Old Media vs. New Media

Journalism is no longer the tradition in-person reporting. Arianna Huffington’s Bearing Witness 2.0: You Can’t Spin 10,000 Tweets and Camera Phone Uploads shows just that. In 2017 where smartphones and social media are rampant around the world. These devices can take anyone anywhere. A reporter and citizen journalist can share updates instantly that show exactly what is happening.

Huffington quotes New York Times columnist Roger Cohen who takes an outdated stance on new ways of reporting. He believes that to actually see what is happening one has to “bear witness” to actually understand what is happening.

This stance is quite outdated and quite honestly does not make sense. We can all hear and see the same thing that is going on by the person who took the video. Yes, we cannot smell “the crime” or “feel the tremor in the air”, but we are still witnessing history take place. It is just miles away from the comfort of our homes.    


Another wonderful aspect of reporting from tweets or camera phone photos is that no one is putting a senor on it. Unless it is in China during the deadly riots Huffington is referring in the article. From this angle of citizen journalism, you can see the whole truth and not only hear the side of those from positions of power. New media is tarnishing the image that those in power positions do not want to see.

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