BBC News: 2005 was arguably the year citizens really started to do it for themselves. Raising mobiles aloft, they did not just talk and text, they snapped, shared and reported the world around them.
Commentary by Jo Twist of the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank illustrates the far-reaching effects and changes in the reporting of events during the past year as a direct result of the power of new media communication channels like blogs and podcasting as well as tools like camera-equipped mobile phones that facilitate almost-instant publishing.
Examples:
- The Asian tsunami disaster that began on 26 December 2004
- The London terrorist bombings last July
- Hurricane Katrina in August
- The massive UK oil terminal blaze last month
It’s about societal and attitude change and how we all can create news and information and share it as well as consume it.
But it’s mostly about individual empowerment (a very big thing in the US especially) with blogs being proclaimed as the biggest thing since Gutenberg and the printing press. Now, everyone has a voice and anyone can be a communicator. Indeed, anyone can now be published in the mainstream media.