who is errol barnett?

by rowena ricalde (7th entry)

If you are like me who constantly watches BBC, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, ANC (meaning a news channel junkie minus FOX news please), you might know who Errol Barnett is. He is in charge of the iReport in CNN International. He catches your attention since he is younger than the average news reporter (he's around our age - i think 25 years old) and has a weird English accent.

He takes on a story in a different angle as he tries to incorporate social media such as TWITTER, FACEBOOK and YOU TUBE in the news. Since the whole concept of iReport is the viewers send their own pictures and videos to CNN.com/international, I think at first his job was to sift those entries and check what are relevant so he can report them on air. However, recently iReport took on a different level since Barnett gets majority of his material from FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Most of the time, when he is on air, he is on front of the PC at the backroom and explains the story from there.


Distinctly, I remember the time when the Iran elections took place and protesters took the streets. Media blackout was imposed in the country and so media outfits could not release any official story from that point. However, most of Iranians used FACEBOOK and TWITTER to voice out their strife and Barnett was able to capture that. CNN reported unverified and yet first hand knowledge of what was going on in Iran at one of its tumultuous times. I even remember making my profile pic in TWITTER green to show support in the Iran election protest.



And now, with the big quake that hit Haiti, FACEBOOK and TWITTER has served its purpose by letting the outside world know what is happening in Haiti with thousands of pictures and videos being posted. Once again, in every big story or event wherein a lot of people are involved, it is best that the story be best told in a medium more free and unrestricted. Errol Barnett and his iReport seems to gain much appreciation from the stiff approach of traditional news.