Have you heard of the “first YouTube War”? It is a name given to the situation in Syria where the incidents were reflected by various violence inflicting videos that were taken by activists and journalists around the world. Jeff Howe, assistant professor of Journalism at Northeastern University discusses the term ‘crowdsourcing’ which explains how conflict is shaped through these videos of violence. According to Howe, the videos and audios are unclear which accelerates its authenticity. The videos that are taken by amateur videographers show real incidents and also attract attention from the rest of the world who react to them and support the countries who suffer in the face of violence.
Apart from the citizens, journalists who cover the areas of conflict are always in danger. There have been many instances where reporters and journalists have been attacked to prevent them from spreading and reporting news to the world. The violence against them is severe as they pose major threats to the terrorist organisations by exposing their actions against humanity. Howe mentions how the government forces killed Rami al-Sayed who shared footage of the attack on Homs. It is the very use of technology that helps countries attract support from other nations and win wars against violence. Therefore Howe says, “because of social media — revolutions are composed of people, not technologies”.
In technologically driven societies, crimes cannot be suppressed. The violence caused and suffered can be easily exposed to the real world and it does not stand a chance of been hidden for a long time. After the incident, where one activist in Homs dug out bodies and videotaped the incident, it was proved that every activist had turned into a journalist. Even if Syria and Iran try to hide and censor events that portray violence, the technology of this era is capable of exposing it.
Akshara Palshetkar
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