Citizen Journalism...I'm Excited!

I have not been so excited about journalism since...well, I never have I don't think. So I'll rephrase that sentence to make sense- I have never been so excited about journalism as I am now!

I know that 9/11 allowed citizens of America to share their stories about the Twin Tower attacks, and videos of the London bombings were taken on a video phone, but the recent events in Mumbai seem to have opened up a massive door in terms of citizen journalism.

I was reading the live update feed about the Mumbai attacks on the BBC website. As the major events began to draw to a close (thank goodness), there were Twitter updates being used by the BBC to illustrate what was going on in real time. People in the city were updating their Twitter statuses to let the world know what was really happening, and the BBC used it as news. Which, I feel, is perfectly right.

The journalism may not be relying on sending reporters out to India, but it is still doing it's job; reporting NEW events.

Not only was Twitter used in the reporting, Flickr, Global Voices and personal blogs made contributions to news stories. Surely I cannot be the only one who is finding this quite amazing, and quite exciting, without meaning to be so insensitive to a terrorist attack.

I was up until about 5am yesterday, just updating BBC updates, Twitter and Flickr to get a real life view of what is happening in Mumbai. This is the only way to do it, I can't fly out there to see it for myself, so citizens are my best option.

Here is a link to a story about citizen journalism in the New York Times...that I found on Twitter!! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/world/asia/30twitter.html?_r=1&partner=rss

What do you think? Excited or cheated of real journalism?

Thugz 'n' Yobz- What Would You Do?

I live in usually quiet Chester. Nothing much really goes wrong. It's a bit noisy at 3am sometimes when the alcohol has been flowing, but apart from that, everything flows quite well.

So when I heard loud noises just before 1am the other day, I was concerned. I was too afraid to look out of the window, so I was not sure what was going on. It sounded as though someone was being kicked or punched several times, and there was a lot of shouting.

I really didn't know what to do. As my boyfriend reached for the phone, the noises got less, and the shouting was quieter. Probably, the right thing to do would have been to call the police. Everything ran through my head: "What if someone's been stabbed?", "What if someone's lying on the floor and needs help?".

Unfortunately, these thoughts were mixed with the worry that if we did call for assistance, would the police come to our house, and make it obvious that we called them? It shouldn't have crossed my mind, but it did. I am one of those people who would love to help others, and feel a duty to if they are in trouble, but I am also over ruled by the though of someone seeking revenge.

This is wrong, I know, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm also sure I'm not the only one who heard the commotion on that night, and nobody else called for help.

Last night, I found out that someone was going around the streets banging on people's doors. My housemate said that he heard people banging on doors the previous night, so the two incidents could have been related. After hearing this, I spent the night with the door locked, and the light on. I was genuinely afraid that someone would bang the door down, and come into my room.

This is wrong. As much as I am wrong to not call the police, it cannot be as wrong as terrorising people in their own home. What would you do in the above situations?