People had travelled to Copenhagen from all over the world to protest the 192-nation climate conference. Quickly scanning mainstream new sites on the first day of the conference I noticed images of a young man with an impressive mohawk. As it is standard mainstream journalistic practice to feature people who can be classed as ‘alternative’ at any protext action, I don't know why I was surprised to see him in photographs – it seems some things may never change. A day or so later, there was another all-too-familiar scene as Danish police were accused of over-reacting to alleged sporadic street violence in Copenhagen by arresting anyone they could see, not stopping to ask people whether or not they were part of the protest. The day after the mass arrests, only 13 of the 968 people detained during the mass rally remained in custody. A reporter on the Australian online news site Crikey.com said they witnessed an entire 230-strong group placed under arrest at one point, despite no sign of violence. The Australian non-partisan group GetUp! filmed and reported on the entire rally.

Social networking and the alternative viewpoints of citizen journalists and bloggers are continuing to disrupt and challenge standard modes of reporting and the interpretation of events. Mark Deuze has spoken of ‘networked journalism’, which is a concept of journalism as a networked practice of producing, editing, forwarding, sharing and debating public education.