NDM News: Citizen journalism

Examples

• Video cameras had becomemore common and more people could afford them...unfortunately for four Los Angeles police officers! Having caught Rodney King, an African-American, after a high speed chase, the officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him with clubs. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window.

• There were six days of riots, 53 people died, andaround 4000 people were injured. The costs of the damage, looting and clear-up came in at up to a billion dollars.

• The natural disaster of the Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was another turning point for UGC.

Theory 

• The audience 
  have become ‘users’ and the users have become 
  publishers. Audiences now create their own 
  their own 
  content.

• We are in the era of user generated content (UGC) where the old divide between  institution and audience is being eroded.

Benefits to institutions 

• As technology improved over the 
  years, incidents of this kind have become more 
  and more common. Millions of people have 
  constant access to filming capability through 
  their mobiles, and footage can be uploaded and 
  rapidly distributed on the internet.

Benefits to audience 

• It is not only in providing footage for the  
  news that citizen journalists have come to the 
  forefront. UGC now plays a huge role in many 
  aspects of the media.

• The desire for everyone to tell their own story and have their own moment of fame may explain the huge popularity of Facebook, MySpace and other such sites.

Wider issues and debates 

• It is likely that in future 
  there will be fewer and fewer permanent 
  trained staff at news organisations, leaving a 
  smaller core staff who will manage and process 
  UGC from citizen journalists, sometimes known as 
  ‘crowd sourcing.’ Some believe that the mediators 
  and moderators might eventually disappear 
  too, leaving a world where the media is, finally, 
  unmediated.

• There is a whole new world out there. With it comes new responsibility. There is enormous potential to expand our view of the world and our understanding of what is happening. Our collective knowledge, and wisdom, should grow. 

• On the other hand, in twenty years time, the news could be overrun by pictures of people’s kittens and a few bigots shouting across message boards at each other.

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?

CITIZEN JOURNALIST are individuals who use their technology such as phones to record incidents that happen in public which is then used as a piece of evidence for the police.

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?

Ferguson's citizen journalists

3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.

allow audiences to leave a comment about the story, 

allows audience to share the story and share their comments on social networking websites.

4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?

UGC - has more information and has the other side of the story

Professionally shot footage - footage that is shot to show the public, therefore hides the other side of the story. 

5) What is a gatekeeper?

Something that stops you from doing something. For example, parents stopping you from playing games online and therefore they block the website. The parents became gatekeepers. 

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?

The role of a gatekeeper has changed as there is now less gatekeepers and everything is now more easily accessible.

7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

Journalists are losing their job, UGC are giving in more information as well as more informative information than journalists. 

What impact is new/digital media having on the following:

• news stories

there are now different stories relating to the same story, people are twisting the stories and adding in more information. 

• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)

there are now more stories on topics that don't matter as much as the ones that do

• the role of professionals in news

they are now having to work on online news, and how they present the news online and not the paper base forms.