We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins review – the reinvention of reporting for the internet age
almost 5 years in The guardian
In this gripping manifesto, the citizen journalist who uncovered the identities of the Salisbury assassins sets out his optimistic vision for news gathering in the 21st century
In July 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine. Why? In pre-digital times it would have taken weeks or months to get an answer. These days, the truth can be found at warp speed. A former office worker, Eliot Higgins, saw a post on YouTube of a Buk missile launcher trundling down a street. “Gold star sticker to the first person who geo-locates this video,” he tweeted.
Seven minutes later one of Higgins’s followers solved the mystery. They suggested the Buk had gone through Snizhne in eastern Ukraine, a town under the control of pro-Moscow rebels. Higgins looked at the clues – a two-lane road, three distinct trees, red roof. He pulled up Google Earth. It matched. The launcher was going south. The question now was where had the Buk come from, and which state had fired it at MH17? Continue reading...
Who is popular today?
