"in an age of information overload, now, more than ever, seeing is believing"

Seeing is believing: Human rights content in the age of social media

Via Storyful.blog


"Remember this famous image of a naked Vietnamese girl running in agony after being hit with napalm? Or how the plight of Kosovo refugees was documented in this image in 1999? These photographs were both captured by professional journalists, at times when media professionals played an integral role in documenting human rights abuses and bringing about change for those who weren’t being listened to. But with tightening budgets and technological changes altering the way news is being reported, nowadays it’s often largely up to the citizens themselves to let the world know what’s happening to them. Because in an age of information overload, now, more than ever, seeing is believing."


Full post here. (with video)


"For many reasons, there will always be a need for journalists on the ground, but the burden of human rights promotion rests now more than ever on the shoulders of the people who it most affects. Citizen journalists, working often in harrowing circumstances, can only do so much, however, and NGOs and news agencies must play their part in helping to transmit their message. They collate these citizen videos, verify sources and publicize the human rights violations they document using their established networks. Curation tools, outreach and collaboration play a vital part. The tools made available on and through social media are proving invaluable in the fight for human rights: it’s hard to deny atrocities when they are being documented and shared across a global community. Seeing is believing: what action we take once we witness the result is up to us."


Related: People Get Ready: The Struggle for Human Rights

Guest Blog: "To see, one has to look"