he media reported on the event using all possible information sources, including eyewitnesses and survivors. Unable to deploy professional photographers to the bombsites, the news outlets relied on user-generated content to tell the story. Within hours of the bombings, Flickr received hundreds of images of the attacks , and the BBC news website was flooded with mobile pictures.2 As the story unfolded, professional journalists and survivors on the ground converged to tell a tragic story of enormous political consequence. Images of burned out buses and darkened subways, taken by those directly affected by the bombs, were prominently displayed online and in print publications. Alexander Chadwick is one survivor whose iconic camera phone image became a headline story in the days following the London bombings. His image, selected among thousands, was published in popular news outlets including The Times and the BBC. The outgrowth of user-generated content made the London bombings a historic turning point in the news industry.

To put the London bombing in context of another recent tragedy, the BBC received 35,000 e-mails in the aftermath of September 11th, but few photographs.3 During the London bombing over 1,000 images and 20 videos were sent into the newsroom on the first day.4 The London bombings happened in a converging world where online networks, changing social norms, and ubiquitous mobile devices upended traditional news- gathering techniques. As a result, victims of a tragedy became active participants in the news-making process.

A watershed moment occurred in the journalism industry when the BBC and The New York Times published Chadwick’s image on their front pages. The pale yellow light that engulfed Chadwick deep inside the London Tube was reproduced and transmitted in the form of a digital photograph. The one-way interaction between readers and newsmakers, where journalists chose what their audiences consume, had ruptured,and the lines had blurred. Readers witnessed a crude but striking representation of what life was like moments after the explosion in the tube -- its rawness unmatched by professional images,and its authenticity compounded by Chadwick ‘having-been-there.’ His mobile photography became its own stand-alone news story in the days and weeks following the bombing. Fur years lfter this event, the mass media incorporates camera phone technology and citizen participation to break news every day. Who and what constitutes the news would never be the same after the London bombings.