Citizen Photojournalists get a new outlet on Yahoo and Reuters
In a move that has already set off alarm bells among professional photojournalists, Yahoo and Reuters announced a program called "You Witness" to allow amateur photographers with cell-phone cameras to submit images of newsworthy current events for use in both companies' news outlets. Reuters will also distribute the appropriate images through other news outlets it supplies with current event photographs. Reuters says they will compensate photographers for images used and distributed at the same rate as they compensate their own free-lancers.
News organizations have often used images shot by eyewitnesses who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Yahoo and Reuters say they conceived "You Witness" as a way to efficiently collect the many images now available from the public due to the massive proliferation of digital cameras. To many, however, "You Witness" represents further deterioration of the market for the work of professional photographers who will now find they must compete with masses of amateurs.
For more details visit: You Witness News, Yahoo partners with Reuters, Scoopt open letter to Flickr members.
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