Scoopt photo agencyCitizen journalism has taken a significant step towards integration with the mainstream media with the launch of what is believed to be the world's first photographic agency for the medium.

Scoopt invites the public to send in newsworthy camera phone images after registering and agreeing to a code of practice. Scoopt then authenticates images where possible and sells material to news publishers.

The fee is split equally between Scoopt and the photographer, with rates likely to be comparable to those paid to professional photographers.

The service was launched at the beginning of July, although the creators of the site were careful to put the project on hold after the London bombings.

Members of the public have been selling their own photos to the press for years, but the proliferation of video and photos generated by mobile phones has transformed the citizen journalism movement.

Material produced by people caught up in the events on 7 July, and similarly during last year's Asian tsunami disaster, provided first-hand accounts and very personal experiences of major news events recorded before professional photographers and reporters were on the scene.

"Citizen reporters can reshape the very nature of what constitutes news, moving away from the notion of news as an event to which an editor can send a primed press photographer," said Scoopt managing director Kyle MacRae.

"Those unique photos captured the atmosphere of a dramatic event and increased our understanding of what it must have felt like to be involved."

Why now?

Mr MacRae said that suitable technology is now widespread, and there is a growing appreciation of the value of good citizen journalism. The public is also starting to realise that news organisations are benefitting commercially from contributions made by the public.

"People are beginning to get wise to the notion that commercial news organisations can feed off these efforts for free," he said.

"'Why should I upload this to a blog in exchange for a credit when I could sell it to the BBC, Sun, Newsweek or whoever on the same terms as a professional photographer?'"

Inappropriate content

Until now, members of the public have participated in open journalism projects out of the greater good and almost entirely without financial incentives.

But a combination of financial incentives and the insatiable appetite for shocking and gruesome web footage taps into a more sinister potential for paid amateur footage. Unlike the professional press, lone citizen reporters are not obliged to follow a code of conduct or the ethical editorial framework of an employer.

That area is something that Scoopt's founders have been careful to guard against, and as an experienced journalist, Mr MacRae is quite clear that Scoopt would only ever operate ethically and legally.

"The question we have to ask ourselves is: does Scoopt encourage or reward immoral behaviour?" he said.

"There is certainly potential for people to behave appallingly in the hope of making a fast buck, but we have a strong internal editorial code that governs what we will and will not handle."

Contributors are asked to follow a detailed guide explaining how to make sure that material is legal, and are required to disclose the circumstances in which footage was taken. Mr MacRae claims that this approach also makes the service more attractive to media buyers.

Paid content is good for all

The professional photography community is becoming increasingly concerned about the threat caused by free, amateur images, and the launch of Scoopt appears to pitch amateurs directly against professionals.

But in practice, paid citizen journalism is likely to be a positive development for professionals, according to John Toner, freelance organiser for the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

"Unfortunately there are publishers that think images are just a way to full space, and if they can get images for free rather than paying a professional they will," he told journalism.co.uk.

"We'd want them to understand that amateurs should be paid too. If publishers have to pay for amateur footage or for professional content, we'd hope they would then choose professional images."

At the moment, there is still very little direct competition between amateur and professional material as the two are used in different ways.

Most established news sites use citizen reporting to complement, rather than replace their main coverage. Mobile phone photos and other reader-generated content is usually presented in the context of a readers' gallery or public photo blog, for example, with the most newsworthy images presented as a supplement.

Crossing the line

The strategy of developing amateur footage for the mainstream commercial market is a logical development, particularly where first-hand images and accounts have added valuable insight and understanding to coverage of shocking events such as the London bombings.

But Scoopt is also exploring the potential for citizen reporters to unearth stories that might not be picked up by the mainstream media.

"Our contention is that a great many daily events would be newsworthy if only there was somebody there to witness and capture them," said Mr MacRae.

"We all know that a TV crew can produce a shock-horror exposé of, say, shocking retirement home conditions, but so much of this kind of thing goes unreported. Now anybody with inside access and a camera can blow the whistle."

Scoopt's Britain on Britain supplement aims to provide a platform for this kind of material, although more investigative material presents some complex ethical and commercial issues.

"A member of the public might be on the spot, but they won't have knowledge of libel or contempt of court, for example," said Mr Toner.

"They could supply the information to a publisher, but that type of reporting needs a professional, trained journalist."

More news from journalism.co.uk:
Citizen journalism: Dealing with dinosaurs
News round-up: Citizen journalism is officially cool
The darker side of citizen journalism
Wikinews supercharged by London bombings coverage
Sea change for citizen news

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