Perhaps this may just be a technological advance that is good. People for instance like Elizabeth Lambert that gets caught on video misbehaving on the soccer field. Had this been back in the day of no video, her actions may have become ignored. Since the advance of affordable and portable video, feeds from everywhere have popped up. Sex tapes, crime tapes, elected officials, brutal street beatings, people talking like fools, heroic stances, or the lame set up stunts for the 15 minutes of fame people. Youtube has done very well I think. An easily accessible place for all this crap so the public can bear witness. It is almost information overload some days.
We have been given unprecedented views of people doing what perhaps people have always been doing. But getting it on video now somehow validates, vindicates, or vilifies those involved. Take the information we currently get from American politics. Match this to video and you can fry politicians so early or sit on it till your moment presents itself. This makes it almost necessary for a career politician to be thinking of the next election not ten minutes after he was just elected. We have seen this now where years of quotes, off remarks are reborn years later on the campaign trail. It is almost like they are not allowed to make mistakes or change their opinions.
The positives may however easily outweigh the negatives, as situations unknown to general pubic and garner interest by effective use of the audiovisual format. The example that comes to mind is West Virginia’s Mountain top mining practice.
We are also living in the instant information age. The President makes a verbal misstep and News sites online as well as blogs are quick to publish and blow out of proportion to exaggerate the moment.
Now... all that is needed is positive action on these social and environmental issues, rather than growing a generation of passive apathetic viewers who are become descentatized by the very images that could liberate them.
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