blogging, eyewitness accounts and journalism

Yesterday a journalist from NRK called me and asked for an interview about blogging, London bombs and journalism. She promised to come before noon but never showed up and never informed me why. Which I think is pretty lousy as I spent half an hour preparing. The journalist seemed to be especially interested in whether blogging has become a problem for the established media. I don't consider it to be a problem that people can write about and share their own experiences. The whole blogging phenomenon fits well within a post-traditional discourse emphasising the increased role of the individual, authenticity and personalisation of news. Private, amateur bloggers can be what mass media institutions cannot. Private individuals do not have to follow journalistic ideals, presenting a balanced and 'objective' view of opinions. However, the ideals and ethics of journalism stay the same. What I find most interesting is the use of amateur photos within mass media. BBC urge people to send in their eyewitness experiences, photos and videos. Using amateur photage and written accounts require them to evaluate these expressions according to journalistic norms. Not according to the same qualitative standards, but they are responsible for the content. The attraction of amateur photage is amazing. Cameraphone-videos of lousy technical quality make it to the headlines. You can't really see much, but at least it's taken where and when it happens. Apparently so authentic and real.

Flickr's The London Bomb Blasts 7/7 pool contains quite a few eyewitness photos. But a large part of the photos are of TV-screens. Documenting the news-coverage?