A new award, the Citizen Journalism Award, will be given to people whose photos show an event that made the news.

The award, backed by Nokia and the UK’s Press Gazette, will be given in June. Anyone whose work has been published in the last 12 (including online) is eligible for entry but working journalists cannot participate.

"Citizen Journalism has exploded onto the media agenda and we hope this award will mark a key next step in recognizing this phenomenon as an important and credible part of journalism," said Ian Reeves, editor of the Press Gazette in a statement.

In the last year specialized photo agencies have sprung up that seek to get a good deal for citizens that shoot images that are used by media organizations.

Citizen journalism is on the rise and the mainstream media is taking notice. Many news organizations, including the BBC, now solicit images and video from those at the scene of big events. These organizations are realizing that their coverage of an event can expand with citizen contribution. Not only are these organizations taking notice but specialized photo agencies have sprung up to help citizen journalists get good prices for the images used by these media organizations. This is also a topic that will be debated this week at the We Media Conference (click here to read the conference blog).

Source: BBC