This year we've experienced the power of one of the most significant new developments in TV technology since the arrival of electronic newsgathering a quarter century ago. It arrived - not on the floor of NAB - but from a grim prison in Iraq called Abu Ghraib.
We all know what we saw, but it was the how we saw it part that has huge implications for the future of broadcast news. A new generation of digital imaging - both still photographs and motion video - coupled with wireless access to the Internet, is already making its mark on history.
Anyone with a digital camera, a Web site and the ability to stream images can now command global attention. The graphic video of the beheading of Nicholas Berg, an American in Iraq, was dramatically "broadcast" to the world via an al Qaeda-linked Web site. It became an instant global "TV channel" with view ratings through the roof!
INSTANT JOURNALISM
In the 1970s, the portable video camera usurped the 16mm film camera as the key tool of television journalists. In the past decade, cheap DV cameras transformed ENG once again.
Now we are entering the era of the mobile videophone, a technology so potentially powerful that anyone can become an instant journalist. Images can be revealed throughout the world in a matter of minutes.
The good news is that cheap digital cameras, combined with easy Internet access, has the potential to democratize the newsgathering process. What many of us had prematurely predicted would happen with the invention of the Sony "Portapack" video system in the 1970s has finally come about.
Those whose job it is to keep secrets are rushing back to the drawing board. Donald Rumsfeld is one who comes to mind. In his testimony before congressional committees, the defense secretary said that the flood of pictures was now beyond the control of U.S. authorities.
"We're functioning with peacetime constraints, with legal requirements, in a wartime situation in the Information Age, where people [carry] digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise," Rumsfeld lamented.
On the other hand, Rumsfeld admitted that he had not realized the seriousness of the abuse allegations in the prison until the pictures were released. Whether one believes that statement or not, isn't the revelation of such conduct by operatives of the U.S. government the essence of good journalism?
A broadcaster who has not missed this coming sea change in newsgathering technology is the BBC. Earlier this year, the "beeb" outfitted about 40 of its reporters with Nokia mobile videophones that enable them to e-mail still and motion video with audio back to news headquarters via GPRS.
The reporters are using the same Nokia 3650 phones found at many U.S. mobile phone stores. However, these phones have been outfitted with special software from Philips that allows the handsets to record up to 15 minutes of video. When finished, the reporter simply transmits the pictures to the BBC in London.
Both Philips and the BBC acknowledge the enormous potential of newsgathering using standard mobile phones. Journalists in the field covering breaking stories can now send video reports back from difficult or remote locations. Though the image resolution is low, the technology works well enough for breaking stories where time-to-air is paramount.
The enabling software developed by Philips for the BBC is part of the company's multimedia platform for next-generation mobile phones. In fact, a main objective of Philips Software, an autonomous business group within Royal Philips Electronics, is to develop and market multimedia capability in a range of consumer products.
On its instant newsgathering technology, Cees Geel, director of marketing and sales director of Philips, said: "The BBC is well known for continually striving for the highest possible picture and sound quality...we are confident that experience gained from this application will rapidly lead to further innovative developments."
The BBC is betting the value of the news it breaks first using videophones will give it an edge over competitors. The news service has already scored scoops of breaking stories-one involving a Welsh bus accident-simply because a producer equipped with a Nokia phone got to the scene earlier than camera crews. During a recent trip to the U.K., President Bush even got a taste of the technology when his motorcade was followed though rural areas on mobile phones.
NEWS BY NOKIA
Nokia, the cellphone maker, certainly hasn't missed the compelling idea of placing its wireless cameras in the hands of millions of would-be journalists. It has just upped the ante by introducing the Nokia 7610.
Shipping now in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific (but not the U.S.), this phone includes the ability to capture, print, edit, store and send still pictures and videos wirelessly via the Internet.
Using its integrated megapixel camera, the 7610 not only records video, but allows users to edit scenes and add special effects such as music, text, new colors or moving objects to the "movie." It can also be used to e-mail images or transmit them via Bluetooth to computers, printers and-using the phone's Kodak Pictures application-to a virtual photo album on the Web.
So far, the BBC is the only major news organization to publicly announce its use of mobile videophones for on-air reporting. Though they have been quiet, we can't imagine that U.S. news operations are asleep at the wheel on this one.
No doubt that caution will change as the technology improves (and you can bet it will) and a few aggressive and enterprising young journalists start beating big news organizations at their own game.
