Cellphones and the Internet Document Yesterday's Tragedy for the World
Our hearts go out to the people of London for yesterday's tragic events. That we -- here in Cambridge, MA -- and others throughout the world bore witness to yesterday was no small feat; it was the work of thousands of ordinary citizens in London who, with the help of their cell phones, sent loved ones and news networks photos and text messages. Their eyewitness images and accounts of the blasts and the chaos that ensued were quickly posted online by bloggers and then reported and reproduced by mainstream news outlets, bringing the details and personal experience of the tragedy to global attention more rapidly than ever before.
The Boston Globe and the New York Times published articles today documenting the changing nature of news coverage. John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center, said of yesterday's coverage that ''it's a very fine example of a combination of real editorial decision-making and distributed journalism -- ordinary people who happen to have access to a version of the truth." And citizen-journalist advocate Dan Gillmor, quoted in the NYT piece, observes that there used to be "a cliché that journalists write the first draft of history. Now I think these people are writing the first draft of history at some level, and that's an important shift."
Photo provided by Yuki via flickr.
The Boston Globe and the New York Times published articles today documenting the changing nature of news coverage. John Palfrey, Executive Director of the Berkman Center, said of yesterday's coverage that ''it's a very fine example of a combination of real editorial decision-making and distributed journalism -- ordinary people who happen to have access to a version of the truth." And citizen-journalist advocate Dan Gillmor, quoted in the NYT piece, observes that there used to be "a cliché that journalists write the first draft of history. Now I think these people are writing the first draft of history at some level, and that's an important shift."
Photo provided by Yuki via flickr.