All aboard!

Do you have a cell phone with picture taking capabilities, an ipod or a digital camera? If you do, you'd better jump on the citizen journalist train, because it's about to really pick up speed. If you don't have one of these electronic devices, get one, and try to catch the caboose as it comes by.

With the continual updates of all of these digitally advanced devices, the opportunity to be a citizen journalist has increased drastically and won't let up soon. For instance, look at the man who took a picture of the subway bombings in London a few months ago and found the picture from his cell phone all over the news. News agencies are going to start to take advantage of this increasing aid in the media spectrum. Look no further than Hurricane Katrina, where many pictures have come from those directly affected by the disaster.

Why the hell do these news agencies need to pay photographers to be ready at all times when all they have to do is sit back, relax and wait for another picture or video to come in from a cell phone, ipod or digital camera from another no name off of the street?

In 15 years, news organizations will have only one photographer on staff for feature stories only. They will receive the rest of their pictures and video from people off of the street with some electronic devices not even fathomed yet. The only problem is that these people will no longer be considered citizen journalists, because they will have these news organizations in the palms of their hands, bidding for the prime photo. Yes, citizen journalism will be no more. These so-called citizen journalists will be getting paid for the photos and video they took because they were cruising in the right place at the right time. People will be making a living off of car accidents, robberies and natural disasters to name a few.

So while citizen journalism continues to evolve and the train continues to pick up speed, jump on now. Or hell, just wait for a few years when I promise it will really pay off. By that time, "citizen journalism" will be no more and twisted-metal-and flashing-red-light-chasing citizen freelancers will be holding several crisp Benjamin Franklin's for the "money shot"they just took and sold right off the street to the desperate news organizations looking for the next "real news" fix.