{"id":211,"date":"2017-01-19T20:43:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/?p=211"},"modified":"2017-01-23T10:33:05","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T10:33:05","slug":"smartphone-journalism-future-news-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/2017\/01\/19\/smartphone-journalism-future-news-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone Journalism: Is this the future for news reporting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to get away from cameras in the modern age.<\/h3>\n

Not only are most areas surveyed by CCTV but now almost everyone is equipped with their own personal smartphone cameras.<\/p>\n

This has led to the breakout of a phenomenon known as Citizen Journalism or Smartphone Journalism.<\/p>\n

What is Smartphone Journalism?<\/h4>\n

As technology and social media has grown in stature and relevance, most will have heard the phrase, \u2018anyone can be a journalist\u2019.\u00a0 Smartphone journalism encapsulates this as many breaking international news stories are accompanied with smartphone footage of the incident taking place.<\/p>\n

In 2013, British Army soldier Lee Rigby was murdered in broad daylight on the streets of south east London.\u00a0 A civilian bystander then filmed the bloodied killer explaining his actions in front of the dead body of the soldier.\u00a0 The video was picked up and used around the world by many news outlets.<\/p>\n

\"picture<\/a>
via Guardian YouTube channel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boston Bombings in 2013 killed 3 civilians and injured around 200 and again, smartphone footage of the incident was used globally, in various news reports.<\/p>\n

\"picture
via flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police in August 2011, protests escalated and violence, looting and rioting spread across London.\u00a0 Smartphone footage provided the public with deeper insight of the violence and later helped authorities to identify and charge some of the individuals involved.<\/p>\n

\"picture<\/a>
via Guardian YouTube channel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As images of the refugee crisis shocked the world, a smartphone video captured a Hungarian camerawoman purposefully trip a fleeing father carrying his young child.\u00a0 The video went viral and caused international outrage. The camerawoman was sacked and further light was shed on this terrible humanitarian issue<\/p>\n

\"picture<\/a>
via CNN YouTube channel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Middle East, activists are using smartphones as a way of exposing atrocities carried out by corrupt regimes.\u00a0 The footage recorded by these activists is also used to keep track of casualties, a way of keeping track of the regimes crimes and showing the world the truth.<\/p>\n

\"Rebel<\/a>
via Guardian YouTube channel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So it\u2019s a good thing?<\/h4>\n

It depends how you look at it.\u00a0 Like anything there are pros and cons.<\/p>\n

Smartphones, together with the range of social media platforms out there has made every citizen of the world more powerful.\u00a0 It is impossible for reporters and Journalists to be at every international incident as it happens, so citizen journalism helps to solve this.<\/p>\n

This trend has embraced technology and helped to provide a voice to those who otherwise can\u2019t be heard. Raw footage from places where traditional media would normally be denied access from, informs the world and shapes opinion.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, smartphone journalism or citizen journalism lacks validity.\u00a0 It fails to develop context around the event.\u00a0 It fails to ask questions as to why the situation happened or who it is that\u2019s involved, and why that is.<\/p>\n

Because of this mainstream media outlets have to be very careful with how they use such footage. Care must be taken when presenting this decontextualized form of smartphone \u2018journalism\u2019 as the truth without any further, deeper search for verification.<\/p>\n

This means that upstanding, established news companies are needed now more than ever as people are becoming aware and critical of the accuracy of some of the videos on the internet.\u00a0 A balance is needed to move forward and whilst Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Snapchat<\/a> and other streaming apps seem to be emerging as the future of reporting the news, the value of professional, practiced journalism must never be undervalued.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to get away from cameras in the modern age. Not only are most areas surveyed by CCTV but now almost everyone is equipped with their own personal smartphone cameras. This has led to the breakout of a phenomenon known as Citizen Journalism or Smartphone Journalism. What is Smartphone Journalism? As technology and social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,3],"tags":[10,6,8,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/cameronscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}