The accessibility of information is finding new ways to get into the public forum. With the easy of live broadcasting, and uploading of video and other content to the web, “events” that otherwise would go unnoticed except for a local audience, are now able to be viewed globally.
This is the case in the gay marriage trial on the constitutionality of California’s same-sex marriage ban beginning next week. The presiding judge in the case ruled Wednesday that the trial will be videotaped and uploaded to YouTube for all to see.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who first floated the idea of broadcasting the highly anticipated proceedings live several months ago, said he decided instead to have court employees record the trial for delayed broadcast on Google’s YouTube Web site.
Walker said the case’s national importance was one of the reasons he was keen to have the proceedings recorded and viewed by as many people as possible as a giant civics lesson.
“I always thought that if people could see how the judiciary really works, they would take a somewhat different view of it,” he said.
[source: ABC News]