Reading the news can make anyone feel a bit depressed. Death, disease and global warming are consistently front page headlines, which leads readers to question what is actually going right in the world.
Technology has created ease in our everyday lives, yet it has also somehow caused face-to-face greetings to be replaced with a text messages reading, “How r u 2night?” But I must concede that the recent technological boom has caused a positive effect on our society: citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism is defined as ordinary people contributing to public awareness by posting blogs, uploading videos on the Internet in order to expose injustices in the world and acting as a private watchdogs of various systems in society.
As a very hot “buzz word” in today’s trendy, technology-savvy society, the rise of citizen journalism leads some to question its need.
But “Little Brother” checking up on “Big Brother” is just what democracy needs to counterbalance some of the recent poor decisions that our executive branch has made.
Laws such as the Patriot Act, which limits the freedoms of citizens, are balanced out by the activities that make up citizen journalism.
When concerned citizens engage in actions such as posting information about injustices within the system and making obscure videos public that might not have otherwise been published through other media sources, these people are acting as a key component to maintaining a healthy United States.
Young people are prime examples of Americans who have taken the idea of citizen journalism and ran with it.
The case of 20-year-old Brett Darrow from St. Louis represents exactly what makes the idea of citizen journalism so powerful.
Recently, Darrow was driving late at night and pulled his car into a commuter parking lot. He happened to have a car-mounted video camera running on his dashboard when a police officer approached his vehicle and demanded he get out of his car.
From the videotape, listeners can hear Sgt. James Kuehnlein confront Darrow in a loud and unnecessary manner. Kuehnlein can be heard taunting and threatening to take Darrow to jail on fabricated charges.
Serving and protecting our society? Right.
The tape continues for more than 10 minutes with Kuehnlein excessively swearing and threatening Darrow, who is heard trying to cool the officer down.
The video recording, which Darrow later posted on YouTube and Google Video, prompted more than 300 calls to the small St. George City Police Department.
What a perfect use of technology.
Although YouTube can be used for more shallow purposes – i.e. mindless videos exposing people’s stupidity – this time, Darrow was right on the money.
Because of his posting, the officer in question has been out on indefinite, unpaid leave, pending further investigation.
One less phony, twisted police officer on the streets thanks to the brilliant work of “Little Brother.”
Technology such as blogs, camera phones and uploaded video features on the Internet gives the public more power in a democratic system, thereby allowing citizens to air dirty laundry that might not have been picked up by the mainstream media.
Loose cannon authority figures beware – your inappropriate antics might be coming to an Internet site in the near future.
And I doubt these antics would be anything that anyone would want to feature on their MySpace page anytime soon.
-Lauren Englehardt is a communication senior.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.
