Awash with the Sendai tsunami videos

How are we going to use this technology of web video after such a tragedy?

With so many videos of the tsunami and earthquake uploaded on video sharing websites, passed on, replied to and re-appropriated by other web users, it would be timely to ask ourselves, just what are we passing on? Are we keeping the horror alive? For whom? Are we reliving the morbid awe we experience as we view the devastation again and again from the safety of our rooms and offices, schools or malls? What images are we proliferating?

It's the same thing we see on the news, isn't it? The more harrowing, the better. The idea is that, aside from informing the audience that a tragic, horrific, morbid event has just occured, they can invite audiences to tune in to them for more "awesome" footage. How you define awesome -- that's another blog post.

However, right now, I feel that web video, and the technology to capture it should turn to other uses now. People who have the means to report on people on the ground, should. Their stories should be shared, not as a way of spectacularizing their suffering but to document how they are coping, to get word out that they are more than numbers. They are people who need help. It's also a call to their government, humanitarian organizations and even fellow citizens on the kind assistance they may need.

I am no social scientist, but I would also like to think it is a way for them to purge the horror they experienced. For them to be able to talk about it may help them make sense of it. The technology and the opportunity should be there for them so that they can muster the strength to move forward, not for us to record and edit and apply our own scripts to. There are producers and news editors doing that already.

They just need to tell their side of the story, in their own words, in their own time, according to how they experienced it. The job of the videographer and the video camera begins and ends with the record button.