Sunday 5 January 2014

NDM Christmas #3 Woolwich attack first UK murder to be transmitted 'live' on internet

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/19/woolwich-attack-first-uk-murder-transmitted-live-internet

This article focuses on the devastating attack which occurred in Woolwich, but this attack could not of gone global without the help of people's smartphones. The criminal Michael Adebolajeo, spoke directly to a citizen smart phone to tell the world why he had killed an solider. As a result, the video went viral on social networking sites such as Facebook and  debates on the issue of racism occurred over social media. Notably, after fours hours the video was uploaded onto Facebook, it went live on ITV news, "a news editor from the programme rushed the amateur  film-maker into a taxi and raced to the broadcaster's headquarters, 11 miles across London".

Additionally, a resident from that area used his/her phone to captured the attack this amateur footage went viral around the world within seconds of being published on the internet. This highlights the concept of citizen journalism as the individual produce their own content, which led to a rise in user-generate content as individuals globally was able to watch the video on social media. Due to this video being uploaded on Facebook, debates about religion began between Muslims and Christianity. Thus, highlighting the impact new/digital media has on individuals as without smart phones or social media, people around the world would have not see this video and therefore religious debates would not have began.

Furthermore, the BBC and ITV received around 800 complaints from airing this footage as it viewers were distressed by watching it. It can be argued that new/digital media plays a crucial role in peoples' lives as without the development of smart phones and social media this video would not have been  transmitted globally. This article is an example of citizen journalism as the individual posted up the video on Facebook which causes a drastic rise in user-generate content, thus empowering people to actively engage with the content by posting messages or Tweeting.

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