Citizen Journalism and Global Awareness

Citizen journalism has the freedom to go places regulated news never will. Many people now have camera phones, giving them the power to record whatever they wish to. Coupled with easy to use and widely known sites such as youtube, spreading them to a mass audience is now as simple as taking the video was. This offers a degree of protection never known to people before. A camera is a way to defend yourself against anyone breaking a law or acting against you. There have been many cases of events such as police brutality caught by a bystander which would have otherwise gone unpunished. If something major happens and there are people around, it is almost guaranteed that it will be captured on some sort of device. The death of Neda would not have made such an impact globally had it not been filmed by different people. There is a huge difference between hearing of a tragic death and actually witnessing it. When the situation is placed before you, it becomes solid and real. There is no denying that it happened, and it becomes much harder to ignore. While traditional news would simply state the facts, the footage ensures you actually feel something about it instead of letting it pass by like all the other tragedies reported.