Captured on camera phones

                                                    

Camera phone

I don’t own a digital camera, neither do I have a camcorder to record spontaneous candid camera moments. Instead, I often use my mobile phone to take photographs and to even record video. The powerful portable nature of the mobile phone makes it easier to capture events faster and even often in real-time with the use of services such as Facebook, Twitter, weblogs, Qik and many more. This is changing how we share and show photographs.

Photographs and videos from the recent weekend or from yesterday’s family braai or even that fashion show that happened just an hour ago can now be uploaded on these services, to share those moments with family, friends and even people worldwide. These photographs can further be re-distributed with the use of MMS (multimedia messaging service) and Bluetooth, for example.

Photographs can be re-tweeted on Twitter or emailed to your contacts, used in blogs and links can be provided to enable others to click the link sending them directly to the desired photograph. The same photograph or video can be accessed on various sites on the web.

The accessibility of the mobile phone connected to the global networked nature of the World Wide Web permits almost anyone with reasonable technology and access to distribute personal and critical moments to the world, across borders, time and space. The mobile camera is transforming network news as news is now produced by anyone who has a mobile camera, distributed and redistributed.

Photograph on twitpic
For example, Janis Krum uploaded a photograph on twitpic of a plane that crashed into the Hudson River even before the story broke; many witnessed his tweet before viewing the incident on any other media site. This twitpic was also retweeted and further distributed to the rest of the world.

Janis Krum twitpic of the plane that crashed into the Hudson River

Some citizens witnessing the great Indian Ocean Tsunamis that struck in 2004 were able to capture the event on their mobile phones and distributed these photographs on the web.

7/7 bombings in London
When the 7/7 bombings in London took place in 2005, Adam Stacey captured photographs of himself escaping from the bombed tube train on the Piccadilly Line, making it accessible to people all over the world to be redistributed, transforming his photograph into instant news.

Adam Stacey, a photograph of himself escaping from the bombed tube train

Photographs from mobile phones capturing, more locally, the floods that took place in Cape Town in 2008 are accessible on the internet.

George Polk Awards
Even an anonymous mobile phone video from Iran won the 2009 George Polk Awards at NJN (not just the news) Networks. The video, shocking but powerful, showed Neda Agha-Soltan a young Iranian woman shot and killed during a protest in June 2009, following the Iranian elections. This video is easily accessible on the internet and can be viewed on various sites.

Because of the influx of citizen journalism due to the use of camera phones, media sites such as the Mail and Guardian are even encouraging readers to post there photographs on their news site.

These examples show how citizens contribute and impact the news, as citizens now have a more active role in major news events, capturing real life incidences which are transforming and contributing to the way network news is covered. Because of the use of mobile cameras people accessing the internet are able to turn to citizens to provide them with current events happening all over the world.

HTC camera phone photograph taken by:  Warren Rohner. Follow Warren's photostream for more images.