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The advent of blogs, mobile phones with video capabilities and the ever-growing appetite for news has meant that an increasing number of "regular folks" are not only making the news but becoming part of the reporting mechanism.

Sometimes this kind of vigilante reporting gives us access to stories, footage and perspectives that the mainstream broadcasters and publishers could never hope to provide -- but are their downsides to this?

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

TV3's Campbell Live recently highlighted the wonderful world of video over mobile phones (albeit with rather poor results) and promised that, just as soon as they'd set up their end, they'd be encouraging viewers to become vigilante reporters and file reports from the scene of breaking news.

So will this fly?

I have my doubts.

We all saw the highly pixelated, jerky and almost unwatchable video provided by mobile-phone users during the recent terrorist bomb attacks on the London underground -- so my first concern is that the technology really isn't up to providing broadcast-quality images.

My other concern is that, even if the technology was able to handle it, this kind of coverage has to be "live" to be of much value. The problem with live coverage is that the reporter and broadcaster only have a very limited amount of control over what's seen and heard.

In these days of litigation and political correctness, it's a very brave broadcaster who'd dare to take a live feed from an untrained bystander of unknown leanings.

And we've already seen just how much of a furore was created when "on the spot" video footage from a rescue helicopter at a road-crash was recently carried by an NZ TV news broadcaster. Images of the badly injured victims were flashed on our screens and quite a few people actually complained.

So will an army of amateur reporters armed with wildly inadequate video capabilities enhance the news-gathering capabilities of our TV news and current affairs broadcasts?

Well perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we've seen a raft of good print-copy or radio material coming from an army of enthusiastic amateurs since the arrival of the internet and mobile phone. As far as I can tell, we haven't.

Campbell's promises of an army of 3G mobile reporters will likely not eventuate on the scale proposed -- although I'm sure we'll get the occasional bit of barely decipherable video and barely literate voice-over dropped into the programme to show that it *can* be done.

If you were on the scene of a major newsworthy event and had your 3G mobile in your pocket, which of the following would you do:

• Ring a TV broadcaster and offer to do a live feed
• Just take the video and then negotiate to *sell* it to a news service later
• Steer well clear of any media involvement

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