raw footage of iranian protests

I wrote this in response to some of the raw footage coming in about iranian protests at the end of june. i encougage comments.

Okay, so clearly I am facscinated by this citizen journalism thing. I went to YouTube yesterday, and YouTube is giving prominence to specific channels, especially those promising a glimpse into the Iran protests. One of these channels was Citizen Tube; check it out. NPR today, as I've learned from NPR's feed, is also giving prominence to videos like this, as well. NPR's headline "This just in...If you dare to watch" caught my attention.

So click over to YouTube, to see if I can find the video. The initial video was shot from a cell phone, which you might have learned from my feed yesterday, is a function many Iranians can use. I watched a couple of them. Some of the videos simply show raw footage, and some of the videos have been edited. This video, for instance, has a distinct message that plays off of the emotions we feel when we see this young lady lying in the street.

I went back to NPR to read the commentary about the video, written byAvie Schneider. Her commentary explains the video has gone viral, spreading across the Internet through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And I saw evidence of this. Some of those videos have been up for only a few days and have upwards of 60,000 hits. The number does not surprise me at all.

When conflicts such as this one in Iran occur, information coming from the country seems suspect. The government clamps down, journalists might or might not have access to reliable information, and we must attempt to understand situations like this with what we have. When a video of events such as this one pops up, then people want to see it, especially if it reconfirms what we already know about the Iranian government and even if it carries a caveat or warning about how authentic the video might be.

Schneider states this a couple of paragraphs into her commentary. We know nothing about this video. But she tells the reader to forget what we know about politics and Iran. She segways into a celebratory description of new technology and the changing habits of readers that have brought about this new citizen journalism.

"So where does that leave us?" She asks."Thanks to readers' and viewers' changing habits and competition from the Internet, the gatekeeping roles of print and broadcast journalism have been redefined. They are no longer the sole arbiters of what's proper for the masses to read, see and hear."

I agree. What a marvelous thing! But I think we should also remain mindful that whether corporate, freelance, or citizen - whichever modifier you choose - journalists help shape our understanding of the world. To do this, they must place information in context. I'm not sure the rules of the games have changed as much as it's simply become more difficult to assess information.

Jay Rosen has a clear definition of the citizen journalist. But again, there is an emphasis on employing tools and informing the audience. If I walk away knowing no more than when I began, I'm not sure I would call you a citizen journalist.

Oddly, I'm not sure my opinion on the matter is that important. People will continue uploading information to the Internet. My concern is how we use that information. Yes, Schneider compares the video in Iran to the Zapruder video of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I'm not sure the comparison is apt. In fact, something completely different came to mind, the testimony provided to Congress about Iraqi atrocities toward Kuwaitis that eventually paved the way for the first Gulf War.

Raw footage, like all information, can be manipulated and distorted. The only thing this viral event reconfirms for me is that people love to gawk at tragedy. Much more is needed for us to understand, together, what that tragedy might mean.