In the future we will look back on her words and hail Nicola as a prophet if at all her prediction comes to pass. In the meantime back home, our own Barefoot Lawyers, who use information technology to provide free legal information, recently took part in the making of history when they filmed a Facebook Live broadcast of a Court case in Uganda.The court proceedings were broadcast from Lira Chief Magistrate’s Courtroom on Thursday, 16th June 2016, running for a little over 1 hour and watched by more than 4,000 viewers on Facebook marking the first time Facebook, arguably the primary source of news in Uganda among the youth has been used to broadcast news this way. We wrote about the rise of live streaming in a previous post, along with its pros and cons. Live streaming services which include Periscope, YouTube Live and Meerkat have been joined by Facebook Live which just recently got its first viral live stream; a mom in the US laughing hilariously after trying on a Chewbacca mask. Facebook is poised to make live streaming immensely popular thanks to its 1.65 billion active users a stream can potentially reach. Being the most accessed website in Uganda, information shared on Facebook has a further reach than other websites. The Live stream by Barefoot Law despite not being advertised beforehand managed to rack up a decent 4,000 views, an indicator of the potential this service has on a social landscape. Some of the ways Facebook Live can be put to good use in Uganda include streams of breaking news, media house and citizen journalist coverage of scenes and events, celebrities reaching out to their fans, e.t.c. After the live stream is ended, the video can still be watched and shared, only that it won’t be ‘live’ FACEBOOK LIVE BROADCAST FROM A UGANDA COURTROOM
Featured Image: TheNextWeb
