Have Camera Phone? Yahoo and Reuters Want You to Work for Their News Service

This news article describes a global trend in so-called "citizen journalism". As part of a new web service launched on December 5 2006, Reuters and Yahoo invited members of the public to upload their own photographs and video of news events to "You Witness News". The idea is that people with digital cameras and camera phones who happen to witness and capture newsworthy events have images to share that reporters may not have been present in order to record. Furthermore, as Mitch Gelman, the executive producer of CNN.com, is quoted here as stating, "Even the best reporters in most cases are approaching the story from the outside in. What a participant observer can offer is the perspective on that story from the inside out."

Here is how the system works: users log onto the service - click here to access it - and upload photos and videos, all of which will subsequently appear on Flickr or a similar site. Editors at both Reuters and Yahoo review the submissions (weeding out fraudulent or retouched images) and select some to place on pages with relevant news articles, just as professional photographs and video clips are woven into their news sites. Although users will not be paid for images displayed on the You Witness site, people whose photos or videos are selected for distribution to Reuters clients will receive a payment.

Both organisations have plans to expand the service beyond its initial framework. For instance, Reuters said that in 2007 it would start to distribute some of the submissions to the thousands of print, online and broadcast media outlets that subscribe to its news service. Yahoo will use the images on its sports and entertainment sites; over time, it wants to expand to local news and high school sports. Both Yahoo and Reuters have considered allowing users to contribute articles as well as images, but the organisations are concerned that they do not have the resources to edit and verify text.

The author of this news piece describes this project as "among the most ambitious efforts" of the recent movement in which bloggers, start-up local news sites, and global news organisations like CNN and the BBC explore whether and how readers can also become reporters. Among the examples cited here which highlight ways in which citizens can play a part in journalism include Reuters' investment in NewAssignment.net, an effort to foster reporting that combines the work of professional journalists with input from online readers, and Global Voices, a collection of blogs from less-developed countries. CNN, which introduced its I-Reports section for user-submitted material on its site in August 2006, accepts text, images and video from members of the public; some submissions are included in its news broadcasts.