J-Source.ca -- The Canadian Journalism Project
The Vancouver riot aftermath gives us a sobering glimpse of the future of the Internet, some commentators are noting. Has society created the court of Facebook? First there was the phenomenon of riot tourism photos – people taking pictures of themselves in front of burning cars. Bleacher Report notes that technology has outpaced crowd violence researchers. Compared to the pre-social media 1994 hockey mob dust-up, it was a tale of two riots. Twitter gave the incident global legs, arguably stoking increased international coverage.
But now social media has taken on a new surveillance role. A Facebook photo page has given rise to what some are calling online vigilantism, leading to complaints of harassment. Self-deputized citizens have created wanted posters. No wonder the now-famous kissing couple is media shy! As for the role of professional journalism, one commentator welcomed the riot for, if nothing else, switching off the spin zone and getting reporters back on the news beat.
Simon Fraser University’s public affairs department has provided a list of faculty and students available for comment on the riot. The Victoria Times Colonist has posted a gallery of global front-page coverage.
