Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Atrocity via the one megapixel lens

One of the most interesting aspects of the recent developments in Myanmar
(Burma), beyond the obvious peaceful defiance of thousands of Buddhist monks
and the deplorable treatment by the ruling junta, has been how this news has
reached us.

The ruling military junta has extremely strict regulations against both
journalism and the internet.

Individual citizens are reporting on the remarkable stand Buddhist monks and
ordinary people are making in response to unreasonable raises in fuel costs
through text messages, cell phone images and blogs.

They are reporting a stand their county is making in the face of known
consequences. The last protest resulted in 3,000 deaths. At least nine have
died thus far as protestors have ignored the junta's warnings.

This AP article details how individuals aren't using cell phones and the
internet to be innovative, but rather because this story has to be told and
they are using whatever means available.

More than anything, I believe this exemplifies the necessity for
storytelling, but also the means to which stories are now being told.
Traditional journalism, while not dead, is certainly not as healthy as days
when writers like Ernest Hemingway sent dispatches from the front to eager
readers back home.

What we receive now is raw, grainy and at times completely incomprehensible
(as exemplified by some of the footage leaving Myanmar via one to two
megapixel video), but at the same time it is honest, real and moving.