NDM News: Citizen Journalism

Media Magazine: The Rise and Rise of UGC (Dec 2009)

Examples

• Rodney King - caught after a high-speed chase, officers surrounded him, tasered him and chased him - the event filmed by an onlooker recording the event from his apartment window. 
• December 26th 2004 - Asian Tsunami - tourists filming, on-the-spot witnesses
• July 5th, 2005 - London Bombings - footage on phones by bystanders described as "raw"
• Hudson river plane crash - Twitter broke the news, twitpic posted
• Mumbai bombings 2008

Theory (audience reception etc.) 

• Hyperreality theory (Baudrillard) - news constructs reality, whereas citizen journalism is more realistic and authentic. Although the production values are low in terms of poor sound and shaky camera work, the production of authenticity increases. Citizen journalism is challenging this theory. 

Benefits to institutions 

• There are fewer permanent staff at institutions - this is an effective method of cutting costs. Citizen journalism is free, whereas professional journalists have to be paid
• Institutions can create dramatic stories with evidence from citizen journalism, ultimately recognition gained for institution
• Citizen journalists drive content and attract audiences 
• Audiences gravitate to bigger institutions for big stories - creates profit

Benefits to audience 

• Audiences see things they don't usually do - less user-generated content/moderated content
• Audiences have the ability to challenge authority

Wider issues and debates 

• Hard for institutions to verify stories from citizen journalism 
• Selective editing from institutions giving false headlines - ultimately institutions lose credibility
• Idea of stories from citizen journalism being a hoax could harm institutions
• Threat to authority - police and government being challenged
• Institutions lose mass control as advances in technology mean that social media sites such as YouTube and Twitter have dominated as audiences gravitate towards them as a source of surveillance (uses and gratifications theory)

SHEP
Social

• Anybody with a camera phone/smartphone can be a citizen journalist as they can post up their evidence to social media instantly

Historical 

• Certain stories which have been a high-watermark in the news industry are only big because of the invention of camera phones which allow members of the public to record evidence and post it up to social media sites. 

e.g. Rodney King - caught after a high-speed chase, officers surrounded him, tasered him and chased him - the event filmed by an onlooker recording the event from his apartment window. 

Economical 

• Institutions cutting costs as they can get rid of current professional journalists and can run their company of citizen journalism which is free
• Institutions also at risk of losing profit as audiences may completely gravitate towards citizen journalism completely 

Political 

Authority being threatened - police and government as citizen journalism allows people to challenge and share examples of in justice freely although some may suffer the consequences of being prosecuted 

  

QUESTIONS 

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

A citizen journalist is one who shares news instantly, as the advances in technology allow anyone with a videophone can upload content onto social media. 

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

In 1991, the Rodney King incident where police were shown beating up King sparked huge civil interest. A bystander was looking outside his apartment window and saw the incident and immediately began recording.

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

Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube Wikipedia news, Google news and Twitter

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

Professionally shot footage has high production values and may be slightly altered to make the news seem more dramatic than what it already is. First-hand footage usually has low production values, such as the sound might be poor quality, and has a more authentic "in-the-moment" feel.

5) What is a gatekeeper?

A gatekeeper decide what is news and what isn't.

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
Audiences can send in as much UGC into major news organisations without being aired. Also, citizen journalism means that anything can be made out to be news, even with video evidence because what matters is how the audience interpret the news. 

7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
The risk of being dominated by racism and "hate-fuelled" content 

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

• News stories

Advances in technology mean that social media has dominated the news industry as citizen journalism is pivitol is providing news for other users. For example, the Eric Garner case where a bystander took video evidence of his arrest was all over social media sites and this impacted audiences worldwide. As a result, the hashtag #ICantBreathe was trending worldwide to raise awareness of this case and to demonstrate how the police are brutal and violent. 

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

Citizen journalism has the ability to make anyone believe what they read, ultimately this can cause moral panic. Institutions are running off citizen journalism as their news stories are replicated from evidence of which citizen journalism creates. 

• The role of professionals in news

Professionals are being degraded as citizen journalism has dominated over the past few years in which how audiences receive their news. Journalists spend much time doing thorough investigation, whereas citizen journalism allows unmoderated content to be broadcast-ed quickly. Ultimately, this causes moral panic.