Time magazine has named "You" -- the ordinary citizen who blogs, takes videos and posts them on the Web, in essence, user-generated content -- as the "Person of the Year" for 2006 in its December 25 issue (see below).
However, Time doesn't mention anything about the camera phone phenomenon for taking millions of photos and videos. At least, I couldn't find anything by quickly reading all the articles.
(However, Time discussed the power of user videos and camera phones in its previous issue. See further down this article.)
In describing its choice of "You," Time says 2006 is "a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace.
"It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."
The value of consumer content
Time says analysts call the phenomenon of citizen participation and interactivity as Web 2.0 -- is if it's a continuation of the existing Web. But it's really a revolution, the magazine says:
"And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing.
"You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos — those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms — than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.
And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts.
"We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software."
New digital democracy
"Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana?
"I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?
"The answer is, you do.
"And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."
"Beast With A billion Eyes"
Although Time's "Person of the Year" issue doesn't discuss the camera phone phenomenon, the magazine did write about it and the impact of user-created videos in general in its December 16, 2006 issue (see below).
With the headline of "The Beast With a Billion Eyes," Time notes Michael Richards' racist rant at a comedy club -- that was captured by a camera phone -- and reports on the power of camera phones.
Time writes, ""If you credit YouTube with revolutionizing the media, you must first credit every cell-phone company that has handed out deep-discount videophones like Cracker Jack prizes; they've turned us into a culture of Zapruders.
"When millions have the power to quickly, easily send any image around the world, you have something akin to global telepathy. (The cell-phone messages from 9/11 victims were chilling enough; imagine the visuals, had the attacks happened in 2006.)"
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