Neda rocks on!

I did not know Neda was a music student. Did you?

The footage of her dying on the street of Tehran propelled Neda to become an icon, on par with Susan Boyle.

Dreams come true for some, but fame could find its way to you in unlikely places: end of life.

Citizen news. The cult of the amateur.

We taught ourselves the use of the computer, the cell phone and the camera. And off we go, with news assignment or not.

I used to help raise those TV antenna from the WNEP-TV van so we can send signals back to the engineering room.

Now, any cell phone camera can upload images it took to the nearest cell site.

Watch out world. Behave!

The images might be grainy, the shots jiggered, the composition a bit off.

But more eyes are better than none.

And we have only just begun.

Photojournalism has always demonstrated its bravery, and integrity to show the truth.

We accept 140 characters as a new form of communication. And we can also give award to 2-minute footage of street demonstration coverage.

Gutenberg all over again! the scribes are being alarmed! What about years of training, of paying our due?

Skype moving into the wireless space, first in Britain, and now in the US?

Is everything up side down? Huffington Post vs Washington Post?

I know one more great divide: families don’t get to watch a show together anymore (at least, not since Cosby).

The days of I love Lucy, M*A*S*H and Gong Show are over.

Kids divide their time between three screens: TV, Computer and Third Screen (smaller communication devices).

So do parents.

And when we do communicate, it’s not only generational gap which needs to be bridged, but it’s also technological preference which needs to be taken into play.

140 characters.  Texting, tagging and twittering.

Neda, the content. How her name and face happen to appear in front of us (wireless video upload) speak a lot about our new century, our new decade and our new mode of connecting. I hear her sing on, like a mermaid in the far seas. Sing, baby sing.  Testing, one, two , three. You are good to go. Rock on, for it’s a free world!