Press Pass - Journalism - The London Bomb Blasts Aftermath...

Thanks to the hundreds of camera phones in the London Tube on 7/7, outsiders were provided with up-to-minute news on the explosions that rocked London that morning. As video mobiles grow more popular in Europe, they are letting people capture the first scenes of chaos before TV. Major news sites like BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk ) and The Guardian ( http://www.guardian.co.uk ) make use of the pictures and comments of mobloggers who were there at the moment of the explosions as "Some of the best and most arresting content is from people on the street". People can easily send pictures and stories to editors of newspaper with their high-tech camera cell phones.

Citizen journalism is born. Mobile phones transformed victims into journalists. Amateur photographs and videos played a key role in Internet coverage, for newspapers and even television coverage of the London bomb blasts. News publishers have send messages to hundreds of subscribers to their services to request pictures, video and impressions of the London aftermath.

In these circumstances people are using their blogs to communicate with their family, friends and colleagues as the mobile networks are overloaded or down. "I'm ok" or "I'm working home today" are mostly sufficient.

The voices of bloggers are getting important for the politicians and the society as they call for massive demonstrations throughout Britain to show our solidarity against them. Bloggers have also insisted that Londoners will not be intimidated by the string of attacks on their city.

Bloggers are also writing some history with their pictures and post. Their posts are for ever saved somewhere on a server on the Internet. Days, weeks or years after 7/7, we can again go through the London bomb blasts. An overview of the 'nicest' blogs and picture collections.

- This is probably the most published picture of the London bomb blast: http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=77571

- The London explosions in pictures by BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/in_pictures_the_london_explosions/html/1.stm

- Your photos of the London explosions on BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4663717.stm

- Your eyewitness on Guardian Unlimited News blog http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2005/07/07/your_eyewitness_accounts.html

- 7 July 2005 London bombings on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_transport_explosions

- 7/7 Community pool of the London bomb blasts http://www.flickr.com/groups/bomb/pool/

- London Bombings by DonovanSmoke http://www.flickr.com/photos/keepingitfake/sets/556671/

- London terror acts on perfect.co.uk http://www.perfect.co.uk/2005/07/london-terror-attacks

- Some impressions of outside the Subway stations by ickoonite's photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/ickoonite/

- London Bombs by Times Online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/TGD/slideshow/0,,15209-308,00.html?fheight=781&fwidth=480

- Terror in London by USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/gallery/2005/07-07-aftermath/flash.htm

- Blinkx.tv http://emea-search.blinkx.com/BlinkxTv/ls.jsp?d=v&btv=true&sf=1&q=london+bomb

- Google Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=london+bomb+blast&btnG=Search+Video

Walter V. is a self-employed internet entrepreneur and founder-webmaster of several websites, including
wallies.info :: A snappy blog about snappy blue things :: blog | wiki | forum | links - http://wallies.info
mblo.gs :: A snappy moblog community - http://mblo.gs

This article courtesy of http://www.presspass.org.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in
your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author
name and URL remain intact.