But in the age of video and camera-phones, improvements to internet access and email, that routine is now moving into the hands of plumbers, teachers, couriers and gardeners.

The Chronicle & Echo's front page story on Tuesday afternoon was not taken by one of our professional photographers; it was sent in by Abington Vale courier, Gary Parnell.

Mr Parnell, aged 35, was visiting his wife at work when he saw an incredible stand-off between a motorist and a bus driver, who both refused to let the other one pass and held up passengers, lorry drivers and infuriated motorists at Riverside Industrial Estate for 40 minutes.

Being a keen photographer, he took pictures of the event, emailed them into the office and they ended up on our front page.

Mr Parnell was not paid for his photographs, but said the thrill of getting the front page made his day.

He added: "I did work experience as a photographer at my local paper when I was growing up, and I always carry my camera with me in case I see anything interesting.

"I really didn't think the story was going to be that big. I thought it might be just a small caption somewhere in the middle of the paper.

If you would like to send a picture, video or article to the Chron for inclusion on this website and/or in the paper, click here to send an email with your attachment and a few details

But I'm really proud of myself and pleased to get my own pictures on the front page; I got a really good-day feeling."

Mr Parnell is not the first non-journalist to make a front page with little more than a mobile phone and quick wits, and it is not just the Chron which is encouraging citizen journalism.

Events like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2001 September 11 attacks on New York, 2005 July 7 attacks on London, the fire at the Buncefield depot in 2005, and the recent protests by monks in Burma have been brought into the living rooms of the public like never before thanks to ordinary people sending images and reports to newsrooms.

Smaller events like Halloween parties, school fetes, summer festivals or fundraising events have also become shaped by citizen journalism in local papers, with schools and community organisations sending in their pictures and reports.

Citizen journalism even has its own awards, run by media stalwart the Press Gazette.

Last year's winners, who won state-of-the-art mobile phones and printers, impressed a panel of judges including Channel Four News anchor Jon Snow with images of the London bombings and the Buncefield oil explosion.

And in Holland, citizen journalism has become so successful it has got its own television show.

Endemol, the developer of Big Brother, has created a daily 30-minute show called IK OP TV – Me on TV – which is produced in partnership with Dutch citizen journalism service Skoeps.

Viewers send in their own reports, from which the producers make local news TV packages.

For the citizen journalists who have sent in images to the Chron, publication is a reward in itself.

Richard Durham, aged 36, a groundsman from Boothville, sent in the gripping image of a Canada goose which had been shot through the chest with an arrow earlier this year and said he was delighted to see it in print.

He said: "It was after seeing the first article about the goose in the paper.

I've always been interested in photography and I'm always out with my camera. When nobody had seen the goose for a few weeks and I saw it, I thought I might as well send the picture in.

"It isn't about money; it just gave me a real buzz to see my picture in the paper. I felt happy, and like I was really involved in some way.

I bought about five copies of the paper to show my friends and family."

For Mr Parnell, getting his story on the front page was never about money.

He said: "I would definitely encourage people to send in their pictures or stories to the paper.

It doesn't have to be a major event or something involving pop stars to get in, it can just be something quirky and funny like the bus standoff story.

"If you see something and think, 'well that's unusual', it would probably be something the paper is interested in.

I've already had people calling me about it and apparently some national papers are interested in finding out about it, which is really exciting."

But not everyone within the media thinks citizen journalism is a good idea.

Many within the industry see it has a cost-cutting measure as, in the main, contributors are not paid for their efforts.

A panel of experts from The Guardian and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) who met to discuss the issue last year raised concerns including the difficulties in maintaining standards, payment to contributors, copyright, legal rights and privacy.

At the meeting, a NUJ Witness Contributors' Code of Practice was heavily criticised by industry experts.

Pete Clifton, head of BBC News Interactive, said that while there were some aspects of the code the BBC would wholeheartedly endorse, the suggestion contributors should be paid was more problematic.

He said: "This is part of the discussion we should have but I don't believe it is the role of the BBC to pay for everything on the site," he said.

"We couldn't afford to do it and anyway people don't want payment. It's not our role to commercialise this."

David Summers, the Chron's new editor, said citizen journalism could only enhance news production.

He added: "The way technology has changed, with mobile phones and digital cameras, has given us access to more stories and pictures than we had before.

When there's a major incident there are always people on the scene immediately getting good pictures, it brings stories to our newsrooms quicker than ever before.

"I think in the future we will have more and more contributions from the public, but they will complement journalists' stories, not replace them.

At the moment it's quite hard for people to submit video to us but as technology advances and we give people the opportunity to send in video, things will improve further and further.

"Whatever happens the heart of it will still be good journalism. We just have to adapt and give people the news on a format they want, whether that is the newspaper, the website, mobile phone – or whatever new technology is around the corner.

But whatever happens, there will still be the same level of professionalism we have always applied to bringing the news to our readers.

"There is a danger that you just publish whatever comes in and end up being more of an information provider rather than the newspaper people have come to trust over the years for the quality of its journalism, but you have to strive to get the right balance on that."

Julie Teckman, head of media and photography at Northampton College said citizen journalism could never replace professional journalists.

She added: "It's really interesting the way this phenomenon is encouraging people to notice things around them.

I can't really see anything wrong with it but it's going to require journalists to work quite hard on it, because people aren't natural journalists and they need to get reports and photographs to the right standard."

Ted Sullivan, course leader for the BA Honours Journalism course at the University of Northampton, said citizen journalism was becoming a major factor in news gathering.

He added: "The rise in citizen journalism might make professional journalists up their game a bit in terms of checking stories out and verifying things.

"But citizen journalism is also making the whole process a lot more cyclical.

"This is making news gathering more of an ongoing process than an end product."

If you would like to send a picture, video or article to the Chron for inclusion on this website and/or in the paper, click here to send an email with your attachment and a few details