user generated content and citizen journalism
DESCRIPTION
Lecture on UGC and CJ delivered to year 2 students on the journalism degree at Birmingham City University, UKTRANSCRIPT
Paul BradshawSenior Lecturer, Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media, School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK (mediacourses.com)Blogger, Online Journalism Blog
User Generated Content and Citizen Journalism
Don’t talk to me about Citizen
Journalism.
Don’t talk to me about UGC.
Talk to me about
Community.
Joe Public
+
Joe Public
Shiny thing
+
Joe Public
Shiny thing
=
?
This is what news organisations want…
…This is what news organisations get.
=
=
now
then
then
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
Capturing ‘the
mood’?
“The market is a
conversation”
http://www.cluetrain.com/
Managing the
community
=
The 1-9-90 rule
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html
(you want to be in that
1%)
Trolls
http://communitiesonline.homestead.com/dealingwithtrolls.html
Why contribute
? Why you?
Passion(+ anger)
Knowledge
Social connection
Money?
Status?
A voice?
Training, help,
exposure?
Reciprocity
Trust
“[W]hen the contaminated fuel incident happened a little while ago the BBC’s question on its
website asking people to tell us where they bought their fuel if they had had a problem engine was the
most accurate data any organisation in the country had
about the location of the problem.
“Last year our defence correspondent Paul Wood became
aware of widespread concern within the army about the
condition of barracks. By using army websites and obtaining
material from soldiers’ families he obtained pictures and information that painted a devastating picture
of sub-standard accommodation.”
“Contributors posting on Twitter provided an earlier picture of the Barack Obama victory in the Iowa caucuses than any professionally
organised exit poll or data collection. The potential for this sort of journalistic enterprise is
only just being realised.”
Peter Horrocks, head of BBC Newsroomhttp://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/2008/01/09/horrocks-only-1-per-cent-of-bbc-audience-contributes-ugc-value-apparent-only-when-filtered/
Verify.
• Never assume what you see/hear is true. • A journalist’s role is to guarantee credibility• Consider the source• Check IP address, etc.• See who links to it• Look for touching up, etc.• More: Quinn & Lamble (2008), Friend &
Singer (2007), Web Search Garage etc.
Legal.
LibelContempt of court
©
Do something now
• Identify an issue and think of a creative way to generate conversation around it in your online community/ies of choice. That might involve users and you:– Creating and sharing images– Posting tweets and retweeting them– Uploading images, video or audio– Contributing to forums– Joining groups and making pledges– Posting blog entries or adding comments– Voting in polls or completing surveys– Adding to or editing wikis
• Key question: why do people pass things on? Why do they take part?
Paul BradshawSenior Lecturer, Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media, School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK (mediacourses.com)
Blogger, Online Journalism Blog