Citizens as reporters

Today I read (via www.smartmobs.com) this article commenting on how blogging is helping people bypass traditional news sources:

The next step is “Vblogging,” for video blogs, with images derived from digital cameras, webcames, mobile phones and palmtop computers, which are becoming ever more versatile and cheap.

“Those with a desire and a little technology [will have] the chance to write, shoot, edit and distribute video journalism on their own, even from the field,” says Forbes.com, the website of Forbes magazine.

So the challenge to traditional journalism as the determinant of what is news and how news should be filtered will only intensify.

I can’t remember a single time I’ve been a witness to an incident and my point of view matched the one journalists gave afterwards in the news.� Considering that, I can only perceive the trend towards news decentralization as a very good thing.