Here is some interesting media analysis from the Guardian newspaper relating to the use of amateur footage during the recent G20 protest. Increasingly, the democratic power game is being fought out in the media and I am surprised the police didn’t realise this and moderate their tactics accordingly. For a broader analysis of contemporary new media politics, see Manual Castells lecture at the Oxford Internet Institute titled ‘communication power in a network society’ (link).
Should anyone still doubt that the era of a citizen-led, electronic news media is on the way, then the sudden arrival and rapid global spread this week of the Guardian video showing police mistreatment of Ian Tomlinson shortly before his death at the G20 protests provides compelling evidence.
Firstly, the footage was shot by a non-professional – an American fund manager visiting London – rather than one of the scores of news crews who were there at the time. More dramatically, within hours of the video going up on the guardian.co.uk website on Tuesday afternoon, it was being watched around the world as an ever-widening network of newspapers, bloggers, Twitter users and others spread the word and passed on links (link).
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