• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 24, 2016

During the recent impromptu sit-in by House legislators, Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, decided to adjourn the House and shut down C-Span network cameras. But that didn’t stop the broadcast -- not when everyone had a TV distribution platform in their pocket.

Technology had a work-around, mostly with Periscope, Facebook and Snapchat for live-streaming shared around the country. The likes of traditional TV networks, MSNBC and others picked up the feed -- even if the quality wasn't always the best.

Couple this with new legal rulings over the use of drones when it comes to journalism, and we keep on expanding into stuff that was seemingly private, making it public.

In effect, the House situation let lawmakers become their own camera crews. And why not? Taking matters into their own hands, they are increasingly some of our best entertainers  -- even when talking about serious issues!

But rules were broken, according to Republican leaders of the house. The use of cameras is prohibited when the House of Representatives is not in session.

Now we might wonder, what is next? When will smartphone cameras make their way into the Supreme Court proceedings, all to get a keen insight into the workings of democracy?

Surely, some up-close and personal military/police operations wouldn’t lend themselves to “live” TV transmission. We know many enforcement personnel are required to have cameras on their bodies -- but for private transmissions only, to replay specific actions.

A gunman/shooting scenario in movie theater in Germany brings up more questions. MSNBC, for one, was careful to note video from Periscope running on its network showing the situation was not live.

Raw video of governmental or non-government activities may not always be gripping drama -- even on C-Span itself. Still for many, there can be nuggets of valuable information.

But with all our growing media usage, do we even have the time to be our own curators, editors or TV producers?