We're all reporters in the digital democracy

An article by Emily Bell for The Guardian:

• The audience is no longer a passive receptor for the media, they are making themselves heard more and more as we head towards the 'democratisation of media'.
• Major, sudden events are now reported in a very different way, as we saw from the tsunami and the London bombings, it is now second nature for citizens to record any news they are caught up in on increasingly handy digital equipment.
• National pepers are now becoming more like village locals as citizen journalism expands.
• But does this give added risk to the companies and their brands?
• Is this exploitation of free material?- i don't think so, the nature of participation is totally out of choice and it is not about money (yet) for these "citizen journalists"
• Finally- Although professional journalists are paid for presenting content in the most effective way and to make judgements on how to represent the stories, do they provide a better quality of news than citizen journalists who are 'casually' contributing?