Cell phone video - blurred side panels???

[ssfc72]

Maybe someone reading these Forums, can answer this question, that I have.

On the News Media, when they show cell phone videos, most often the video is shown as three vertical panels.
The centre panel is the cell phone video, and the vertical panels on each side of the cell phone video is blurred out video???
What is the purpose of showing the blurred out video??
Does the News Media do the blurring of the video.
Why don't the News Media just edit out the blurred video and only show the centre cell phone video???
My cell does not produce videos with blurred vertical panels on either side of the main video, recorded!!!

[Jason]

I don't really know, but I've seen it, too. I think it's probably the capture software they use that does that as an effect. They're converting a portrait video format to a landscape format so I think they have to fill up the the sides with something or else the main video will get distorted. Or it's just a way of not showing huge black sidebars.

[Jason]

I guess we both could have saved ourselves the trouble by googling it:

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-media-suddenly-blurring-the-side-of-photos-and-videos

[ssfc72]

Thanks Jason, for that Link!

From some of the suggested answers, it appears to be possibly an aspect/format/resolution issue, with cell phone video.

As noted in some of the comments, I also think, it is amateurish of the News Media, to add those blurred vertical panels, on either side of the cell phone video.
They should do away with adding any extra side panels, to the cell phone camera video. 

[Jason]

I've seen enough of them that it doesn't really bother me anymore. But as long as people keep shooting video in portrait mode, you're going to have side panels when you put it on TV or monitors. Usually when it happens, it's people who have submitted video, not the journalists themselves. And people don't seem to understand that you need to hold the camera sideways if you're going to share the video because it's a landscape world out there