Around the Net
Citizen Journalism 2.0
- Business Week, Tuesday, January 2, 2007 11 AM
Video blogging is a particularly dangerous business in Baghdad. Isam Rasheed, the publisher of the weekly vlog "Alive in Baghdad" believes that vlogging is the only way to tell the true story of
what's currently going on in Iraq.
Whereas CNN, MSNBC and Fox News can afford protection for their journalists, vloggers play a dangerous game. In one case, two of Rasheed's writers
were captured and held for 72 hours. In Iraq, anyone filming without an entourage can easily be regarded as a spy, but Rasheed maintains the risk is worth taking.
It's this kind of
citizen journalism that's reshaping the way we consume content. The networks can censor their content all they want, but user-generated video exists as a powerful alternative to disseminate images and
information.
And rhetoric. We've seen two different stories today that show how video can be manipulated to tell a story: Corporations can create slickly produced PR messages, and vigilante journalists can also place themselves in the middle of news events to expose harsh realities.
