It’s happened. Saddam has been executed. Gotta admit, I was shocked at the timing of it all…but then I guess there’s never a good time to hang a murderous dictator.
I’ve been at work all day, so haven’t been able to follow the coverage too much. What I did notice, though, from the Six O’Clock news, was the great care taken to ensure good reporting didn’t override good taste. In other words, how much of this execution should be shown?
Sadly I don’t have Al Jazeera back at home. I wonder if their content was any different from the BBC report, in which veteran reporter (and the receiver of Dave-Lee-worship) John Simpson uttered the words “we won’t show you any more footage” when it got to the, excuse me, exciting bit: the hanging itself.
I guess it was just right though. The vision of a man about to meet his death was harrowing to say the least. In this case at least, our own imaginations could never surpass what actually happened to Saddam today.
For the record – I don’t agree with the hanging. But that debate’s for another day…and another blog no doubt.
UPDATE:
I’ve changed my mind about the broadcast of the hanging footage.
2006 has been the year of the citizen journalist. This video* (of Saddam being executed) is the climax to a year where the public created the news in every sense of the word.
Many don’t agree with execution. I don’t. But I do think these clips should be seen. By shielding ourselves from images like this, we are shielding the reality. If it shocks us that much, and causes that much outrage, the question needs to be asked: should it have been done?
The clip signifies two contradicting triumphs of Cit-journos. The quality is woeful. It’s shaky, grainy, dark – but yet, more real than any news footage could hope to be. Some media outlets haven’t embraced citizen journalism very well yet. Well it’s time they did.
Today’s events have made it more important than ever.
*WARNING: The video does show Saddam being executed. This isn’t the faded out version that was shown on the BBC/Sky etc today. You will see Saddam Hussein dying – view at your own risk. But please do.
i dont know, i dont agree with hanging. but execution yes. i have opened this video, and have got halfway, and have paused it to write this comment, am shitting myself. i dont know if i should be watching it. i feel really strange inside for watching it. i cant describe. i have never actually seen someone be killed before. im tempted to close the video and not watch it, but i will probably still click play.
When the international controversy over the handling of Saddam Hussein’s execution dies down one important lesson will remain – the mobile ‘phone camera means no major event can go unrecorded and the Internet ensures even footage from a death cell in Iraq can be available globally and staggeringly quickly.
Last year’s London bombings and the Buncefield oil depot and Lewes firework factory explosions had already shown how amateur video and mobile phone pictures play an important part in the coverage of big breaking news stories, but the Saddam shots strikingly underline how the technology has put the tools of journalism into everyone’s pocket.
American journalist Dan Farber sums it up this way, “While the U.S. was chasing after Saddam Hussein’s phantom weapons of mass destruction, the camera-enabled cell phone was beginning its journey from novelty to omnipresent recorder of history, with the Internet as its near instantaneous transport mechanism.” Farber, like others involved in Citizen Journalism, was not surprised the grainy ‘phone footage of the execution was soon on the ‘net and on his own site he predicts, “In the next few years billions of people will have phones with high resolution still and video cameras, GPS, geotagging, Bluetooth and plenty of network bandwidth and storage to document any point in time.”
Later this month a one-day conference in Birmingham will create the chance for the news industry, academics and citizen journalists to examine the issues raised as this kind of activity moves closer to mainstream newsgathering. Speakers will include Michael Hill, the newly appointed Head of Multimedia at Trinity Mirror, Vicky Taylor , head of interactivity at the BBC and Tom Reynolds, the blogger behind Random Acts of Reality. The event takes place at UCE Birmingham’s Screen Media Lab in Lower Eastside, Birmingham on Friday January 26th.
If this interests you take a look at the conference details on http://www.mediaskills.org.uk
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