Terrorism and Technology- The World is Changing
Yesterday, as terrorists attacked London, some passengers in the Underground wanted to make sure that the world saw what they saw. As people ran through the tunnels trying to reach street level through clouds of smoke, a few took out their camera phones to capture the horror of this tragedy.
Cell phones with cameras were originally meant for entertainment. Now these phones are being used to make news. According to an article that appeared in today's Washington Post Camera Phones lend immediacy to Images of Disaster "the availability of the cameras, combined with the ability to transmit pictures and text instantaneously, is enabling the world to view news with nearly the immediacy of a victim or eyewitness."
Just hours after the tragedy these pictures made international news giving viewers a first hand account of the attack. Dozens of personal blog sites and news organizations' Web sites, including those of the BBC, CNN, and The Sun, solicited pictures and video from bystanders caught in the carnage. The bombs in London were no longer something that happened across the ocean. Yesterday, technology made the World smaller.
Emotions were not only shared around the world through pictures. Hours after the attacks the Guardian Newspaper set up a blog where people could write about their personal experience from the day. The blog is a good way for people to get out their feelings and vent their anxiety. One woman wrote, "As I was going towards the exit there was this smell. Like burning hair. And then the people starting walking out, soot and blood on their faces. And then this woman's face. Half of it covered in blood."
Technology has continued to change and impact the way we see the news. Yesterday the World saw a terror attack very differently then we did on 9/11 and even the bombing in Madrid. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of London.
3 Comments:
Camera phones and blogs are truly the newsmakers of 2005. While CNN and CNN.com were regularly updated with the facts, blogs were offering firsthand accounts with pictures taken with camera phones and digital cameras. I was reading through the list of public blogs that Emi provided us with, and a good portion of them had multiple posts devoted to the bombings and included pictures that you couldn't see on the television. I remember after 9/11 how hard it was to find out what was going on because cell phone networks shut down, and Internet news sites were overloaded. What a difference 4 years makes.
Great post! It is true, technology is speeding ahead and it is keeping us informed. Blogs had firsthand information of what was happening.
I was also surprised to see pictures from the inside of the metro trains. Definetely, as time goes by people are taking advantage of technology to speed up the process of communication. Who could have thought that a camera in a cell phone, would have been use to keep the world informed on what was happening in a terrorist attack!
It is very interesting that to see the power of technology, particularly camera phones and blogs, during the terror attacks in London. It is also interesting to see the evolution of such technology and terrorism from Septemtber 11th to last week's attacks.
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