Educational Media Reviews Online

Seeing Is Believingdemonstrates that handicams aren’t just for recording weddings and family vacations. By documenting how human rights activists, soldiers, astronauts, and terrorists alike are using handicams in innovative ways, this program illustrates amateur video’s effectiveness as a powerful communications tool for the ordinary citizen.

From Rodney King to Osama bin Laden, the images of our time are more frequently being recorded on camcorders. In fact, this program notes, Middle Eastern suicide bombers are using amateur video to document their missions, immortalize their personal wills and testaments, and recruit and train more killers.

Whether recording massacres or documenting injustices, amateur footage is increasingly being used as evidence of actual occurrences. The program also describes how cell phones, text messaging, and photocopy and fax machines have made an impact on the power of popular uprisings.

As the program traces the story of Joey Lozano, a video activist who shows the Filipino Nakamata coalition how to use camcorders in documenting abuses against them, it describes how amateur video footage serves as visual evidence of what actually happened in securing national attention to injustice. However, it also reminds the viewer that camcorders can also be used as a powerful propaganda tool, communicating only one side of the story. As a result, viewers are reminded to critically evaluate what they are shown and told.

Students of journalism will benefit from the program’s discussion of television news and whether camcorder footage is an adequate substitute for proper journalism. As one amateur videographer notes, television cameramen shoot 15 minutes of footage for their report. In contrast, amateur video activists shoot hours of raw footage, hoping to raise awareness of underreported stories. Getting the attention of the press through horrific, realistic video can help human rights groups galvanize action for crucial topics.

In fact, a Greenpeace activist explains, “we spend a lot of time looking at new ways to deliver our pictures to news agencies. The easier we make it for them, the more likely they are to use our pictures.” Custom-designed cameras for scuba diving and kite flights help this group use live footage to make a strong impact on their viewers.

Thorough coverage and effective editing make this documentary an appropriate vehicle for portraying the importance of balanced news reporting and the revolutionary results of technology in overcoming the “digital divide.” Academic libraries serving professors and students of journalism, sociology and human rights would benefit from having this video in their collection.