Citizen Journalism

• examples

Rodney King,
Asian Tsunami
London bombings

• theory (audience reception etc.) 

moral manic,

folk devil

• benefits to institutions 

institutions are able to find out about stories quickly and are able to have there own angle on stories from just seeing footage. 

• benefits to audience 

information is free and can be seen as more reliable which means that it is easier to get hold of information.

• wider issues and debates 

UGC as much as it is beneficial but the effects of it have led to a fall in the media market thus journalists loosing their jobs and institutions closing down.

• S

socially UGC has been more welcomed as it has meant that information is free and also information is not as censored therefore it had truth.

• H

traditionally news was provided by institutions and audiences passively consumed the information without any question or ability to express views/opinions. 

• E

the fall in a journalists can lead to people losing their jobs and therefore can lead to people being more reliant on the government as jobs can be harder to finder.

• P

it is arguable that UGC has lead to information being bias and therefore information not being as true or valid.

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist?
new technologies have meant that the audience are no longer passive receivers of news. The audience have become ‘users’ and the users have become publishers. Audiences now are not creating their own content.this has lead to an era of user generated content (UGC) where the divide between institution and audience is becoming finer.

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people?
the first example was from 1991 where video cameras had become common and people could afford them, Rodney King, an African-American was the first UGC story after a high speed chase, the officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window. The home-video footage made prime-time news and became an international media sensation, and a focus for complaints about police racism towards African-Americans.

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

social networking are examples of how news organisation have adapted by introducing: message boards, chat rooms, Q&A, polls. This has allowed audiences to have the ability to interact and be able to give there opinion. Social media sites are built around UGC as seen in the four biggest social networking sites: Bebo, MySpace, YouTube and Facebook. People also have used social networking sites in order to promote there stuff. people not only use social networking but other sources such as; Wikipedia news, Google news and YouTube in order to obtain there news

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

footage provided from peoples mobile phones was raw and uncompromising. This first-hand view, rather than professionally shot footage from behind police lines, can be seen as more effective as well as realistic compared to remakes by the news.

5) What is a gatekeeper?

a gate keep is a personal or organisation that overviews  UGC and deciding what is aired and not however through social media there is a much less of a restriction and also Youtube. however sites such as wiki leaks are less regulated and therefore all UGC is able to be aired.

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
the gatekeeper is now website administrator where UGC is uploaded it is not the choice of websites to decide what is appropriate and what is not.

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

journalists fear their jobs an this will means fewer and far less permanent journalists which means that majority of all information that is consumed will be UGC.

• news stories

new and digital media has mean the increase of UGC and this leading to more "real" and also more up to date information.

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

news and digital media has meant that people are sharing videos that they feel are important, this therefore means that certain stories become more well known even if they are not the of news channels or websites.

• the role of professionals in news

new and digital media has mean that professionals have had to take a different approach to the news by presenting different views and a different angle of news. this has also meant that there is a fall in journalists due to UGC being used more and more and news being free rather than paid for.