If I have had theme here, its called don't get suckered into doing spec work or "contests". This is also known as "crowd sourcing" as a way of saying, we're gonna hire 1000 people to do a job and not pay a cent. 

Perhaps you may of thought there were no consequences to this outside of you just got suckered out of some of your life. CNN it seems has gotten the brilliant idea that they can use content created on cell phones instead. Why send a pro shooter to cover a story, and have it edited by someone who knows how to edit ? Any image with sound is good enough these days. Steve Colbert explains the story well here.  http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/403149/november-28-2011/stephen-colbert-s-me-reporters