According to an article over at TechCrunch, the Associated Press–one of the world’s leading press agencies and news distributors–has acquired a stake of the video crowdsourcing platform Bambuser. Bambuser allows ‘citizen journalists’ to upload live video footage of current events, which can then be licensed to news agencies worldwide. AP has been using Bambuser as a platform for their internal reporters for a while already, but now aims to more aggressively make use of crowdsourced news footage, to remain “the foremost global provider of live video news“. It seems outsourcing and crowdsourcing news footage seem to be the latest trend. CNN were the first to lay off a significant number of photographers, and just recently the Chicago Sun-Times laid off their entire staff–and both times the argument was that iPhone footage is just as good but much cheaper to obtain. So does AP’s deal with Bambuser mean the same will happen to their staff as well? Let us know what you think about this in your comments below!
Via PetaPixel