Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster

The invention of camera phones has allowed everyday people to capture images of great political and social significance in an unprecedented way, sometimes beating professional photojournalists to the punch. Several survivors of yesterday's terror attacks in London recorded images of bombed subway cars and fellow victims on their camera phones. Their pictures were broadcast to the world on the websites of several major news organizations, allowing the shocked public an even more intimate look at the tragedy. In the tradition of other instances of "accidental journalism," like the Zapruder tape of the Kennedy assassination and photos of the Abu Ghraib atrocities, camera images capture history from a layman's point of view, adding to their impact. – YaleGlobal