The New York Times’ David Carr wrote a piece last week lamenting the notion that, in countries and combat situations where journalists are targets, such as Syria, coverage is reduced for those of us on the outside to a stream of amateur videos lacking context posted on social media sites such as YouTube.
To bring this point home, Carr provides some of the late journalist Marie Colvin”s final, powerful work, and contrasts it with a clip of amateur footage depicting a situation involving gunfire in the streets, posted to YouTube by Russia Today (embedded below -caution: graphic).
“The video is visceral and heart-rending,” notes Carr, “but absent any context. Where are we? Who is doing the shooting? And what stakes are in play?”