Zapruder Swarms

After 9/11, I wrote a short piece on how news outlets had been relying on everyday citizens for footage of the attacks. Since then, the practice has only spread: It's amateurs, not professionals, who are more likely to be taping when an unexpected event occurs, and so it is amateur footage of such events that usually turns up on the news.

Apparently, it isn't just the media that's profiting from the camcorder revolution. The New York Times reports today that NASA has uses for DIY video as well.

Comments

[Steve in CO.]

As video cameras get ever smaller, cheaper, and therefore ubiquitous, who knows what we'll be watching in either horror or laughter in the future?

But for God's sake, can these people just hold the freaking camera still already?

A PSA should be sent out that it isn't neccessary to zoom in and out and shake the camera incessently trying to create a music video for goodness sakes. That can be done post-edit.

🙂

[S.Spielberg]

In the very near future we will all be wearing a little camera on our forehead, and instantly broadcast what we see to one another -- just like what we do now with words via the internet.

And then there will be no need for the network alphabet soup. (G'bye Jennings, Lockjaw, Blather, and all the pinheads at CNN.)

[Tim Stich]

But I need those guys to tell me what to think about the news. I decipher their every facial expression to see if I should care or not.

[Anonymous]

Take a look . . . (where?)

[Douglas Fletcher]

Hey Spielberg, have you seen Scottsdale lately? Here, take a look...