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Aya Kawano

NEW YORK (AP) The video was grainy, shaky but undeniably compelling: passengers standing in the aisle of a subway car, its windows shattered following one of the coordinated explosions in London.

Several U.S. television executives said that as far as they knew, it was the first time video taken from a cellular phone was used during coverage of a major story. It was no doubt a harbinger of things to come.

Still photos taken by cell phone were used in many newspapers. One cell phone picture by commuter Alexander Chadwick, distributed by The Associated Press, appeared on the front pages of both The New York Times and The Washington Post.

News stations have increasingly relied on amateur video to help tell major stories like last December's tsunami. But as more people get cellular phones with video capability, it's much more likely that a bystander at an unexpected news event will be carrying a phone instead of a video camera.

"I think you're looking at a portent of things to come," said NBC News President Neal Shapiro.

When he heard about Thursday's explosions, London-based Sandy MacIntyre, director of news for Associated Press Television News, said the first thing he told his staff was that someone must have cellular phone or video footage.

Staff members were instructed to ask any witnesses if they had any pictures, he said. Cellular phones, particularly those with video capabilities, are more common in Europe than in the United States at this point, he said.

APTN distributed the Sky News video to many U.S. television networks. The agency also spotted a still photo of a subway blast victim taken by a cell phone and posted on the Internet, and interviewed the person who was pictured.

MacIntyre said he also paid about $250 to acquire amateur video of the stricken double-decker bus, taken before emergency vehicles arrived.

While the video is important, it also requires news organizations to take care in checking its veracity; the potential for hoaxes is there, particularly as a market grows, said Jonathan Klein, CNN's U.S. chief.

Klein also predicted it will become a more important part of coverage in major news events.

"No question about it," he said. "There's been a lot of talk in terms of the increased democratization of the news media relating to blogs and the like. This is another example of the citizen journalist."