Lesson of CNN's 3D Experiment: Multiperspectives are The Moment

Although I embraced the web much earlier than many others with a print background, I am still suspicious of the rush to use new technologies to do journalism. Such efforts often don't result in better and deeper information; you need ever-developing thinking, research, and writing skills for that. Expensive innovations like CNN's hologram reporter, which debuted on Election night, seemed awfully indulgent. But I see interesting possibilities for Microsoft's Photosynth technology, which CNN put to illuminating use on Inaugural Day. The on-line anchors urged people attending the swearing-in ceremony to send in photos they took during the moment Obama was sworn in( the masses of bodies armed with cellphone and/or cameras ensured there would be plenty). When the photos were uploaded into the software, the hundreds of different photos found one another to create a 3D panorama that allows a view of The Moment no one camera or perspective could capture.

CNN found a very smart way to incorporate user-generated content, transforming it into something with relevance for a broad population. Most news organizations haven't figured out how to utilize user-generated content creatively, so much of what they're getting is self-promotional at best. CNN has taken a page from the best practices of crowdsourcing: it found something that interested people and enlisted the troops to create a news feature out of that interest. Together, the crowd and the rest of us looking in benefit because we end up with a fuller picture of the event. While the vivid shots of the swearing-in carried by major news sites will be what is imprinted on most minds, the layers of the moment are visible for those who want to look. The technology helps to further problematicize photography and the notion that what one is seeing is "real." The frame of any one photo can only capture a fraction of what is "real," making what photojournalist and visual scholar Julianne Newton’s calls "visual truth" a point of contention.

What an interesting moment for Photosynth to get used on such a large scale. If there's anything people should get by now it's that we're in a time where multiple perspectives are critical for our survival and progress as a country and world. I'm hesitant to describe the technology as a metaphor or paradigm, but there's some instruction there.