POINT OF VIEW NEWS
How Citizen Journalists Have Altered the News Cycle
Two police officers in Buffalo are suspended after pushing a 75-year-old protestor during a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration. The man hits the ground and is bleeding from his head. The video goes viral. Two New York Police Department SUV’s are recorded driving into a group of demonstrators in Brooklyn. People are outraged and videos are shared across social media platforms. A peaceful protest in Washington DC ends abruptly when police spray tear gas into a crowd of demonstrators to make way for President Trump’s photo-op. The POV (point of view) video goes viral within minutes of the incident.
Like it or not, this quick and, as it’s happening, view of events is now a norm for news and information. “The rise of smartphones – and a reasonably high-quality video camera in everyone’s pockets has fundamentally changed the news industry because it means there are potentially thousands of citizen journalists ready to record events in real-time at any given moment,” said Kristen Ruby, Social Media Consultant and President of Ruby Media Group. “It is common to hear people complain that regular news stations often lag behind in comparison to the expediency of breaking news on Twitter,” said Ruby. But, does the speed of information compromise accuracy?
Not too long ago, covering a news story, whether local, national, or global, came with responsibility. Get the story first and get it right. There wasn’t a broadcast or cable news organization that wasn’t spending money and a lot of it to get its news crews on-site as quickly as possible. Having video vetted, before air time, was standard protocol. Our appetite for news has changed and so have the rules. Quick and easy video uploads to various social media platforms have forever altered the business of delivering news. “Video is an important tool, but it is important that it shows the full picture of any given scenario,” says Ruby.
George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests are the result of videos gone viral. Local citizens, with iPhones in hand, captured the arrest and death of George Floyd. The incident, filmed by several cameras from different angles, exposed police brutality and ignited the nation. Protests erupted as well as violence and looting and were shared worldwide at lightning speed. “People who get caught doing things they shouldn’t be doing, or saying things that they shouldn’t be saying, are the ones who end up getting one million views. The issue is not that they were recorded or that they went viral- it is- why did they engage in behavior that a total stranger felt compelled to record,” explained Ruby.
If social media is now a dominant news source and downloaded videos give us an up-close and personal view of the story at hand, Kristen Ruby says “ The goal is not to make the decision for people- post the footage in its entirety to let citizens make their own conclusions- don’t make the conclusions for them. Social media has given citizen journalists a voice in shaping the narrative. On the one hand, that is empowering, on the other, it comes with a grave amount of ethical responsibility.”
All images and videos were captured by protesters.
Police run over by a car during protest
