Rise and Rise of UGC NOTES

2009 - Sara Mills  / AQA Examiner

• New technologies = audiences are no longer passive recievers of news
• Audience = create their own content
• Audience have become users and users become producers
• The old divide between institution and audeience has been eroded due to UGC
• UGC e.g: Phones and internet alter the growth of technology + the risser of the "citizen journalist"      
         
• 1991 Video Camera example -> "What started the LA Riots" first example of news being generated from "ordinary people" -> rodney king beat up etc- recorded from onlooker from a window -> led to being on the news and focusing on police reacism etc- >   
               
• News generated by ordinary people = "citizen journalists" ,"accidental journalists" ,"grassroot journalists"
• Most news organisations include formats on participation e.g: message boards,polls, chat rooms, comments etc
• Social networking sites built around UGC e.g : Bebo, MySpace, Youtube and FB
• Youtube = highest in terms of where people get their news
• Natural Disaster of the -> Asian Tsunami Dec 26th 2004 another turning point for UGC as early fottage of the event was from "citizen journalists or accidental journalists" who were eye witnesses of the event. e.g: tourists ...... social networking sites provided witness accounts for worldwide audeinces and even helped survivors and family to keep in touch
•  London bombings 5th July 2005 provided another opportunity for citizen jounalists to influence the mainstram. --> footage provided from mobile phones and first hand view rather than behind police lines.
• 23Year old Seung Hui Chon mailed into NBC news showing him shooting two people and further 30 people. The events affective citizen jounalism and the person who recorded the events Jamal Albarghoutinear recording  the firing-  rather than saving himself is also available on youtube and CNN  as we now expect witnesses/ victums to take out there camera and record events .
  
  The news seems old fashionesd if it lacks the raw low footage quality by citizen journalists
• Mumbai bombings 2008 Nov -> media got uptop date with reports on Twitter and Flikr ... This rasied Q's that by broadcasting tweers people may be putting their own and other lives at risk
• Twitter again used -> during story of Hudson River plane crash Jan 15 2009 with the picture of the plane and a tweet by Janis Krun

• WHO'S KEEPING THE GATE ????

are old gatekeepers still deciding what is / isnt the news?
Yes ....? --->

• You can send as much UGC to news organisations with no guarantee that any of it will ever be aired
• Blogosphere --> provides an opportunity for independent often niche views and news to reach a worlsdwide audeince
  uniting dispaate people in "micro communities" is one of the webs greatest abilities
  groups that had little access to self reprentation such as youth groups , low income groups and various minority groups now are able to have a voice through things such as citizen journalism, blogospehere and other internet forms.

1. WHAT ABOUT PROFESSIONALS  ????

It is likely that in the future there will be fewer permanant trained staff at new organisations leaving a small crowd who will manage and process UGC (citizen jounalists / crowd sourcing)
some fear mediators and moderaters also will disapeare
Raises Concern:
If the media is left to the people and unmediated, there is a fear of it being handed over to fools/ people unexperianced , defamatory or even racist people

Flikr owned by Yahoo
Youtube bough Google
Microsoft invested into Facebook
News Corp (Murdochs) bought MySpace

Potential to expand !