The TV news scene has been in ferment for years now, as broadcast journalists come up consistently with new ways to keep viewers informed and interested.
The new techniques are the products of cutting-edge technology, as smaller but more powerful devices and processes have made it possible for TV crews and reporters to cover breaking news instantly, anywhere in the world.
Many reporters use their mobile phones to relay images to millions of viewers without alerting unfriendly forces or government censors on their covert news coverage.
More remarkable is the availability of images from hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras found on street corners all over the world. These unmanned cameras capture everything happening before them.
If something newsworthy is recorded and needs to be accessed, it is a simple matter to zero in on the relevant event or image on the camera’s digital memory and project it as part of a newscast.
London leads the way
Cities such as London in particular, where a series of “seeing eye” cameras actually “follow” a suspected terrorist as he makes his way across the metropolis, enables police to apprehend them before a crime is committed.
Big Brother is watching you, and you are live on the 6 p.m. breaking news!
Mobile phones are also used as TV cameras and make it possible for practically anyone to become a news reporter, or recorder.
Citizen journalism
Some of the major news organizations solicit phone feeds of news as it happens in different countries and continents from hundreds of these self-styled correspondents.
There are of course, the usual drawbacks, such as unclear images and voice tracks that are unclear and even inaudible. There is also the lack of objectivity and dependable verification process.
In sum however, this development in the manner that breaking news is acquired and subsequently broadcast to the world is more boon than bane, because this is detailed and eye-witnessed news coverage as never before seen.
The harvest of images has become so huge that it’s been organized in many different ways so as to make sense out of the plethora of information that inundates the networks.
There’s a cable show that edits together only a series of car crashes, another one that compiles shots of various disasters, and a third that honors the exploits of cops as well as ordinary people who are forced to perform acts of valor and rescue that instantly transform them into heroes.
As technology develops and new developments appear in the ever-changing world of reporting the news as it happens, when it happens, and where it happens, it is hoped that the time-honored tenets of journalism—objectivity and competent analysis will continue to prevail.