Nokia N70: Capturing the gun shots at Virgina Tech
By Stefan Constantinescu on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 9:38 PM PST In Uses for you Nokia phone
A student named Jamal was toting a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N70 and when he heard gun shots he decided to start filming instead of fleeing.
This man has balls of steel.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about: some guy went postal at Virgina Tech, a University in America, and killed 32 people. He then turned the gun on himself.
I kind of feel like shit posting this. I don’t mean to promote Nokia by mentioning the death of 33 students, but I do want to make a point that the ever advancing pieces of technology in our pockets are changing how conversations are taking place.
I wish I could have recorded what Jamal said on CNN, I’m watching this live by the way, it went something like this: "I want to share what happened here today with the world."
That’s deep.
Stefan,
Posted some of my own thoughts on this, http://ollywompus.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/the-stark-reality-of-the-citizen-journalist/, but wanted to comment here. First off, as I said in my post, I share your discomfort at posting videos like this, but I think that you shouldn’t feel too guilty about it. It’s citizen journalism like this that actually shows the heart and terror and raw emotions of situations, no matter how horrible, that a CNN spot can’t.
Secondly, the fact is that Jamal’s mobile phone, and the mobile’s of millions of others, are increasingly playing an important part in how we view our world and it’s events. I think it’s important that we highlight these things whenever possible, to show that there are in fact real world impacts, not just the typical news outlet spin.
-olly