Reuters and Yahoo! Enlist Camera Phones

eldavojohn writes "In a huge advancement of citizen journalism, Reuters and Yahoo! are asking average people to be journalists with their cell phones. I hope participants don't run the risks others have for photographing the police. You can expect to see these new photos being used at Yahoo! and Reuters.com starting tomorrow." From the article: "'People don't say, "I want to see user-generated content,"' said Lloyd Braun, who runs Yahoo's media group. 'They want to see Michael Richards in the club. If that happens to be from a cellphone, they are happy with a cellphone. If it's from a professional photographer, they are happy for that, too.' Users will not be paid for images displayed on the Yahoo and Reuters sites. But people whose photos or videos are selected for distribution to Reuters clients will receive a payment."

Comments

The BBC

[taskforce]

The BBC has been doing this for ages in the "Your Photos" section of their site, which gets reused inside stories. I remember them doing it as far back as the London 7/7 bombings, because they had all the photos from the inside of the carriages.

a huge advancement?

[rakerman]

If by that, you mean "copying something many other organizations are already doing", then yes.

http://www.cnn.com/exchange/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/photosubmit/