user generated content and citizen journalism

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.

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now

then

then

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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

paul@onlinejournalismblog.com