Bruno Torturra: Got a smartphone? Start broadcasting

128,294 views ・ 2014-12-18

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
Has anyone among you ever been exposed to tear gas?
0
12739
4579
00:17
Tear gas? Anyone?
1
17318
3115
00:20
I'm sorry to hear that, so you might know that it's a very toxic substance,
2
20433
4571
00:25
but you might not know that it's a very simple molecule
3
25004
3424
00:28
with an unpronouncable name:
4
28428
2214
00:30
it's called chlorobenzalmalononitrile.
5
30642
3120
00:33
6
33762
2017
00:35
It's decades old, but it's becoming very trendy among police forces
7
35779
5358
00:41
around the planet lately, it seems,
8
41137
2879
00:44
and according to my experience as a non-voluntary breather of it,
9
44016
4737
00:48
tear gas has two main but quite opposite effects.
10
48753
4273
00:53
One, it can really burn your eyes,
11
53026
3142
00:56
and two, it can also help you to open them.
12
56168
3275
01:00
Tear gas definitely helped to open mine to something
13
60603
3589
01:04
that I want to share with you this afternoon:
14
64192
3740
01:07
that livestreaming the power of independent broadcasts through the web
15
67932
5294
01:13
can be a game-changer in journalism,
16
73226
3181
01:16
in activism, and as I see it, in the political discourse as well.
17
76407
6342
01:22
That idea started to dawn on me in early 2011
18
82749
4773
01:27
when I was covering a protest in São Paulo.
19
87522
3538
01:31
It was the marijuana march,
20
91060
1988
01:33
a gathering of people asking for the legalization of cannabis.
21
93048
3962
01:37
When that group started to move,
22
97010
2465
01:39
the riot police came from the back with rubber bullets, bombs,
23
99475
4310
01:43
and then the gas.
24
103785
1759
01:46
But to make a long story short,
25
106184
2018
01:48
I had entered that protest as the editor-in-chief
26
108202
3889
01:52
of a well-established printed magazine where I'd worked for 11 years,
27
112091
4773
01:56
and thanks to this unsolicited effects of tear gas,
28
116864
4912
02:01
I left it as a journalist that was now committed to new ways
29
121776
4933
02:06
of sharing the raw experience of what it's like to be there, actually.
30
126709
5943
02:12
So in the following week, I was back in the streets,
31
132652
3840
02:16
but that time, I wasn't a member of any media outlet anymore.
32
136492
4063
02:20
I was there as an independent livestreamer, and all I had with me
33
140555
4621
02:25
was basically borrowed equipment.
34
145176
2136
02:27
I had a very simple camera and a backpack with 3G modems.
35
147312
6054
02:33
And I had this weblink that could be shared through social media,
36
153366
5625
02:38
could be put in any website,
37
158991
2877
02:41
and that time, the protest went along fine.
38
161868
3029
02:44
There was no violence.
39
164897
1849
02:46
There was no action scenes.
40
166746
2089
02:48
But there was something really exciting,
41
168835
2439
02:51
because I could see at a distance the TV channels covering it,
42
171274
4850
02:56
and they had these big vans and the teams and the cameras,
43
176124
4024
03:00
and I was basically doing the same thing
44
180148
2479
03:02
and all I had was a backpack.
45
182627
2776
03:05
And that was really exciting to a journalist,
46
185403
3275
03:08
but the most interesting part was when I got back home, actually,
47
188678
4381
03:13
because I learned that I had been watched
48
193059
2827
03:15
by more than 90,000 people,
49
195886
3104
03:18
and I got hundreds of emails and messages of people asking me, basically,
50
198990
4905
03:23
how did I do it,
51
203895
1400
03:25
how it was possible to do such a thing.
52
205295
3316
03:28
And I learned something else, that that was actually the first time
53
208611
3273
03:31
that somebody had ever done a livestreaming in a street protest
54
211884
5138
03:37
in the country.
55
217022
1574
03:39
And that really shocked me,
56
219216
2542
03:41
because I was no geek, I was no technology guy,
57
221758
3778
03:45
and all the equipment needed was already there,
58
225536
2759
03:48
was easily available.
59
228295
2206
03:50
And I realized that we had a frontier here,
60
230501
3116
03:53
a very important one,
61
233617
1463
03:55
that it was just a matter of changing the perspective,
62
235080
3157
03:58
and the web could be actually used,
63
238237
2229
04:00
already used, as a colossal and uncontrollable
64
240466
3442
04:03
and highly anarchical TV channel, TV network,
65
243908
3813
04:07
and anyone with very basic skills and very basic equipment,
66
247721
5184
04:12
even someone like me who had this little stuttering issue,
67
252905
5843
04:18
so if it happens, bear with me please,
68
258748
4125
04:22
even someone like me could become a broadcaster.
69
262873
4519
04:27
And that sounded revolutionary in my mind.
70
267392
2192
04:29
So for the next couple of years,
71
269584
1578
04:31
I started to experiment with livestreaming in different ways,
72
271162
4047
04:35
not only in the streets but mostly in studios and in homes,
73
275209
3606
04:38
until the beginning of 2013, last year,
74
278815
3308
04:42
when I became the cofounder of a group called Mídia NINJA.
75
282123
4180
04:46
NINJA is an acronym
76
286303
1449
04:47
that stands for Narrativas Independentes Jornalismo e Ação,
77
287752
3830
04:51
or in English, independent narratives, journalism, and action.
78
291582
3911
04:55
It was a media group that had little media plan.
79
295493
3922
04:59
We didn't have any financial structure.
80
299415
2049
05:01
We were not planning to make money out of this,
81
301464
3180
05:04
which was wise, because you shouldn't try to make money out of journalism now.
82
304644
4610
05:10
But we had a very solid and clear conviction,
83
310484
2704
05:13
that we knew that the hyperconnected environment of social media
84
313188
4954
05:18
could maybe allow us to consolidate
85
318142
2631
05:20
a network of experimental journalists throughout the country.
86
320773
5344
05:26
So we launched a Facebook page first, and then a manifesto,
87
326117
5137
05:31
and started to cover the streets in a very simple way.
88
331254
3738
05:34
But then something happened, something that wasn't predicted,
89
334992
4318
05:39
that no one could have anticipated.
90
339310
2507
05:41
Street protests started to erupt in São Paulo.
91
341817
2920
05:44
They began as very local and specific.
92
344737
2180
05:46
They were against the bus fare hike that had just happened in the city.
93
346917
5310
05:52
This is a bus.
94
352227
1911
05:54
It's written there, "Theft."
95
354138
2964
05:57
But those kind of manifestations started to grow,
96
357102
5059
06:02
and they kept happening.
97
362161
1835
06:03
So the police violence against them started to grow as well.
98
363996
4807
06:08
But there was another conflict,
99
368803
1709
06:10
the one I believe that's more important here
100
370512
2504
06:13
to make my point that it was a narrative conflict.
101
373016
3960
06:16
There was this mainstream media version of the facts
102
376976
3030
06:20
that anyone who was on the streets could easily challenge
103
380006
4286
06:24
if they presented their own vision of what was actually happening there.
104
384292
6269
06:30
And it was this clash of visions, this clash of narratives,
105
390561
3080
06:33
that I think turned those protests
106
393641
3342
06:36
into a long period in the country of political reckoning
107
396983
3841
06:40
where hundreds of thousands of people,
108
400824
3508
06:44
probably more than a million people
109
404332
1818
06:46
took to the streets in the whole country.
110
406150
2358
06:49
But it wasn't about the bus fare hike anymore.
111
409638
2614
06:52
It was about everything.
112
412252
3544
06:55
The people's demands, their expectations,
113
415796
2450
06:58
the reasons why they were on the streets
114
418246
2150
07:00
could be as diverse as they could be contradictory in many cases.
115
420396
4839
07:05
If you could read it, you would understand me.
116
425235
4108
07:09
But it was in this environment of political catharsis
117
429343
4395
07:13
that the country was going through
118
433738
2949
07:16
that it had to do with politics, indeed,
119
436687
3297
07:19
but it had to do also with a new way of organizing,
120
439984
4033
07:24
through a new way of communicating.
121
444017
2933
07:26
It was in that environment that Mídia NINJA emerged
122
446950
2802
07:29
from almost anonymity to become a national phenomenon,
123
449752
4683
07:34
because we did have the right equipment.
124
454435
2853
07:37
We are not using big cameras.
125
457288
2200
07:39
We are using basically this.
126
459488
2624
07:42
We are using smartphones.
127
462112
1999
07:44
And that, actually, allowed us to become invisible in the middle of the protests,
128
464111
4908
07:49
but it allowed us to do something else:
129
469019
2682
07:51
to show what it was like to be in the protests,
130
471701
3824
07:55
to present to people at home a subjective perspective.
131
475525
5754
08:01
But there was something that is more important,
132
481279
2336
08:03
I think, than the equipment.
133
483615
1356
08:04
It was our mindset,
134
484971
2728
08:07
because we are not behaving as a media outlet.
135
487699
3171
08:10
We are not competing for news.
136
490870
1938
08:12
We are trying to encourage people,
137
492808
2321
08:15
to invite people, and to actually teach people
138
495129
2856
08:17
how to do this, how they also could become broadcasters.
139
497985
4210
08:22
And that was crucial to turn Mídia NINJA from a small group of people,
140
502195
6070
08:28
and in a matter of weeks,
141
508265
1650
08:29
we multiplied and we grew exponentially throughout the country.
142
509915
4577
08:34
So in a matter of a week or two, as the protests kept happening,
143
514492
4677
08:39
we were hundreds of young people
144
519169
2212
08:41
connected in this network throughout the country.
145
521381
2805
08:44
We were covering more than 50 cities at the same time.
146
524186
3140
08:47
That's something that no TV channel could ever do.
147
527326
3654
08:50
That was responsible for turning us suddenly, actually,
148
530980
3413
08:54
into kind of the mainstream media of social media.
149
534393
4926
08:59
So we had a couple of thousands of followers on our Facebook page,
150
539319
4051
09:03
and soon we had a quarter of a million followers.
151
543370
3236
09:06
Our posts and our videos
152
546606
1684
09:08
were being seen by more than 11 million timelines a week.
153
548290
3979
09:12
It was way more than any newspaper or any magazine could ever do.
154
552269
5721
09:17
And that turned Mídia NINJA into something else,
155
557990
3244
09:21
more than a media outlet, than a media project.
156
561234
3441
09:24
It became almost like a public service
157
564675
2759
09:27
to the citizen, to the protester,
158
567434
2527
09:29
to the activist,
159
569961
1734
09:31
because they had a very simple and efficient and peaceful tool
160
571695
3428
09:35
to confront both police and media authority.
161
575123
4891
09:41
Many of our images started to be used in regular TV channels.
162
581644
3991
09:45
Our livestreams started to be broadcast even in regular televisions
163
585643
4831
09:50
when things got really rough.
164
590474
1949
09:52
Some our images were responsible to take some people out of jail,
165
592433
5297
09:57
people who were being arrested unfairly
166
597730
2839
10:00
under false accusations, and we could prove them innocent.
167
600569
3769
10:04
And that also turned Mídia NINJA very soon
168
604338
3241
10:07
to be seen as almost an enemy of cops, unfortunately,
169
607579
4011
10:11
and we started to be severely beaten, and eventually arrested on the streets.
170
611590
5073
10:16
It happened in many cases.
171
616663
1914
10:18
But that was also useful, because we were still at the web,
172
618577
4332
10:22
so that helped to trigger an important debate in the country
173
622909
5185
10:28
on the role of the media itself
174
628094
2449
10:30
and the state of the freedom of the press in the country.
175
630543
3599
10:34
So Mídia NINJA now evolved
176
634142
1951
10:36
and finally consolidated itself in what we hoped it would become:
177
636093
6050
10:42
a national network of hundreds of young people,
178
642143
3284
10:45
self-organizing themselves locally
179
645427
3877
10:49
to cover social, human rights issues,
180
649304
3761
10:53
and expressing themselves not only politically
181
653065
2768
10:55
but journalistically.
182
655833
2902
11:00
What I started to do in the beginning of this year,
183
660665
4335
11:05
as Mídia NINJA is already a self-organizing network,
184
665000
4156
11:09
I'm dedicating myself to another project.
185
669156
3433
11:12
It's called Fluxo, which is Portuguese for "stream."
186
672589
3246
11:15
It's a journalism studio in São Paulo downtown,
187
675835
2807
11:18
where I used livestream to experiment
188
678642
3327
11:21
with what I call post-television formats.
189
681969
3505
11:25
But I'm also trying to come up with ways to finance independent journalism
190
685474
5378
11:30
through a direct relationship with an audience,
191
690852
2812
11:33
with an active audience,
192
693664
1962
11:35
because now I really want to try to make a living
193
695626
2670
11:38
out of my tear gas resolution back then.
194
698296
3762
11:42
But there's something more significant here,
195
702058
2290
11:44
something that I believe is more important and more crucial than my personal example.
196
704348
5446
11:49
I said that livestream could turn the web into a colossal TV network,
197
709794
4835
11:54
but I believe it does something else,
198
714629
2037
11:56
because after watching people using it,
199
716666
2961
11:59
not only to cover things but to express, to organize themselves politically,
200
719627
6024
12:05
I believe livestream can turn cyberspace into a global political arena
201
725651
6754
12:12
where everyone might have a voice,
202
732419
2384
12:14
a proper voice,
203
734803
1544
12:16
because livestream takes the monopoly of the broadcast political discourse,
204
736347
5485
12:21
of the verbal aspect of the political dialogue
205
741832
2753
12:24
out of the mouths of just politicians and political pundits alone,
206
744585
5609
12:30
and it empowers the citizen through this direct and non-mediated power
207
750194
5470
12:35
of exchanging experiences and dialogue,
208
755664
2983
12:38
empowers them to question and to influence authorities
209
758647
4050
12:42
in ways in which we are about to see.
210
762697
3529
12:46
And I believe it does something else that might be even more important,
211
766226
4554
12:50
that the simplicity of the technology can merge objectivity and subjectivity
212
770780
6690
12:57
in a very political way, as I see it,
213
777470
2663
13:00
because it really helps the audience,
214
780133
5169
13:05
the citizen, to see the world through somebody else's eye,
215
785302
4494
13:09
so it helps the citizen to put him- or herself
216
789796
3434
13:13
in other people's place.
217
793230
2672
13:15
And that idea, I think, should be the intention,
218
795902
3268
13:19
should be the goal of any good journalism, any good activism,
219
799170
4715
13:23
but most of all, any good politics.
220
803885
2652
13:26
Thank you very much. It was an honor.
221
806537
2528
13:29
(Applause)
222
809065
5643
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7