I'm Ben. 20. @BennSt
BA Media & Communication at Birmingham City University. I make websites and design for print, produce and present radio as well as take photos. Among other things.
Hear me every Wednesday 2-4pm on Scratch Radio.
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
CNN on Haiti earthquake… 360° videos?
As part of their coverage of the Haiti earthquake, this week CNN posted a set of four 360° videos of the Hatian capital Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the disaster. The videos, produced by the company behind the Google StreetView images Immersive Media, allow viewers to scroll around the video in real-time as the camera moves through the streets of the city. Effective journalism? Or are CNN selling-out on the disaster?
There is no doubt in the technical excellence of this endeavour; this is without question a step forward in traditional photojournalism. Online reportage can now bring consumers a compelling real-life view of scenes from natural disasters, major events and big news stories. So does is this the beginning of photojournalism 2.0? Or can the skills of an effective photojournalist simply not be replicated?
My final comment may appear to be biased, or might sound like I have already formed my views on the issue, but I am just posing the question. The money spent on this venture could have been spent to help the rescue mission; where would it have been most usefully spent?
You can view the videos at http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/
