December 7, 2006

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (c) SCOTT BIGLETTI

Batallions of citizen journalists like Bigletti covered the events and their aftermath like a wall-to-wall Photo Op. They did the same during the Asian tsunami and the London transit bombings. And that impulse to record and then share that documentation--from the most extraordinary occurence to the decidedly trivial--is now a global obsession. Tonight, amateur astronomers are training their lenses on the heavens -- the moon was huge and auburn tonight -- then posting the pictures on their personal Web pages. Night prowlers are uploading images right now, on celebrity and gossip blogs, from their nocturnal scampers. Soldiers in Iraq are zapping home actual combat footage that will soon be airing on YouTube.

When I make the rounds talking about Citizen Journalists and 9/11, I often discuss the day in 1963 when Abraham Zapruder, an amateur with a movie camera, caught 22 seconds of a passing parade and, inadvertently, captured the split second that President John F. Kennedy, on a visit to Dallas, was shot by an assassin. Back then, it took three to four days (considered almost lightning speed at the time) for his footage to see the light of day, first appearing as freeze frames in the pages of Life magazine. Today, I read an essay by Dan Gillmor, one of the earliest of Internet sages, conferring upon Zapruder the title of "Citizen journalist." Amen, Mr. Gillmor.

Once upon a time, Uncle Andy predicted we'd all have our 15 minutes of fame. Little did he expect that in our age digital cameras would not only make each of us Edies, but, sooner or later, we'd all be Warhols.