Remember the days when you'd rush home from school, kick off your Kickers and throw yourself down in front of Byker Grove or Hey Arnold? The highlight of my week now as a responsible tax paying 24 year old is to swing through the door to my rented apartment, throw off my corporate shackles of pleather messenger bag and carefully looped scarf and throw myself onto my nondescript sofa. It's at this point I'd usually exchange pleasantries with my long suffering girlfriend and procure the remote for my mid-range TV, assuming control before fixing my attention on the familiar and reassuring presence that is the long standing Channel 4 News anchor.
Now given his taste in less than cautious ties, Snow's willingness to embrace new media and contemporary reporting methods should come as no surprise. Uncle Jon's striking socks were not enough to stop my eyes glazing over as he recited rehashed 'UK in unprepared for extreme weather' narratives. Imagine my surprise when I heard an excited flurry in Snow's voice as he launched into a rallying call for viewers to rise up against the despotic force that is BAA.
"They won't let cameras in to see the conditions people are in" Snow's voice raised in excitement rising to a Kanye West "George Bush don't like black people" moment. While this isn't the Tiananmen Square of the naughties, Snow's appeal for footage from those caught up in the atrocities at Heathrow demonstrate an interesting wider trend.
While I personally find the subject less than inspiring (perhaps my apathy is inextricably linked to my dominant selfish gene?) you can't argue that the appeal for viewers to send in their own pictures and video heralds an exciting moment and confirms if there was ever any doubt the truth that self publishing tools and the mainstreaming of social media make any one of us instant battlefield reporters with our own slot on primetime news.
A flurry of tweets ensued, encouraged by Snow's own Twitter account @jonsnowC4, likening the at worst inept BAA to the North Korean regime. Hyperbole and rabble rousing aside, this is a fascinating step for traditional news broadcasters in not just inviting viewer interaction through social media, but placing it at the front and centre of the the reporting itself.
Personally, I welcome the step as I'd rather have some ill informed malcontent like me telling me they think in a far more transparent way than Rupert Murdoch telling me what to think.
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