CITIZEN JOURNALISM

CITIZEN JOURNALISM:

7/7 London Bombings

Citizen Journalism is a term describing the act of citizen’s, witness to crisis events, using basic cameras to record moving or still images. Its prevalence has built through the exposure of citizen’s reports on events through new media technologies like social networking and smartphones.

The advances in mobile camera phones have shifted consistently since their first appearance in the early 21st century. Initially camera phones were only capable of capturing very low quality images. Whereas today, the capability ranges from panoramic stitching to slow motion video amongst other features such as photo editing and filtering.

But such advances come hand in hand with the increasing abundance of social media outlets for sharing these images. Whilst being able to enjoy the luxuries of having these features on your phone, you’re also able to share your videos and images with pretty much anyone in a matter of seconds. Social Media has played a big part in the awareness of citizen journalism, for example CNN’s ‘iReport’, launched in 2006, promoting ‘an entirely user-generated site where the content is determined by the community’ (CNN).

Head of the BBC, Helen Boaden (2008), claimed at an eDemocracy conference in November 2008 “Our journalism is now fully embracing the experiences of our audiences, sharing their stories, using their knowledge and hosting their opinions,” following the abundance of photos, videos and emails that had been contributed by members of the public during the 7/7 London Bombings, she also voiced that it was “the point at which the BBC knew that newsgathering had changed forever”.

On July 7^th, 2005 a series of suicide attacks took place during the morning rush hour in Central London. The attacks involved four men carrying explosive devices aboard the public transport systems resulting in the death of 52 civilians and the injury of 700. The previous day London had won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic games. 

This is an image taken on a mobile camera phone of the remains of the Tavistock Square bus explosion. The image, captured by Steve Thornhill, depicts a hazy view of the disfigured bus surrounded by debris and other vehicles. This was amongst hundreds of images submitted by ordinary people to the BBC reporting the events shortly afterwards before news teams even had chance to. Victims of the explosions became active reporters, submitting images and video footage within moments of the chaos, embraced by the news corporations who couldn't compete journalistically.

It seems to be that a lot of people utilised they're mobile devices that day resulting in a huge turning point for journalism. However, hundreds of complaints were made to the BBC regarding concerns that many of the mobile images uploaded were too 'graphic' and 'intrusive'. Thus opening a new debate questioning the censorship and truth of citizen journalism. Although its important to consider the time period of the complaints.......