“ In general, we do not allow graphic or gratuitous violence on YouTube,” the company said in a statement. “However, we make exceptions for videos that have educational, documentary, or scientific value. The limitations being placed on mainstream media reporting from within Iran make it even more important that citizens in Iran be able to use YouTube to capture their experiences for the world to see.”
Stark Images, Uploaded to the World - NYTimes.com
This is big. Between this and the Obama Administration asking Twitter to delay an update so that protesting Iranians can keep on tweeting, the limitations of censorship are crumbling thanks to the Internet and the ever-increasing participation of citizen journalists.
Maybe this is the way journalism will go. Instead of being with a story every step of the way, from compiling first-hand information to gathering materials to writing the story to submitting to an editor, a journalist’s job will transform to be more of a filter than an originator. Those actually witnessing the story will capture it, upload the images, and then it will be the journalist’s job to make meaning of this mass of information. While this is one way broke newsrooms can keep on reporting without spending fortunes on foreign offices and airfare, one has to wonder what will be lost when those covering a story have to rely on others to be their eyes and ears.
