Journalists should engage in conversation

When i first started this blog around the end of 2006,so many of the tags were to do with citizen journalism and user generated content.

The words seem to have fallen in to disuse in recent times sometimes maybe unfairly.

Kellie Maddox reports on the comments of the Editorial Development Director at RBI, a big B2B magazine and website publisher in the UK,Karl Schneider.

The benefits of UGC – aside from the obvious financial benefits of UGC (lots of content at little cost), Karl emphasised how important ‘community’ engagement around a website is in the production of UGC. He also pointed out that there was no set model of UGC that would work for users across the board – depending on the publication/topic, different groups respond differently when engaging with media products. He said, in order to understand users’ motivation to produce content, we should identify common threads e.g. why do users respond to that? In what way do they respond?

Ht-Suw Charman-Anderson

UGC can promote greater media democracy

The term User Generated conflict may have fallen by the wayside apart from in journalism schools but the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA)has produced a set of guidelines for broadcasters wishing to work with the medium.

They can be downloaded as a PDF

One issue that it brings to the fore is that of its use in promoting media democracy

While encouraging ‘better quality’ UGC (however that may be defined) might appear a worthwhile aim, pursuing this goal alone could serve only to further amplify the voices of the better resourced members of the audience and further marginalise the poor and disempowered. The aim of these guidelines, therefore, is to provide guidance on how to encourage a greater diversity of material from a wider range of voices: material that serves both the public and commercial needs of broadcasters and the viewing and democratic needs of the widest possible audience.

Ht-Laura Oliver

Reader's comments devalue journalism

Interaction and two way communication are held up as one of the reasons why publishing online is a good thing for journalism.

Not though according to Douglas Bailey, president and founder of DB Media Strategies Inc who argues that

[A]s satiated as I am with the enormous and varied flow of available information, I’ve concluded there’s one outlet that should be abandoned: those comment forums at the end of articles on newspaper websites.
…these forums are insidiously contributing to the devaluation of journalism, blurring the truth, confusing the issues, and diminishing serious discourse beyond even talk radio’s worst examples.

Via CJR

Twitter gives the lowdown on the situation in Burma

More evidence of the advantages of Twitter comes from Burma where its feeds are giving much information and limks to blogs about what is going on in the country.

This was updated 12 hours ago on the KyiMayKaung blog on reports of people being taken away by force

Some people - I understand about 900 of them - were taken to Ma-ubin but the cyclone victims did not want to go there. So, they used force to take them away and some families got separated. For instance, husbands were moved and wives were left behind or children taken away without the husbands, and so forth......They were taken away in military trucks. People were forced into the trucks and ordered not to remain at the monasteries. Many cyclone victims who did not go with the trucks were evicted from the monasteries and some of them are now living along the coast.

This paints a vivid picture of the events of the storm

On May 2nd, we got news that the storm was heading directly into Yangon, so the employees were released to go back home early at 2pm. Even at that time, I was planning to stay until office hour was over because looking outside, the sun was still shining. But later, after being urged by friends online to go back home early, I went back home. When I got home, electricity was still on, so we opened TV, and on MRTV 3, there was a news flash scrolling, saying that the storm had passed Hi-gyi Island and is on its way towards Ayeyarwaddy, Yangon, Bago, and Mon States. The radio station was also broadcasting warnings of this. Electricity was cut off at 6:30pm according to ration schedule, so we just sit around with emergency lights. It had started raining, but it was not very windy yet. So I went to bed around 9pm. I hardly ever wish anything whenever I prayed, but that night, I prayed that the storm will not cause many casualties. I wasn't able to fall asleep quickly, because of the noises of the rain falling on the roof, but I think I did nodded off.
When I woke up, it was around 2:30am, and the wind was howling now. I can hear noises on the roof, and I was afraid that the roof, even though it's one of those big one-piece roof that covers the whole house, will fly away with the wind. So I got my pillow and a blanket and went into the living room and found my mom and my cousin sitting on the seats with a candle lit. They couldn't sleep either, I guess. My father was praying in the shrine room, and my brother was awake too. It wasn't raining heavily at that time, but there was very strong wind

Bolton Evening News gives in to comments on its online site

The Bolton News has finally lost patience with the comments left on its online service according to a report on How Do

the paper took the decision to suspend its comment offering “until further notice” after certain stories were “hijacked” by web users, while others were subject to repeated rambling and irrelevant postings that led to complaints.

David Crookes,its digital content editor announces the move on the sites forum

We have been listening to the concerns of our readers and we have decided to make some changes.
We have taken the decision to disable the comment facility on individual news stories, allowing us to bring reader reaction together in one place.
This forum allows you to create your own topic threads and contribute to those already there.
The changes have been made because of a minority of people who have insisted on spoiling our previous comment facilities.
To ensure people can post comments in a safe environment, we will immediately ban anyone who vandalises the site, with personally abusive messages or obscenities.
If the problems persist, we will approach internet service providers to ban troublesome users.
That will leave the majority free to discuss topics, safe in the knowledge that their opinions will be respected.
It's a move our readers have asked for and we're happy to be able to provide this level of service.

Skoeps experiment comes to an end

The news announced over the weekend that citizen joirnalism website Skoeps has closed is seen in some quarters as another wake up call to the media that the traditional business model doesnt work on the web

Follow the media takes up the story

Skoeps arrived in 2006, eventually financed by two of the smartest media companies in Europe. The idea was to connect anybody with a mobile phone camera and video of a news story with the mainstream media (MSM), getting the MSM to pay, Skoeps keeping 50%. Citizen journalists signing up were provided a mobile phone and a Skoeps press card. About 7500 signed up, posting between 1000 and 1500 clips monthly.

Perhaps more to the point,it quotes new media expert Jonathan Marks who says

“Luckily nobody was killed.I am glad Skoeps has gone because it encouraged members of the public to take risks - some of which were unacceptable in my view - like trying to get close to fires or incidents when health and safety were at risk.”

User Generated Content sites will fail

Another interesting story from Journalism.co.uk (via Andy Dickinson)

John Ndege writes that citizen journalism start ups are doomed.

citizen journalism websites, webzines and other online destinations committed to turning a profit purely on user-generated news and editorials will struggle to survive as a business and ultimately will fail.

Refering to what he terms purely sites with user generated content he asks

where is the money going to come from?

beacause

Advertising revenues are dropping like a stone, largely due to the increased supply of content driving online advertising dollars down to the point where they are almost meaningless. Slapping subscription charges on a site is not going to work in today's market either, so developers are caught in a Catch-22. Citizen journalism sites need writers to make money but those same sites need money to get writers.

John on the whole makes some good points but at the end it is all about adding value.It is not where the content comes from but what it can provide for a potential audience and adverising.It is unlikely that people are going to pay for content unless it is very niche orientated or specialised.User generated content alone is not a reason for journalism sites to fail.

Paxman gives his views on User Generated Content

Of course I am sure his views don't represent that of his employers

Pew report-news is no longer a commodity and UGC is not the way forward

The latest Pew report on the state of the America has just come out.

It reports on a number of major trends

1. News is shifting form being a product to being a service.That is it's no longer simply a provider but instead a way of providing information for help and empowerment.
2. A news organisation or website is no longer the final destination for consumers
3. The prospects for user generated content are no longer central to future development.
4. The news room is becoming a place of innovation and experimentation
5. The news agenda is narrowing.

Probably of all the conclusions,the one on user generated content is the most suprising and probably the best news for the journalist profession.

The worry is that the agenda is narrowing.Steve Borris picks this point up and says

What they missed is that as you moved toward media that exhibit more of the
defining characteristics of “New Media” — more “channels,” more fragmentation of
audiences — the narrower the news agenda became.

And in a way this leads back to the second point that news sites are no longer the end goal of the user.They are simply one step in getting to the source and understanding of the information.

The revenge of the experts

An article in this Newsweek suggests that the tide may be turning for user generated content on the web.

According to Tony Dokoupil,

of the same entrepreneurs that funded the user-generated revolution are paying professionals to edit and produce online content.

And the reason why

The revival comes amid mounting demand for a more reliable, bankable Web. "People are beginning to recognize that the world is too dangerous a place for faulty information,

UGC-Some way to go

Online, self published current affairs journalism and news publications built on a preponderance of reader contributions are starting to offer alternatives to established news providers. At the same time mainstream sites have begun to host spaces for user generated content, although not as a direct or linear response to these so-called ‘grassroots’ or ‘citizen journalism’ activities

That is one of the conclusions of Neil Thurman, of the City University, London in an article entitled Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media

Neil outlines some of the factors that are motivations behind the media using or not using UCG.

Cost is certainly one,moderation of sites is expensive-

These costs have not yet been fully off-set by the revenues generated.

Some sites are not finding the take up particually brilliant and

Questions remain about the extent to which users are interested both in participating themselves, and viewing other readers’ contributions.

Not suprisingly though

Increasing circulation is, of course, not the only reason for eliciting reader contributions. Editors understood that secondary benefits existed as user generated content initiatives could provide a source of stories and content for stories.

Also

Journalists and editors had some concerns about user contributions. They felt that there was a need to edit material to: avoid duplication, keep the standards of spelling and grammar high, select material that was newsworthy with broad appeal, and ensure balance and decency.

and this along with legal considerations is obviously a factor in editorial policy

The power of user gen content at the beeb

Peter Horrocks has an interesting post on the BBC editors site which seems to have got a lot of reaction.

Ten days ago, just hours after the death of Benazir Bhutto, we considered turning off the comment recommendation facility on that story on the BBC News website. It was only a fleeting suggestion but that we could consider, however briefly, freezing this important part of BBC News’ service tells you something about the power and the potential danger of the new intensity of the interaction between the contributing public, journalists and audiences. And it raises the question of how much attention and resource news organisations should devote to this rapidly burgeoning aspect of our journalism.

The reason was that the site was bombarded by what can only be described as anti Muslim and religion comments

The top 20 or 30 recommended posts all had variations on the theme, attacking Islam in comprehensive terms. Most of them weren’t making distinctions between different aspects of Islam, they were simply damning the religion as a whole.

But

Buried amongst the comments however, rarely recommended by others, were insights from those who had met Benazir or knew her. And there were valuable eyewitness comments from people who were at the scene in Rawalpindi. Our team that deals with user content sifted through the chaff to find some excellent wheat.


The power of user generated content and Peter describes the current reorganisation of the BBC newsroom

Within the multimedia newsroom department, for which I have responsibility, we are now preparing a major physical re-organisation to accompany the structural changes. All of the key daily news teams in radio, TV and the web will be seated alongside each other next to the people who run the newsgathering. And close to the middle of that operation will be our User Generated Content unit. It will be right alongside the newsgathering teams that deploy our conventional journalistic resources. And the UGC team will be deploying and receiving our unconventional journalistic resources – information and opinion from the audience.

Perhaps evidence ,if anymore were needed ,that the Beeb is taking seriously the advent of the citizen journalist

Newsnight wants some help

Newsnight is experimenting with what can be described as viewer interaction.

Writing on the editors blog Peter Barron explains

This week on Newsnight we've launched a new experiment in which, instead of simply sending our morning prospects list to our producers, we send it to anyone who wants it (you can subscribe here) and post it on the website (you can find today's here).
The idea is that you can let us know what you'd like to see us tackle or the questions you'd like asked at 10.30pm. The response has been large and overwhelmingly positive, but there have been one or two quibbles

Those quibbles being why should the viewer do all the work when they pay the license fee no doubt.
Anyway I have just signed up for the feed so lets see how it works

In a niche market people should pay for content

Apart from being told by Jay Rosen that American was at least two years in front of the UK in its use of user generated content,last nights 7th Journalism leaders forum at UCLAN saw some interesting opinions on the advent and development of citizen journalism within media organisations.


However the comments that struck me most were made from a former UCLAN Student Andy Mitten who runs the Manchester United fanzine United We Stand.

Unusual in setting up something over 15 years ago that has been a success outside of the mainstream media,Andy feared the arrival of the internet.

He has so far resisted the lure of putting his content online to any great degree because he feels that in his niche market,people should pay for content.Whether that model will continue to work is and will be a matter of some debate.Andy was anxious that many national media sites are now encroaching on his territory and quite rightly fears for the future

Want to know what is happening to the media?

An interesting piece from Seamus McCauley on his virtual economics blog which suggests that the traditional media should keep a close eye on the porn industry.

Not for the obvious reasons,I might add,but that it is the embryo of many media innovations.

Seamus points out that the industry is in decline as it has seen a 30% decline in its sales of Dvd's as a result of amateur or user generated material.

As he says

"the implications for media in general? Nothing we
didn't know already, just a bit more data to support that knowledge. People are
willing to do for free something that was once a $14 billion industry.
"

Andrew Keen-the saviour of traditional media?

I have just watched the interview with Andrew Keen on Business Week.Andrew is currently promoting his book "Cult of the Amateur which he describes as a clarion call to save what he terms the traditional media.

In the interview he argues that the move towards User Generated Content is adding no value to our culture,that self broadcasting simply fragments the message and creates a trivialised culture.

More importantly for Andrew,it is creating a structural crisis in paid content which may lead to a situation in 25-50 years time when the traditional media will no longer be around .

The consequence of that is a media based on twitter and Wikipedia that will leave us with the amateur product that will in his words be unreliable.


What that will mean for society is that information will no longer be certain,and that at a time when we will rely more on certainty of information

His solution is a combination of the professionalism of the traditional media and the innovation of the new media.

Is he correct?This blog has given many examples of both the pros and cons of Web 2.0,which incidently Andrew believes is coming to an end.

I suppose that the debate stems from whether we believe and trust in what we read .My worry is that the younger generation, having been put under pressure to cram information and pass countless exams, have no longer the time to check their sources.

Chicago paper recruits citizen journalists

That word citizen journalism again.

This report off the Editors Weblog where the Chi Town Daily News based in Chicago is investing in a team of volunteer reporters to work on local neighbourhood news

This from the editor

"By creating a network that includes at least one citizen
journalists in each of Chicago's 70+ neighborhoods, we believe we can offer
local news coverage that is more comprehensive, nuanced and diverse than the
report found in Chicago's large daily newspapers. We expect our approach will
substantially increase the volume of news coverage in Chicago's most
disadvantaged neighborhoods, and create a large number of trained journalists in
those communities. "

No mention of training these people in the legality and ethics of reporting though?

VLV Competition

'Critically discuss the ways in which, in today's changing media environment, audiences are becoming content producers. Is this a significant trend and, if so, is it a good thing?'



That is the essay title that Ed Walker and myself have been working on over the past week.

It is a student competition organised by the voice of the listener and viewer and we have submitted a 10 minute video entry.



Thanks to our devoted interviewee's Andy Dickinson,lecturer in Digital and Online journalism at the University of Central Lancs,Delwyn Swingewood,senior lecturer in journalism at the same university and Josie Hill community reporter at the Lancashire Evening Post.


Some interesting discussion and you can view the piece here

Coverage of the Cutty Sark

The coverage of the conflagration at the Cutty Sark was accompanied by an outbreak of citizen journalism.

Several of the news sites were inviting readers to send in their photo's of the ship ablaze,this one courtesy of the Daily Mail.

The outbreak of the fire in the early hours of Monday with a number of people living in close proximity to the blaze was an ideal platform for user generated content rather like the fire at the Buncefield oil refinery in December 2005.

Swedish Journalists Debate UGC

A good piece via Editors Weblog on a debate at the Swedish Journalist's union.It concerns THAT debate again over user generated content.


First of all is it a threat:Interestingly the question a threat to who.Are journalists losing their traditional role as the gatekeepers,or is it simply bringing more topics into the public domain:

"Perhaps not related exactly but there was a very good article in the NS last week as to how blogs are producing debate and ariring of topics over the standard of services that we get in the Uk, "


The conclusion is that

"this may be one of the bigger challenges for journalism.
Citizens today have a number of alternative channels to find information, that
are a complement to traditional media. "

The question being

" about how to include UGC, not if it should
be."