Smartphone Journalism: The ITV News debate

The rise of the smartphone and the power of social media means that the first instinct of many bystanders is to capture a rolling commentary of live events, providing immediate and often defining footage of headline news.

Watch the debate below:

From the worst atrocities in Syria, to the tragic unfolding of Drummer Rigby’s death in Woolwich, the significance of the device in providing video, images and tweets cannot be overstated.

But the use of such media also provokes questions about trust and accuracy and about the ethics of mainstream media using such material.

In this debate, from Intelligence Squared in partnership with ITV News, we will be asking: Does citizen journalism have a valuable part to play in the dissemination of news or is it inevitably a risky business and likely to compromise truth?

Is it a complement to mainstream media or a threat to traditional forms of journalism? ITV News presenter Mark Austin chairs the debate.

Speakers

Paul Conroy

World-renowned photojournalist and war-photographer. In 2012 Conroy suffered severe injuries in the Syrian city of Homs during an attack that killed two other reporters including celebrated Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin

Claire Fox

Renowned libertarian writer and director of Britain’s Institute of Ideas. She writes regularly for national newspapers and is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze. Fox is also a member of the European Cultural Parliament

Jessica Mayberry (via Google+ Hangouts on Air)

Social Entrepreneur and founder of Video Volunteers, an organisation that works to empower India’s rural and slum communities, who have been excluded from the traditional media

Simon Ostrovsky (via Google+ Hangouts on Air)

Soviet-born American journalist, director, and producer currently reporting for VICE News. He was recently held captive for three days by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine

Will Self

Author, journalist and broadcaster, whose latest book is the novel Umbrella. He writes two fortnightly columns for the New Statesman and has previously been a columnist for the Observer, The Times and the Evening Standard

Oren Yakobovich

Founder of Videre (est credere), a human rights group that works to expose violations around the globe through covert filming. Yakobovich, a former Israeli soldier, has trained hundreds of citizens in the West Bank to use cameras to fight for justice

Chair

Mark Austin

Multi-award winning journalist who co-presents ITV News at Ten. For fifteen years he was a foreign correspondent based in Africa and Asia and travelling all over the globe