I am just writing a brief blog on how the advancements in mobile phone technology and features in recent years has began a whole new culture of 'mobile reporting'. News broadcasting on television has advanced immensely since the age of satellite broadcasting began. We have numerous news broadcasters which air 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with all the latest news and bulletins. What struck me about the evnts of 9/11 was the vast amount of footage which was aired at the time, and amongst it footage from peoples mobile phones. Nearly all mobile phones now come with a digital camera and video recording feature. In the earlier days of this technology, the quality was obscure and extremely unclear. However, now the footage we can obtain from mobile phones is increasingly clear and long thanks to higher memory capabilities.
As a result, news agencies and broadcasters around the globe have latched onto the idea of mobile reporting. They have numbers in which people can send their footage of certain events (whether it be movie or still footage) through a multimedia mesage. The result is that even in the most obscure of places, or during events which happen without warning, there is almost always public at hand to capture the moments. News broadcasters no longer even have to have cameras or reporters at the scene before they begin to air footage. The public have now been given the roles of reporters themselves
In the events of 7/7 in London there were numerous television broadcasts on the news of mobile phone footage within the underground stations attacked etc, which cameras could not reach. It brought a new, gritty and at times more emotional footage than provided by the real television cameras. This was real people, actually part of and affected by the events which surrounded them. They were caught in the moment which could be shown better than any staged, rigid news report could.
Along with these benefits, the culture also brings drawbacks. It has also created a more sadistic culture. Many videos now circulate of things such as executions of hostages in places such as Iraq etc. The fact that we have become part of a mobile culture, also means it becomes harder to regulate. News broadcasters are regulted by various organisations, but how can people and their own mobile phone footage be monitored in the same way? There have been laws put in place, under the terrorism act, which mean that anyone showing material of this nature in public or caught with it can face imprisonment. This is hopefully a deterrent. One such story hit the news within the last year when a male in a bar in Scotland was arrested for showing disturbing footage to a bar worker.
There are obvious benefits, but like most things today there is a flipside!
