We often
hear about how the web, and user-generated content is revolutionising the way
that news is reported, and our relationship with the mainstream media is
shifting. This was vividly brought home yesterday watching the story of Sheffield’s most severe floods in 140 years unfold.

Reality (CC)TV

From the
office yesterday we were able to watch the water in the Don Valley
rising moment by moment via the city council’s network of traffic cameras which
are available on their website. Literally seeing the water rising from one
minute to the next showed there was clearly something serious going on.
Familiar buildings became islands, roads we have driven down a thousand times
were transformed to torrents, and mysterious smoke and explosions rose up from
unidentified buildings. This was a real life drama unfolding in front of us -
like a natural-disaster version of Big Brother. Not edited into a neat story by
a producer in London,
we were witnessing events and interpreting the story for ourselves.

Rapid rising - This picture shows Nursery Street, and how much the water level rose in just 4 minutes.