. Online fan reviews of Heroes Season 2 led Heroes creator, Tim Kring, to say at this year’s Comic-Con: “We’ve made a mistake. We’ve heard the complaints. We’re doing something about it,” and bow to fan pressurs for a Good vs. Evil stand-off for Season Three. This kind of public feedback and involvement creates better entertainment for everybody.
- The public is using what have recently become widely available forms of technology to bring us their own entertaining shows, broadcast over youtube and other websites. DeviantArt has helped talented artists get noticed by comic websites such as Reynard City, and myspace has helped launched the music careers of stars like Lilly Allen. That’s not to mention the top-rate video footage brought by amateur video websites such as youtube. Who would have known about Skateboarding Dog were it not for them?
My only concern is that perhaps the public have been given too much freedom by these new technologies.
The Downside
Firstly, citizen journalists may have the technologies available to them to produce the same work as the professionals, but they have none of the training. They have no knowledge of health & safety or trauma, and are given none of the protection afforded to those who work for major media outlets, should they come up against opposition in their line of work.
Secondly, and what worries me more, is the question of responsibility. Giving the power of publishing to everybody is all well and good, as long as you presume that they will use it responsibly.
Communities Editor of telegraph.co.uk Shane Richmond told us in a lecture last Thursday that Mr Justice Eady had recently compared posts on forums, blogs, and internet websites to conversations in a pub, and by so doing effectively protected the hosts of websites that permit free conversation from prosecution on libel or defamation charges.
With this in mind, how do you stop people who want to cause harm over the internet? The BNP membership leak earlier this week is said to have been the work of a disgruntled former party member who breached a court injunction to publish the information. While most of us would have just had a look to see if any of the people at work or in our neighbourhood were closet supporters, there have been some serious reprecussions for people whose names were on the list.
This kind of leaking of private information, to give one example, is irresponsible and detrimental to the public interest of preserving a peaceful society – but nobody knows who posted it and little action can be taken against anybody involved in publishing the information.
Publishing ability may have evolved with the technological revolution, but the laws controlling it have not. This is potentially a very dangerous time for society.
Tags: 7/7 Bombings, BNP membership leak, Buncefield Fuel Depot, citizen journalism, digital media, Heroes, Justice Eady, media law, Skateboarding Dog, User generated content
November 23, 2008 at 11:23 pm |
Good work, Dave. Your writing (I don’t know whether this is subtle result of the course or the manner that you’re being assessed), I think, has matured a great deal and is becoming much more contemplative. Which is all good!
November 28, 2008 at 3:34 pm |
The short answer is: can we? Yes, I’ve done the typical answer a question with a question – but who has the responsibility for what a private citizen publishes? They do.
The law as it stands is not appropriate, which makes it difficult as we all know (or should do) that ignorance of the law is no excuse. So how does the government do that? That is one for the policy makers to deal with.
How do journalists do it? Shane Richmond and Rick Waghorn both said about working with their communities (Rick called it shepherding the flock). MSM needs to take this stuff down, but explain to its members why – as far as it can in the case of banning orders.
It is actually pretty easy to find out where stuff is coming from, ISP providers can be forced to hand over details of customers. The very savvy will be IP spoofing and hiding their identities, but many people don’t know how to do that.
Interesting you say about the public interest and damage to society – that’s what officials say when someone leaks key information to journalists ;D
July 16, 2009 at 9:03 pm |
[...] I’ve said previously, with breaking news on the 7/7 London tube bombings and the Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion coming [...]