Kingish.com It's a way of life

Well, Citizen Journalist, whilst interesting, was not at all what I'd expected. The program did, however, raise some interesting points which I'd like to mention here. Oh, and before you ask, no, they didn't use any of my footage from the day.

Why did so many people caught up in the July 7th bombings take photos and films on the day? The statistics mentioned in the report suggested that up to 50% of the footage used in some news reports was 'donated' by the public. Of course, some of the images and footage was actually bought by the networks, but the majority was simply sent in by the public.

So, why does someone trapped on a central London tube, buried deep underground, somewhere in the tube network, having just had a narrow brush with death, suddenly pull out their camera-phone and start filming the surrounding panic and their eventual escape to daylight and safety?

Like so may other people that day, I was simply on the outskirts of it all. Sure, I got off the train that then exploded at King's Cross one minute later, but I was nowhere near the 'action'. I walked out of the station without the faintest idea of what had just happened or how close I'd come to being part of a different story with a very different ending.

I then proceeded to take out my phone and record what was happening around me.

I'd been evacuated from King's Cross before that day, but I didn't take out the camera. So why then? Why that day?

People on the documentary suggested a number of reasons, but the one that struck home for me was the simplest. One of the respondents suggested that they had simply used their camera to record the fact that they were indeed caught up in a nightmare on the tube and wanted proof to show their boss at work. Thinking back on that day, I believe that I would have said much the same.

Personally, there was slightly more to it than that (such as the fact I'd studied photography and often take photos), but overall I took my images in order to show my friends and work-mates what I'd been through. After all, at the start of that day, everyone believed it was a power surge that had caused the disruption to service - not a particularly glamorous subject.

Okay, so why did I send in my pictures and films to the BBC? Was I searching for fame?

I'd seen other images start to appear on the BBC news site and not thought much of it. Then, at work the following day, someone was using a bluetooth device to access their family photos from their camera-phone and download them to their PC. This was the first time I'd seen bluetooth in action and decided to grab my footage from my own phone to send to family and friends. I also fired off a quick email to the BBC almost without thought. In fact, I don't think I wrote anything in the email except titling it "Images from King's Cross - 7/7/2005".

I also suggested that a colleague do the same, as he had been trapped underground and had images of his walk down the tracks.

They were all published, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, it this citizen journalism? Even if our combined efforts were used in reports and supported traditional reporting, I think the answer is 'no'. As one of the participants in the documentary said, we simply took images. We photographed and recorded. Sure it's a brand new phenomenon that the public are the first on the scene with cameras, but that on its own is not journalism. Journalists construct a compelling story and the images simply support and illustrate it.

No, I don't think we are citizen journalists. We are simply people with camera-phones. And in these troubles we face today, it is the citizens who are there first because it us who are targeted.

If anything, we will be the 'People Paparazzi'. Given that one person received an estimated £60,000 for their footage of terrorist suspects being arrested, in time the smell of money will eventually make this a dangerous and sordid game to play.