Critics of the war questioned the legality of the invasion that brought about the deposed leader’s trial. The fallen tyrant tried to use it as a podium for grandiose rhetoric. The conclusion of a guilty verdict seemed preordained. Many saw the trial itself as corrupt, political theater. If they thought it would help bring a cessation to the sectarian and factional fighting that wracked an Iraq under American military occupation, they were wrong. Iraq’s new government rushed the deposed tyrant’s hanging after a lengthy, controversial tria l. They depicted the same event but with important differences that expose the promise and peril of mobile recording devices for changing how news is produced and consumed. The execution was a tale of two recordings: the controlled, stage-managed official video and the viral, leaked cell phone clip. The leaked cell phone video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging did just that, making it a notable moment in citizen journalism history. Rarely does one video totally alter the tenor of news coverage, however. The photos and videos taken by ordinary people at scenes of violence, from the Boston Marathon bombing to chemical weapons attacks in Syria, shape how those events will be remembered by those of us who only saw the destruction from afar. Today, citizen-produced media content is integral to the news we consume, whether used in regular coverage or posted directly to a social media platform. It revealed the potential of mobile phone recordings to undermine the official telling of news events. One of the earliest leaked, newsworthy cell phone recordings to go viral was of the Decemexecution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
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