German newspaper crowdsources photography

Wed, 12/03/2008 - 7:52pm

A brilliant innovation or a sad day for journalism? On Deadline reports, you decide:

Germany's Bild newspaper plans to partner with a supermarket chain to distribute $89 cameras that readers can use to take pictures and shoot videos for use in the publication's print and web editions.

"We can't cover everything," Michael Paustian, an editor at the paper, tells AP. "We think it is an advance for journalism."

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Is this that new?

I know you guys are really focused on Foreign issues at FP and I love you for it, but haven't you seen CNN's iReport? They do this all the time, they even rely on "iReporters" for stories. Or every local nightly news channel and even most of the national nightly news programs. They all do this. I realize this is a newspaper, but most newspapers here at least have readers send in photos. Frankly this just seems like yet another expansion of the concept. Not to say this is great, but it is what it is, media in the digital and interactive age.

re: is that new

I agree completely...and, it is worth noting the amount of fluff and crap adorning the pages of major newspapers at present...one does not need to have the words "professional journalist" on one's CV to be an effective writer/reporter.