Trends: Have you got news for us?

A number of UK media operators are switching on to the potential of paying members of the public to create content.

Five News now offers 100 to people who send in footage and reports, while Mr Paparazzi ( www.mrpaparazzi.com) and Scoopt ( www.scoopt.com) are tapping up Britain's citizen-journalists by offering payment for photos and images, which it in turn sells to the press.

The idea is certainly gaining purchase: revenue from downloads from sites such as SeeMeTV, which gives mobile movie-makers on the 3 network 1p each time their content is downloaded by other users, is expected to rise from less than 200m in 2007 to more than 9bn in 2012, showing the significant financial potential for both amateur movie-makers and their online distributors.

Thanks to thefuturelaboratory.com