A student at VirginiaTech this morning showed the kind of go-getter courage that would make him a good journalist, and demonstrated how modern technology is changing the way our society observes and responds to extraordinary events.

 

The student, Jamal Albarghouti (a civil engineering major, according to VirginiaTech’s directory), turned his cell phone on and started recording with its video camera, after realizing that something unusual was happening on campus. In an interview available on CNN.com, Albarghouti said that at first he thought there was another bomb threat, but when he saw the officer pull out their guns and heard shots, he knew there was a bigger story developing.

 

In Albarghouti’s video clip, several armed police officers are seen approaching Norris Hall on the Blacksburg campus, and shots are heard in the background.

 

Think about this for a moment. A few years ago there was no way this type of video footage would ever have been shot because people didn’t just casually carry around video cameras. Nowadays, many people do—as a built-in component of their cell phones.

 

The fact that Albarghouti was able to capture part of the story as it unfolded is pretty incredible. The functions of today’s cell phones add a new and transformative element to our society by letting us see events both ordinary and extraordinary--as viewed not by news reporters, but by people just like us.