Readers as Reporters

The explosion in digital photography in recent years is every camera-maker's dream. Virtually everyone who can afford one owns a digital camera. If they don't, then at least their cell phones are equipped with one. With all that click, click, clicking of cameras and incessant ka-chinging of camera-makers' cash registers, however, the border between professional photographer and "normal consumer" has clearly faded.

Hence, the dawning of "citizen reporters" or "grassroots journalists." US broadcaster CNN promotes its amateur reporter slot as follows: "Did you witness a news event? Do you have a tip or story to share? Send your breaking news I-Report."

Viewers can upload pictures, videos and audio files. And they do.

Broadcasters reason that, when news breaks, they have to rely on amateurs' pictures before their teams can arrive on the spot. CNN repeatedly aired amateur videos of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, to name just one example.

German click-o-mania

In Germany, news organizations -- from broadcasters N24 and RTL to the online edition of weekly magazine Stern -- have caught onto the craze for "user-generated content." ZDF, one of Germany's two top public TV broadcasters, even kicked off a "Send us your pictures campaign" in honor of the pope's visit to his homeland this month.

The tabloid Bild's amateur reporter venue is likely the most talked about. It began with a request by the paper for soccer fans to send in their pictures of the World Cup in Germany this summer.

Since then, Leserreporter (reader reporters) have offered their prized pictures of bizarre events, traffic accidents and celebrities inopportunely captured in pixel. A policeman illegally talking on his cell while driving, celebrity Dieter Bohlen on the beach, a truck in flames on the Autobahn, a former federal minister drinking in a pub, another getting his hair cut -- Bild has published them all. And more.

"Thousands of reader reporters have participated; we're thrilled!" declared a Bild-Online ad.

The paper pays 500 euros ($634) for a cell-phone photo published in the national print version of the tabloid and 100 euros for an image that appears on Bild-Online.

Drawing the line between amateur and professional

Journalists' groups, however, are critical of the trend.

Michael Konken, head of the German journalists' association DJV, said in a statement that reader reporter campaigns could "threaten the livelihood of photographers and photojournalists."

Furthermore, "when ambitious amateurs take on journalistic tasks, it discredits the work of professional journalists," he said.

"Citizen journalism ultimately damages the standards set by a quality newspaper," he added.

Bild editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann disagreed: "Reader reporters do not discredit journalism; they broaden journalism's horizons in a fundamental way," he wrote in his paper.

Diekmann also noted that his Bild's reader reporter campaign now "puts an end to the era in which only journalists and editors determine media content."

Do pictures reflect "the truth?"

That idea alarms some media professionals, who fear that the work of amateurs could lead to mistakes -- or worse, lies.

Alex, a freelance photographer, pointed to many cases of image manipulation that occur even among professional camera people, like a recent case involving a Reuters news agency photographer who admitted to altering images of recent attacks in Lebanon to make them appear more dramatic.

However, among amateurs, the chance of falsification or ignorance is greater, he said.

"Most professional photographers know where to draw the line; there's a code of ethics," he said. "Reader reporters repeatedly pass over that line," he said.

While picture editors are supposed to review image material and make editorial decisions, Alex said that does not happen enough at the German paper for which he works.

Furthermore, it's difficult to verify whether the pictures users submit to news organizations were actually taken at the said location.

The online edition of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported that an amateur picture of "Bruno" -- an animal that made world headlines as the first brown bear to be spotted in Germany in over a century -- turned out to not be of Bruno at all. It was a completely different bear, at a completely different location.

New technology could help ensure that false claims about photo shoot locations are not made. At the Photokina photography trade fair that begins in Cologne next week, software developers are set to introduce GPS tracking systems to be used with compact cameras. Not only can time and date be saved in connection with a photograph, but location, too.

A question of ethics

Who is "doing" the journalism and verifying citizen reporter content are one thing, ethics is another.

Bild does request reader reporters to "respect the private sphere of other individuals."

However, Christian Schertz, a prominent Berlin-based attorney and media specialist, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that he not only considers the Bild reader reporter campaign shady and thinks it goes too far, he also believes it is illegal.

He referred to a 2004 European Court of Human Rights' ruling that stated that photos of Princess Caroline of Monaco published in German magazines infringed on her privacy. The court said that the photographs of her private life "made no contribution to a debate of public interest."

The court also ruled that public figures would have to give their consent before the publication of material about their private lives -- both pictures and the written word -- could be permitted.

While professional photographers have infringed on public figures' privacy rights in the past, Schertz said the sheer number of reader reporters on the beat will cause more infringements.

Bild does not inform its reader reporters that both the publisher and the reporters themselves can be held legally accountable for the published pictures, he said.

Several prominent people and celebrities, including former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and German soccer stars Lukas Podolski and David Odonkor, have sought court orders to stop Bild from printing pictures of their private lives without their knowledge. Odonkor took legal action after he was caught in a cell-phone snapshot while supposedly urinating in a parking lot.

While hobby photography may be fun, Schertz put it bluntly: "We have to ask ourselves whether we really want to live in a society in which everyone keeps a close eye on everyone else, and in which every form of clumsy behavior and misfortune is documented in pictures," he said.