Syria, citizen journalism and the New York Times

The recent controversy about Anthony Shadid — a cousin claims he foretold his death on a reporting trip Syria and  blamed the New York Times for pressuring him to go — is a reminder that even the world’s leading newspaper has struggled to do on the ground reporting in Syria.  I have written before about how hard it is to get word out of Syria and have posted about some of the most revealing videos (for example, here and here) but the Times has now taken the innovative step of corralling a lot of the citizen journalism that has been so essential to our understanding of what is going on there and contextualizing it: highlighting what is known and unknown about who recorded it and what it depicts.  The interactive page is essential viewing for anyone interested in Syria’s ongoing battle but it is also an indication of what the future of journalism looks like.

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Click here to read all my posts about Syria and the Middle East.

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