Rawporter Wants To Make Us All (Paid) Broadcast Journalists

A startup is hoping to combine two hot web trends - crowd sourcing and microearning - into a single savior for cash-strapped, broadcast newsrooms.

Rawporter, an iPhone app that will soon be rolled out for Android, turns almost anyone into a local news cameraman or camerawoman. Instead of dispatching a camera crew to a fire during rush hour and risk they won’t get there until after the flame is out, a television news reporter can create an assignment from Rawporter’s Web interface and sned it to anyone with the app who may be in the area of the fire.