Saturday, December 3, 2011

Citizen Video Journalists

When blogging was young you could tell there was an emerging set of Citizen Journalists writers with real talent. It wasn't new as a medium, there were probably tens of thousands of LiveJournal blogs around with people expressing opinions and personal thoughts on everything from politics to what they had for breakfast. It's what these talented writers did with the medium that took it to the next level. There's a thousand ways things could have gone wrong for those early pioneers. But with a combination of talent, entrepreneurial skill, and the luck of being in the right place at the right time we've got the vibrant online world we have today. And we have a track record of lots of wins to look back on.

We've got a similar set of conditions brewing in the video broadcast world right now. Turn the dial on your TV and you'll mostly find right wing ownership of the air waves. News organizations have cut their budgets around the world for sending correspondents out to cover conflicts around the world. And the local TV coverage is mostly a joke. The technology to cheaply record video has existed for quite some time, most people have the ability to do that from their smart phones now. The technology to stream video in real time has become incredibly easy to use and free. You'll see coverage of all types of events, concerts, discussion panels, and you're even seeing some people broadcast live from Occupy protests.

Read the full story @ DailyKos

No comments:

Post a Comment