Poynter on the Record

... Thanks to exploding bandwidth, cheap digital camcorders, cell-phone cameras and free Internet video sites such as Ogrish, Metacafe and the hugely popular YouTube and Google, combatants and victims in Iraq -- as well as Afghanistan, Lebanon and Israel -- are telling their grim stories in ways both profoundly disturbing and strangely mesmerizing.

Not since television brought the Vietnam War into American living rooms has technology so quickly changed the way millions of people experience the horrors of war. Nearly overnight, the editing and distribution of powerful front-line images have been placed in the hands of anyone, anywhere, who has access to the Internet.

The consequences remain to be seen. But this chaotic modern form of cinéma vérité already is posing public-relations headaches for the Pentagon and forcing traditional media to rethink how they cover conflicts.

"CNN and other networks, local stations and newspapers in many cases are actively seeking video, stills and audio from non-journalists," said Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute, a journalism school in Florida. While this can enhance news coverage, he said, the authenticity of amateur videos should worry news outlets.

"We could get snookered," Steele said. ...
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