[thechat] the internet war?

[William Anderson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "isaac" <isaac at members.evolt.org>
To: <thechat at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 4:31 AM
Subject: [thechat] the internet war?


>
> I heard someone talking about the possibility of this imminent conflict
> being "the internet war". They suggested that Vietnam was "the TV war",
with
> citizens of the world being hit with all kinds of graphic footage.
>
> The internet war looked possible after September 11. It was far easier to
> find updated information on the net than it was on TV. The Web had stories
> from survivors and pictures from fleeing civilians long before TV
networks.
> I saw more interesting photographs, maps, and diagrams on the net than TV
> could provide.

however, in the initial few hours of the tragedies, it was traditional
television media who provided the best coverage, the servers of cnn.com,
news.bbc.co.uk and so on reduced to quivering overheating masses.  The BBC
New Media IT team was reported to have said "the servers are red hot, no
chance of getting on" around 2:30pm BST (09:30am EDT) on the 11th.

> But I don't see it going much further.
>
> Who in Afghanistan risks owning a camera to take firsthand photos of
> conflict when it occurs? And who would have a net connection to upload
> stories or images?

Surely all it takes is one guy/gal with a digicam, laptop, satellite phone
and a steely resolve to get pictures out ... look at CNN's Nic Robertson and
Alfredo DeLara (reporter and producer respectively), armed with a
videophone, still getting pictures out for broadcast.  If they can do it
with 'old' media, how much simpler must it be for 'new' media?  Even if
net.access was unavailable, who's to say CF cards couldn't be smuggled out
with photos and copy on board, for easy upload from a neighbouring state?
Perhaps guerilla journalism is about to come of age.

--
 _ __   ___ _   _ _ __ ___ @well.com  William Anderson www.well.com/~neuro
| '_ \ / _ \ | | | '__/ _ \  "The thing I love most about deadlines is the
| | | |  __/ |_| | | | (_) |   wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they
|_| |_|\___|\__,_|_|  \___/        go past." - Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)