Colleen's Take on Technology

Broadcast news made the use of videography an essential form of reporting for every news station, so it is no surprise that media postings on the internet are also accompanied by video nowadays. Pressing play on your computer screen is a much more stimulating and visually compelling way of attaining news, especially for visual learners who will better comprehend the information being introduced. Online publication, The Huffington Post uses YouTube videos in nearly every post out of the 20+ the website publishes daily. Even the New York Times and Chicago Tribune have entire sections of their websites dedicated to videos. (video.nytimes.com , chicagotribune.com/videobeta/)

However along with the great advances made by journalists streaming video, the fact of the matter is that anyone can hold up a camera and capture a groundbreaking moment of history. This YouTube generation we are living in promotes the use of camerawork and also, publishing. For instance, some of the most aired footage on television after 9/11/2003 came from a digital home video camera in the hands of a civilian, and was then posted on YouTube. The only known footage of a plane coming in contact with the first Twin Tower was captured this way. Because this event, like so many others in history, was so unsuspected,  people who are indeed NOT journalists are the ones making the news. This could become a problem for journalism in the future, because then we have lost the control of what is and what is not in fact, news.