Big Brother’s little brother and his guardian cousins, or the Metropolitan Police, the citizen journalist, The Guardian, the House of Commons and the assault on Ian Tomlinson at G20
Apologies for my recent absence. My dual commitments at the media outlet responsible for inspiring this post and at one of its rivals have meant that sleep and personal journalism have been locked in a bit of a battle for the past couple of weeks.
But now I am back and awake.
From the moment I saw amateur video of Ian Tomlinson being assaulted by a police officer in riot gear, moments before he collapsed and died from a heart attack, I have been glued to the subsequent media storm. Not only because of the horrific incident it disclosed and the damning blow it brings upon the Met, but because of the ironically reassuring message it sends out about the functioning of the third and fourth estates. (The House of Commons and the media).
The power of the citizen journalist is now irrefutable. No more so than when he has a video-recording device in his hand. Without the footage sent to and published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday evening, it seems unlikely the current Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry into officers’ conduct last week would be taking place.
Likewise, the role of the more traditional, professional media has been shown to still play an invaluable role in holding authorities to account. I suspect the footage would have not been viewed worldwide so rapidly had it not been published by an authoritative source.
The call for a criminal inquiry was then made by the Liberal Democrats, proving the important role parliament plays in ensuring what is raised in the media cannot be ignored.
Many may now complain of a Big Brother society, in which a vast amount of our actions are surreptitiously filmed, tracked or recorded in some way. But the rise of the citizen journalist, aided by mobile and easy-to-use technology, means there is a little brother which has the power to hold the actions of its overseer to account.
And this week’s incident has shown, among many less admirable things, that there are at least still plenty of people willing to amplify and support the little brother’s voice.
Fantastic post Morwenna, I think our analsis is spot on.
*your
I completely agree. But will the traditional media continue to have a role as this wealth of citizen reporters become more organised and more mainstream?
I think that role may simply change. People are never going to have enough time to follow as many seperate sources as there are people and I think there will always be a demand for credibility, which you can’t get from millions of individual voices.
While this video came from an independent citizen, it was only given to The Guardian because they had been down there making people aware of their presence and publicising how people could use them to communicate with the world.
But citizen journalists undoubtedly will become more organised and the major media outlets which survive will be those who learn how to use them while also providing a service to them rather than those who try to compete against them.