Reuter's, Yahoo, Google, CNN and Others Want Your News Photos

OMFG....you could be a REPORTER! You've seen the adds on CNN encouraging you to become a citizen REPORTER! Others are quickly joining suit, encouraging you to send them what you have, offering you the chance to be a CITIZEN REPORTER, see your proverbial name in lights as it were. Tomorrow, both Yahoo and Reuters are going to begin featuring lots of these citizen pictures, making us members of the general public their stringers...JUST ONE PROBLEM, and you folks are falling right into their trap....THEY ARE NOT PAYING YOU FOR YOUR PHOTO! WAKE UP FOLKS...newspapers, news channels and other sources WILL PAY FOR THESE PICS, but would prefer to GET THEM FOR FREE. Sure, maybe it is cool to have your 30 seconds of fame, live the thrill of seeing your photograph on the evening news, but then WHAT?

Citizens need to tell these folks that our work has VALUE, and if they want it, they have to PAY FOR IT.

Have Camera Phone? Yahoo and Reuters Want You to Work for Their News Service
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/technology/04yahoo.html

By SAUL HANSELL
Published: December 4, 2006

Hoping to turn the millions of people with digital cameras and camera phones into photojournalists, Yahoo and Reuters are introducing a new effort to showcase photographs and video of news events submitted by the public.

Starting tomorrow, the photos and videos submitted will be placed throughout Reuters.com and Yahoo News, the most popular news Web site in the United States, according to comScore MediaMetrix. Reuters said that it would also start to distribute some of the submissions next year to the thousands of print, online and broadcast media outlets that subscribe to its news service. Reuters said it hoped to develop a service devoted entirely to user-submitted photographs and video.

“There is an ongoing demand for interesting and iconic images,” said Chris Ahearn, the president of the Reuters media group. He said the agency had always bought newsworthy pictures from individuals and part-time contributors known as stringers.

“This is looking out and saying, ‘What if everybody in the world were my stringers?’ ” Mr. Ahearn said. How about PAYING THOSE STRINGERS YOU CHEAP BASTARD.

The project is among the most ambitious efforts in what has become known as citizen journalism, attempts by bloggers, start-up local news sites and by global news organizations like CNN and the BBC to see if readers can also become reporters. Reporters WITHOUT PAY should be added here.