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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

With the recent issues of snow in Britain, the BBC news programme has just admitted they have received many thousands of digital images from viewers depicting scenes of the recent weather difficulties, events where no photographic reporting team was. Recently in the US the airliner so expertly landed in the Hudson river, the best image was captured by a chap with a cell phone. News as it happens can and is being captured and sent via the cell phone networks to the media for, if it interests them, the broadcasting to a larger audience.

Now given the fact that 'news' can be recorded as it happens by the citizenry, what future for journalists ?

We have already had the issue of professional photographers moaning that amateurs and complete beginners are producing imagery as good as if not better than their own, the latter largely by the advanced capture devices we now have, press a button, and a computer does the work. They, I am aware fear for their professional future, non pros not needing to know the sometimes complex theory, just see, aim, press a button and that's it.

So with the advent of citizen journalism, what are our thoughts, for or against and why ?

Cynically here, if the Beeb is admitting to using citizen journalism more now than ever, could we see a reduction in the BBC involuntary payment that we have to pay, as they really don't need the expense of the reporting teams and all their associated technology, when a simple camera equipped cell phone does the job ?

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ORIGINAL: DesFIP

Taking pictures of things is one thing, writing balanced accounts is another. Amateurs aren't going to spend time checking facts and are more likely to be promoting an agenda.