Blogging's policing function?

While everyone knows that blogging has become the new popular Web 2.0 thing to do online these days, I heard something this week that made me consider a new possible function of blogs and just how their "citizen journalist" aspect might play out.

I read on Poynter Online this week that last Friday Jackie Danicki, an American blogger and social media consultant living in London, was attacked by two men in a London Underground. But, instead of letting the traditional methods of justice take their course, Danicki turned to her blog in addition to going to the police. Danicki was able to snap a picture of the attacker on her camera cell phone as he yelled at her and later posted it on her blog to get the word out and help the perpetrator be brought in, asking her loyal readers to identify the men and report them to the British Transport Police. While it seems like a logical thing for a woman seeking justice to do, it could potentially mean that technology might have implications for governmental bureaucracies or the justice system in general.

In the Poynter post, blogger Amy Garahan quoted a University of Florida professor who was concerned with this use of technology as well and its societal implications. Mincy McAdams wrote in her blog of the man in Danicki's photo, "Now more than a dozen other bloggers have linked to or reposted the picture of this young person. He might be guilty -- but doesn't Britain have courts to determine that? I live in a country with a long and horrifying and all-too-recent history of lynching. This viral photo manhunt in London scares me down to the marrow of my bones." Garahan agreed and said, "It's a valid concern. Someone who merely resembles the man in the picture could end up in dire straits," she said.

I think this is a concern and something that governments have to take into consideration for the future. If citizen journalists have the opportunity to seek their own justice, will that lead to going over the police's head, which ultimately leads to anarchy? Maybe that's going a little too far, but after all this talk about newspapers having to adapt to Web 2.0 culture to survive as a business, I think that maybe national governments shouldn't be left out of the conversation and should recognize their vulnerabilities because of changing technologies as well.