Mobile Impact: How the iPhone 4 Will Revolutionize Citizen Journalism
With the release of “Apple of my Eye”, the first short film shot and edited using the iPhone 4, I started to envision the future of mobile journalism and how iMovie could potentially transform the way we consume news media. Michael Korbel’s short film showcases the iPhone 4’s capability to capture raw emotion and visualize complex storylines while using a minimal amount of equipment. Be honest- In the right setting, “Apple of my Eye” might make you tear up, just a little.
So what does this mean for future iReport contributors? Well, quite a bit. Recording HD video at 720 p resolution/30 frames per second could produce award-winning documentaries capable of immediate web submission. Can you imagine the effect this would have had on the Iranian Twitter Revolution? Unedited video uploads went viral overnight, drawing international coverage and raising awareness of the turmoil surrounding the distressed country.
In the United States, we’ve seen growing popularity in Facebook and YouTube video uploads reporting police brutality. This has caused government officials to question altercations caught on tape, making the video camera one of the “most effective weapon(s) that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse.”
Recently, YouTube launched CitizenTube, a feed that tracks breaking news video uploads with a “focus on strong visuals and non-traditional sources.” Allvoices, a newly launched citizen journalism platform, has seen record growth internationally, with 6.5 million unique visitors in the month of May. Though iPhone-to-web direct uploads are not yet available, these signs show that journalism is shifting focus toward user-generated content, where importance lies in the citizen’s point of view.