Given the fact that at gigs, you increasingly have burly security stewards shouting at you if you dare to raise a cameraphone to take a photo of your fave band, it’s shocking that someone was able to attend the execution of Saddam Hussein and film the whole thing using their phone.
Yet that’s what happened last week, as you’ll surely know by now. And at a stroke, the footage circumvented the ‘official’ video recording of Saddam’s death, spread quickly around the world, initially through Arab-language websites, before inevitably jumping onto YouTube.
It was a reminder that what the internet and mobile industries call ‘user generated content’ isn’t JUST about Chinese blokes miming to the Backstreet Boys. And being able to watch wobbly footage of Saddam being hung isn’t really the point.
The camphone footage fuelled high-profile stories about the heckling leading up to his death, which could have huge implications in the weeks and months to come.
And while eyewitness reports of the chaotic scenes would have leaked out by now, the fact that video footage emerged so quickly – and all because someone present had their cameraphone to hand – is a powerful demonstration of how citizen journalism can break really big stories.
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