The widespread adoption of video technology has a tremendous impact on the way we see and experience the world around us. In the form of citizen journalism, digital video is a valuable mode of investigation and reporting. Individuals can record and document current events directly as they are happening. Often, these stories cover actions and abuses that might be suppressed or ignored by more traditional outlets. Moreover, once video is distributed online it helps lend local activist efforts a voice at a global scale. Grassroots participation is one step toward inspiring real governmental change and policy reform. People are empowered to create the news that drives political and social campaigns, and ensuring that platforms exist to distribute content freely and widely is an important human rights issue. Open video on the web promotes the freedom to preserve and share knowledge, overcome censorship, and move beyond the limitations of familiar mass media.

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Activism & Human Rights

From a human rights perspective, issues of consent, representation and revictimization emerge in an open and networked online environment of reworking, remixing and recirculating video and other imagery. How do we go about “incorporating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” into the “terms of service” of both open video culture and broader online video? How do we introduce ideas around consent and human dignity into the broader ecosystem? How do we respect cultural worlds where transparency is not always a desired outcome, as certain images should not be seen by outsiders, by the uninitiated, or by opposite genders? What can be learned from the experiences of remix culture, fan fiction and political use of remixing to-date?

More info:
Witness
The Hub
Global Voices

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