2005 was arguably the year citizens really started to do it for themselves. Raising mobiles aloft, they did not just talk and text, they snapped, shared and reported the world around them.
Twelve months ago, it was clear the mass consumer was going to have at his or her disposal many more gadgets with greater capacity to record, store and share content. It was going to be a year in which people started to challenge those who traditionally provide us with content, be it news, music, or movies.
Crucially, what 2005 proved was that far from these techno tools being purely dumb funnels for the same paid-for content from mainstream media, they had the chance to become powerful tools for political expression and reportage. The consumer was turning into the citizen with a meaningful role to play. Media started to look more participatory and inclusive.
The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 starkly showed the potential of these tools. Most of the memories of that day have been graphically captured, replayed and played again, making the event much more immediate and personal. Later in the year, the 7 July London bombings and the hurricanes in the US forced home the fact that citizens had a much larger role in the production of news than ever before.
These collages of eyewitness accounts showed the immediate aftermath of the events long before any press camera could. More recently, the BBC received 6,500 e-mailed mobile images and video clips showing the fires at the Buncefield oil depot, thousands more than the number received after the London bombings.
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