Live reporting terror: remediating citizen crisis communication

Editors: Thorsen, E. and Allan, S.

Volume: 2

Pages: 127-142

Publisher: Peter Lang

ISBN: 978-1-4331-2282-8

Abstract:

The pressures of breaking news similarly feature in Einar Thorsen’s “Live Reporting Terror: Remediating Citizen Crisis Communication.” For individuals caught up in the two attacks carried out by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in July 2011, tragic forms of self-publishing emerged. In the case of the Oslo car bomb, eyewitness observations offered a sense of raw immediacy; victims of Breivik’s shooting spree on Utøya were publishing cries for help, confirming they were alive and desperate for information. Despite the different modalities, ordinary citizens’ contributions to documenting the unfolding crisis were vital. Through a comparative analysis of international news organisations’ live blogging of the attacks, Thorsen further highlights the global remediation of citizen eyewitness accounts—from the initial assumption that the attacks were grounded in “international terrorism” to the confirmation of Breivik as a domestic right-wing extremist.

Source: Manual