The Use of Cell Phones In Documenting the Uprising in Myanmar
As the world watches the brave citizens of Myanmar continue to stage pro-democracy rallies against the military junta which has controlled the the nation for the last 44 years, its still amazes and inspires me on how cell phone video, or any other form of technology (web access, digital images) is being by the protesters to inform the world about their struggles for a democratic government.
Watching the pixleated images of the pro-democracy rallies appearing on BBC, ABC, and on user created content platforms such as Youtube, CNN’s Ireport, helps us all understand that the future in reporting news will come from the average person who is experiencing it and not on the established media platforms. While it is true that the established media platforms enables a much larger audience to view these user submitted media assets, this will change with the availability,affordability, and open layer security of web access.
According to the AP news service, the military junta is attempting to disrupt the distribution of cell phone videos of the democracy rallies, by shutting down cellular service in some cities. This may work to some degree but if the users can bluetooth the video from their cellphones to their computers, they can still send the videos to user content providers such as CNN’s Ireport, Youtube and other, off course they would need to use proxies to bypass any web based restrictions.
I will continue to observe and post on how mobile technology is being used by the people of Myanmar in their quest for a Democratic government.