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Student with cell phone video a citizen journalist

April 18, 2007

By Douglas Durden

Richmond, Va. — Whether he knew or not, when Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti began capturing footage of armed men storming a building on his cell phone Monday, he joined the ranks of citizen journalists.

"You could say it's shaky and that the video quality isn't that good. But at that moment, that's all people had," says professor Jeff Rutenbeck, an expert on digital media.

"Obviously, it's unfiltered to some degree. It's not professionally produced. But it's useful and valuable because it's being generated almost live. . . . It was valuable because no one had any idea of what was going on."

Citizen journalism is being used to describe a place where "personal media" (social networking, cell phones, digital cameras, etc.) and mass media converge, according to Rutenbeck, dean of the division of communication and creative media at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt.

Monday, as dozens were slain on the Virginia Tech campus, personal media took on even more importance.

Albarghouti downloaded his cell-phone video to CNN's I-Report, a interactive link on the news channel's Web site launched last August.

"We very quickly knew what had been submitted," said Susan Bunda, senior vice president of news of CNN/U.S.

Within minutes, his footage, including audio of 27 shots being fired, was on CNN. It became, and remains, one of the dominant images from the horrific event.

"Our viewers have always called in news tips. In the old days, we called them news hounds," Bunda said. "As technology advanced, this seemed like a logical way to involve our viewers in events of the day."

CNN and MSNBC had prominent messages on their Web sites Monday seeking first-person accounts from people at Virginia Tech.

CNN received about 120 submissions, although it's unclear if all were from the campus. About one third were approved for air — after being vetted by the news organization.

Martin Wolk, business editor for MSNBC.com, also reports a strong response from the campus.

Wolk points to a double advantage of citizen journalism. It provides MSNBC with a powerful source of tips that can be followed up by reporters, or, if the information can be verified, it can be published on its own.

There's a benefit to the sender as well, Wolk said. "It gives people an outlet to share their thoughts and feelings and memories."

Rutenbeck says traditional news organizations are wise to embrace citizen journalism.

With billions of cell phones, many with cameras, "it's almost like taking every video camera and still camera that ever existed and hooking them up to the Internet. Not only can I record it, I can share it.

But don't confuse the raw images with "the story."

"They're sending information," Rutenbeck said. "It's still up to the news organizations to provide the context and provide it to people in a way they can understand."

Douglas Durden is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.