Monday, January 22, 2007

15 minutes

Mobile Phones have been in the news of late but more for non-call related features. There was the story of a phone catching fire in a man's pocket causing him severe burns and $75,000 worth of property damage. (More recent reports say the phone may not have been the ignition agent although there have been no other options, not even spontaneous human combustion, offered). Another story related to mobile phone video capabilities. Images of Saddam Hussein's hanging were recorded via a mobile phone and posted on the internet. There are numerous stories of "happy slapping" - where an attack on a random victim is filmed by the assailants on their mobile phones and distributed, including posting to the net.
In another recent story it's not specified if the recording media was a mobile phone when three teenagers beat another girl while being videotaped, and then turned the camera on themselves to brag about the incident before posting the video online. Or if a US man used a mobile phone when he kidnapped, raped and tortured his wife, then hung her from a tree to film a two-hour bondage pornography video.
Have these incidents always happened? Or has the ability for people to broadcast to a wider audience quite easily and cheaply led to more people wanting and making/taking their "15 minutes" of fame? And then the public broadcasters give air time to the "newsworthy" ones?

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