Saddam Hussein’s execution filmed on mobile camera phone
Mashable published a link to the grainy and shaky mobile camera phone video of Saddam Hussein’s execution.
The person doing the filming wasn’t very good at keeping the camera steady… it’s all over the place. Whatever your perspective on the execution, the footage is compelling, particularly as the mass media here in the UK appeared to only have still images of Saddam with the noose around his neck. So compelling that, as I’m writing this text, the above linked video has been viewed almost 900,000 times. Just that link. On Google Video. Not counting Youtube, Revver and the countless versions of the same video.
What’s fascinating, from a mobile industry viewpoint, is that the mobile medium — mobile footage — is now very much an accepted by all. Even Fox News was getting in on the action. As I was flicking across the news channels, I saw the Fox News anchorman talking about the footage. (I’m not sure if it was actually aired.)
I also wonder what Scoopt could/would have done with the footage, had they been approached with it exclusively by the owner.
I liked how Pete at Mashable put it:
We won’t pass judgement on those that want to see the clip, but what’s becoming abundantly clear is that information can no longer be suppressed - with cameraphones, video-sharing sites and thousands of independent bloggers, not to mention the social filters and rating systems that help us find the most interesting content, this media will always become available online.
“I also wonder what Scoopt could/would have done with the footage, had they been approached with it exclusively by the owner.”
Must admit, it crossed my mind too!
The ‘could’ part is easy: we could have licensed this footage and stills taken from it commercially to any global media customer that wanted to use it (gotta love the Associated Press credit here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980902,00.html).
The ‘would’ is trickier. We always have to judge these issues on a case by case basis, balancing the right and requirement to tell the news against the risks of being used for political advantage, rewarding illegal actions, helping to fund a cause etc. In this particular case, before we made any decisions, we would have had to establish full details of the source. This would not necessarily have been wasy!
Without knowing anything of the source, it’s impossible to be categorical and I simply don’t know whether we would have handled the video or walked away. But ultimately our role, as that of any other news organisation, is to tell the news — and you do that with whatever means you have to hand, subject to a billion provisos.
Posted by Kyle MacRae on January 1st, 2007 at 9:29 pm.Further coverage on the Saddam execution along with unedited video and the Letter from Saddam Hussein to the People of Iraq.
http://www.crusade-media.com/news40.html
Posted by Alan on January 2nd, 2007 at 11:50 am.