London Blogging

The London bombings were a good example of how citizen journalists can expand an important story well beyond what the traditional media can do on it's own. The NY Times had a good overview of how blogs provided images and news from the scene, plus a quote from Bayosphere's Dan Gillmor.


Here's what the Times writes...

"Online photo-sharing sites and Web blogs began chronicling the attacks soon after they occurred, posting material often gathered before professional news organizations arrived on the scenes. The BBC posted photographs and videos taken by witnesses, and The Guardian posted experiences that readers submitted on a running Web log.

"Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Media, which promotes what it calls "citizen journalism," said witnesses' photos and online accounts would reshape the role of traditional news media over time. As more and more photographs and blogs go online with major events, Mr. Gillmor said, the mainstream news media should search those postings and point their readers to the best ones. "A lot of what's being done by the citizen-journalist will be most useful as people start pulling together the best images and stories," he said. "There was a cliché that journalists write the first draft of history. Now I think these people are writing the first draft of history at some level, and that's an important shift."