Everyone has a camera phone, right? Most people have the internet on their phones and when the two combine, you get citizen journalism. Think G20, Iraq and the recent student demonstrations – many of the fuzzy shots splattered across the broadsheets were taken by members of the public.

But what does that mean for the professionals?

Chris Steele-Perkins joined Magnum in 1979. He has published 10 books, has work at the V&A, the Photographers’ Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, and has won numerous awards…

With news photography, exclusivity is key. And at the moment it’s citizens that are getting the shots. Footage of Ian Tomlinson [who died after being pushed by police at the 2009 G20 demonstrations] was recorded by a New York fund manager.

Photography doesn’t explain, it illustrates, so it’s potentially easy to get misled with citizen generated images. On the other hand, there have been many incidents where professional photographers have bent the truth. Think of celebrity “fights” that just don’t exist. Or more seriously, in Belfast during the civil war I know of kids being bribed to throw stones at troops to get some action. And it’s always been like that; I remember reading about the old newsreel provider Pathé employing people to shake the ladders of rivals so they’d take shaky shots.

Photographers are undertaking projects that straddle citizen and professional journalism. Geert Van Kesteren did an exhibition at the Barbican [Baghdad Calling: Why Mister Why] featuring mobile phone pictures sent between Baghdad residents and their families and friends in various European refugee camps. Edited well, used well, citizen journalism can be a bonus.

Christian Payne (aka Documentally) is a “freelance mobile media maker who also specialises in social media & photography”. He has worked with the United Nations, the British Council in Pakistan and Hong Kong, and alongside Reuters on groundbreaking projects with the British Government…

It’s taken the traditional media a long time to open up to the possibilities of citizen journalism. Someone tweeting about an accident is reporting – just because they don’t have a journalism qualification doesn’t make their content less valuable.

Badges of credibility may, in the future, be displayed on the accounts of Twitter reporters, making it easier to distinguish credible sources. For example – if a journalist has identified 55 credible news stories through Twitter, then there is a good chance we can think of them as “credible”.

You can already do a fair amount of quality control on Twitter (I’m more likely to trust someone defined as “journalist” rather than “boy hunter” or something).

I’m really excited about Storify – a website that allows individuals and companies to consolidate their online presence into one column. For example, a Flickr picture will sit alongside a tweet and a blog post. I think it has potential to change the landscape of news. 

Photographers can do a lot to protect their images online. I use technology that enables me to see who’s using my images (www.tineye.com) without request. I’ve discovered big companies ripping off my pictures and have just billed them.  An enormous amount of image theft happens online.

Chris Steele-Perkins and Christian Payne were talking to Hattie Hawksworth.

Image courtesy of Christian Payne.