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December 18, 2008 • 6:38 pm 3

US newspapers cautious as they expand online

A study by the Bivings Group on newspapers and the Internet in the US shows how cautiously legacy media are approaching the web.

The study (PDF) quantified the online features of the top 100 newspapers in the USA in 2008. Some features, such as blogs and RSS feeds are commonplace.

But there is less uptake of features such as social networking or user-generated content, or let alone reinventing themselves online.

Only 10% of newspapers offered social networking tools, such as user profiles and the ability to friend others.  Even though this is low, it is still an increase from 5% in 2007.

Similarly more newspapers are experimenting with user-generated content but largely when it comes to photos. The study found that 58%  allowed for user generated photos. Only 18% accepted video and 15% took content written by the audience.

This is hardly surprising as mainstream media tend to use user content to complement their newsgathering, such as providing photos from the scene of breaking news.

The space for written content is provided through comments on stories. The number of newspaper websites allowing users to comment on articles has more than doubled in the last year.

Now 75% accept article comments in some form, compared to 33% in 2007. This indicates that newspapers are comfortable with readers discussing the work of professional journalists, once the story is published.

But there appears to be less of an inclination into letting the audience into the journalistic process.

Bivings concluded:

Newspapers are trying to improve their web programs and aggressively experimenting with a variety of new features. However, having actually reviewed all these newspaper websites it is hard not to be left with the impression that the sites are being improved incrementally on the margins. Newspapers are focused on improving what they already have, when reinvention may be what is necessary in order for the industry to come out of the current crisis on the other side.

Filed under: blogs, journalism, newspapers, social networking, user-generated content ,

December 15, 2008 • 10:28 pm 4

The top 10 moments in participatory news in 2008

An end of year list by NowPublic.com shows how far user-generated content played a role in the big news events of the year.

According to its CEO, Len Brody:

2008 not only proved the concept of user-generated news, but also tipped the scales. The pillars of mainstream media, including the Associated Press, BBC, CBS and CNN have all made significant efforts to embrace the new model.

Top of the list are the Mumbai attacks, a tragic event that demonstrated the value of raw and unfiltered information. It ends with the false report on Steve Jobs heart attack, a salutary tale of the perils of not checking this raw information.

The 10 moments are:

1. Mumbai Attacks

2. Natural disasters: Sharing Emergency Information

3. Olympic Torch Relay Protests in San Francisco

4. Obama and “Bittergate”

5. Republican Convention Protests Change Tack

6. Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information in Africa

7. CNN’s News Wire Plans

8. Mob Rule: Mark Zuckerberg’s SXSW Interview

9. Twitter Gets US student Out of Egyptian Jail

10. False Report About Steve Jobs Heart Attack

What would you add to the list?

(Full disclosure: NowPublic’s news director Rachel Nixon is my wife).

Filed under: blogs, citizen journalism, journalism, user-generated content , , ,

November 14, 2008 • 7:33 pm 9

BBC sees blog comments as activity of a ‘vocal minority’

Bulletins are broadcast from a dedicated studi...

Image via Wikipedia

There’s somewhat of a contradiction in the latest posting on the BBC’s Editors Blog by Helen Boaden, director of BBC News.

Introducing the post, she writes:

This week I gave the keynote speech at the e-Democracy conference. You can read what I said below. I would be interested to know what you think.

The speech gives an overview of the BBC’s approach to citizen journalism.

But even though Boaden says she wants to hear “what you think”, she appears to be dismissive of the people who comment on blogs.

Talking about the remarkable traffic to BBC News blogs- 1.5m page views for Nick Robinson, 2.5m for Justin Webb and almost 8m for Robert Peston – she says:

This highlights the difference in the audiences between those who are happy to read what others have to say and those self selecting minority who want to join in the debate themselves, knowing that the environment can be robust and that people might disagree with what they have to say.

She goes on to say that “those who join in the debate are by definition a vocal minority. They certainly have a place in a vibrant and impartial news environment but they need to be kept in perspective.”

There are certainly some people who will write abusive comments.  These people have always existed. But to label everyone who has left a comment on a blog as a “vocal minority” is such a sweeping statement.

And this does not seem to be a way to encourage more people to comment in any case.  To its credit, The Editors’ Blog has allowed comments such as this one from Junkkmale:

I better not join in here as, by this definition, I will be deemed to have moved from the acceptable ‘Shut up and take what you are given/silence is deemed consent’ camp to the, one presumes, non-BBC group of choice, here described as the ‘vocal minority’.

It would be interesting to find out how many people are registered to comment on BBC blogs and see a breakdown of volume of comments to see if it is, indeed, a ‘vocal minority’.

Perhaps the tone would be different if BBC bloggers engaged in the conversation themselves by responding to comments.  Some newspaper sites have been successful in fostering communities on their blogs.

In any case, what about the thousands of people who complained to the BBC about the Brand and Ross prank calls?  Were these voices, some argue whipped up by the press, more valid than the 33,000 people who commented on the BBC’s Have Your Say page?

Clearly there are issues in handling comments, and some research suggests that comments can impact how people view a news story. But dismissing those who try to engage in the news process is not a constructive way of fostering a conversation.

You’re welcome to comment on this post, as I would value your thoughts.

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Filed under: BBC, blogging, citizen journalism, journalism, user-generated content , , , , ,

November 1, 2008 • 9:47 am 5

User-generated content as a form of newsgathering

BBC News Fox

Image by garyturner via Flickr

Comments by a senior BBC News executive at the Media Society event, ‘Broadsheet vs Broadband’ in London offer an insight into how the corporation views user-generated content.

Pete Clifton, who has the unwieldy title of head of editorial development for multimedia journalism explained how UGC fit into the BBC’s newsgathering:

It’s gathering in insights that the audience have that we can make sense of and then making it part of our newsgathering process.

This approach limits the potential of UGC. The ability of the public to participate offers an opportunity for a new relationship with audiences – one in which journalists work with audiences and engage them in the various stages of the journalistic process.

This goes beyond viewing UGC as a source of news content, which needs to be controlled by professional journalists.

The BBC’s approach fits in with how other news outlets view content from the public, with journalists retaining a traditional gate-keeping role. At the BBC, the content is heavily moderated to verify its authenticity, as Clifton explained:

It’s gone through all the filters that our journalism would have gone through. It’s quite labour intensive. We’ve another arm of our newsgathering operation – it can ultimately add to the richness of what we do, but we shouldn’t take it lightly.

Again, this is also the view shared by other UK news publications with moderation and/or registration the norm as editors’ concerns over reputation, trust, and legal liabilities persist.

This approach frames UGC as a way of providing technical, editorial, and managerial processes that allow contributions from the public to be elicited, processed, and published by professional journalists.

As international research has show:

The bottom line is that, overall, online newspapers are eager to open interpretation to the audience, as this is coherent with their definition of the audience as audience. Access, distribution and even processing are open to a lesser extent, but selection is completely closed to participation, as this is the core of the journalistic profession.

As an aside, given that the BBC has integrated its TV, radio and online operations into a multimedia newsroom, should Clifton’s title lose the “multimedia” tag?

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Filed under: BBC, broadcast, citizen journalism, journalism, user-generated content , , ,

October 13, 2008 • 4:29 am 5

BBC reaches out to join online conversations

The BBC has long been leading the way in user-generated content, using photos and videos from the public in its reporting.  It has just launched two new participatory journalism initiatives.

One is the appointment of an Interactive Reporter, Siobhan Courtney. On the BBC Editors blog, Matthew Eltringham, explains her “beat is simply all the content you’ve been sending in to us.”

The appointment is welcomed but it is simply newsgathering by another name. The journalist retains the traditional role of the gate-keeper.

CBC in British Columbia has a similar project, called Go Public, with reporter Kathy Tomlinson investigating story tips sent in by the public.

But the BBC’s other initiative is far more innovative. For the US presidential debates, it has opened channels on video services Qik, 12Seconds and Phreadz.  Some of the videos were subsequently edited and posted on the BBC News website.

The purpose, explains Eltringham, is “to join in conversations wherever they were happening rather than expect people to come to us and host them on the BBC’s platforms.”

This is a major change in the BBC’s approach to user-generated content. It signals a shift away from the idea that the BBC should host the conversation.

Instead it reflects an acknowledgment that the conversation is taking place all over the web and the BBC’s role is as an enabler.

Filed under: BBC, journalism, user-generated content ,

October 9, 2008 • 7:32 am 4

How comments affect whether we see bias in a news story

Preliminary research presented at the Convergence and Society conference in South Carolina suggests that comments on a news story affect the perception of bias in the story itself.

Michele Jones, a Phd student at the University of North Carolina, wanted to investigate the impact that comments had on credibility and reader perception of bias in the news

She conducted an online experiment with 76 participants reading a story about abortion which carried either pro-life or pro-choice comments.

What she found was that readers who have strong opinions will perceive bias against their side in a news story. This is called the Hostile Media Effect and has been found in numerous studies.

But the picture was more confused when it came to the impact of comments on perceptions of bias.  A statistical analysis showed that the comments themselves did not lead readers to see more bias in the story.

However, the participants were also able to add their thoughts at the end of the study and these suggested that the nature of the comments affected how the story was perceived.

So, for example, people might see the original story as balanced, but the tone of the comments made them wonder if the journalist had deliberately chosen pro-life or pro-choice comments.

Jones sees this study as a starting point as it throws up interesting questions about the relationship between a news story and the discussion around it.

At a time when many news outlets are experimenting with different forms of user-generated content, this is an area that would benefit from further study.

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Filed under: academics, journalism, user-generated content , , ,

September 2, 2008 • 2:32 pm 1

Research paper on citizen media published

I’m pleased to say that a journal article on professional attitudes to user-generated content by myself and Neil Thurman of City University, London, has been published.

The research paper, called A Clash of Cultures: The integration of user-generated content within professional journalistic frameworks at British newspaper websites, is published in October 2008 issue of Journalism Practice.

The paper is available online, but it is behind a subscription wall.  Here is the abstract:

This study examines how national UK newspaper websites are integrating user-generated content (UGC). A survey quantifying the adoption of UGC by mainstream news organisations showed a dramatic increase in the opportunities for contributions from readers. In-depth interviews with senior news executives revealed this expansion is taking place despite residual doubts about the editorial and commercial value of material from the public. The study identified a shift towards the use of moderation due to editors’ persistent concerns about reputation, trust, and legal liabilities, indicating that UK newspaper websites are adopting a traditional gate-keeping role towards UGC. The findings suggest a gate-keeping approach may offer a model for the integration of UGC, with professional news organisations providing editorial structures to bring different voices into their news reporting, filtering and aggregating UGC in ways they believe to be useful and valuable to their audience. While this research looked at UGC initiatives in the context of the UK newspaper industry, it has broad relevance as professional journalists tend to share a similar set of norms. The British experience offers valuable lessons for news executives making their first forays into this area and for academics studying the field of participatory journalism.

If you cannot access the journal, a pre-publication version of the paper is available for download (PDF).

Filed under: citizen journalism, internet, journalism, user-generated content ,

August 8, 2008 • 7:19 am 0

Guardian journalists worry about sharing the news online

borderImage via Wikipedia

Much of the discussion at the AEJMC annual conference has focused on user-generated content (UGC) and how journalists should adapt to this changing environment.

Jane Singer from the University of Central Lancashire is one of the leading researchers in this area.  She talked about how online created a shared space, whereas print was largely a space controlled by journalists.

Her most recent research looked at the attitudes of journalists at The Guardian in the UK to UGC and the ethical concerns raised by publishing content from the public alongside professionally produced material.

Singer found that journalists at The Guardian felt powerless to assess credibility of material from users. This meant that they saw users as potentially posing a challenge to journalistic authority.

They were also worried that UGC could erode the professional autonomy of journalists. The worry was that editorial decisions would be affected by the number of clicks or comments a story received.

Even though there were no signs that this was happening, Singer said the journalists didn’t want to be seen as “traffic whores”.

In terms of accountability, journalists felt that while they had to own up to their own mistakes, users could hide behind anonymity.

Singer explained that the journalists did value contributions from users. And, compared to other news outlets, Guardian journalists did engage with comments and participate in the conversation.

What they are wrestling with the relationship ethics with users, with concerns about authenticity, autonomy and accountability. Singer found that journalist respond based on existing professional values, rather than thinking about how these well-established norms might need to change.

Other studies have found similar approaches in newsrooms, as journalists struggle with whether and how traditional values might need to change as journalism operates in a shared space online.

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Filed under: AEJMC, education, journalism, user-generated content , ,

June 5, 2008 • 11:23 am 3

How the BBC views user-generated content

The BBC’s new Statements of Programme Policy has a revealing snippet about the attitudes of TV to user-generated content.

On page 57 of this lengthy document (PDF), the broadcaster says:

We will augment our news coverage with video, still images and messages submitted by viewers, where appropriate, in order to offer first-hand accounts and a wide range of views. We aim to make it as simple as possible for audiences to make these contributions and create one seamless BBC News proposition across all platforms.

This suggests that the BBC News overall approach is less about involving audiences in a way that lets them influence the news agenda.

Rather, it is about providing technical, editorial, and managerial processes that allow contributions to be elicited, processed, and published by professional journalists. In other words, a form of newsgathering that takes advantage of advances in technology.

This approach has is common among mainstream media, creating an architecture of publication rather than an architecture of participation.

There are some exceptions, such as the BBC iPm show that aims to discuss ideas with the production team on its blog. But these initiatives are at taking place at the edges, rather than at the heart of BBC News.

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Filed under: BBC, broadcast, citizen journalism, journalism, user-generated content , ,

May 30, 2008 • 9:53 am 4

No user-generated content please, we’re Rush

Rush liveThis post is slightly off topic, but it relates to issues of technology, copyright and social media.

Go to a gig today and there’ll be dozens of people shooting photos or video on mobile phones or small point and shoot cameras. I am usually one of these people and have never had any trouble.

Last night, I was at the Rush gig in Vancouver. Yes, I fess up, I have a weakness for Rush – blame it on hearing Spirit of the Radio during my formative years.

Back to last night. I was happily enjoying watching these virtuoso musicians play live and taking some snapshots on a small Canon point and shoot camera.

So imagine my surprise when one of the ushers came up to me and told me to stop. “There is a strict no cameras policy”, I was told.

I was shocked and somewhat taken aback. It is the first time this has happened to me, and I go to see bands all the time. What was more surprising was that many others were doing exactly the same thing, but using cell phones.

Now, it could have been an overzealous usher. But the incident highlighted for me how old rules of what you can and can’t do at live performances have not kept up with how cultural practices have changed, partly due to technology.

Nowadays, just about everyone has the means to take photos or video, thanks to the ubiquitous nature of mobiles.

But this is also about how people can now share this content online, through Flickr or Youtube. Bands should be encouraging their fans to produce and distribute their own content. This creates loyalty and community.

For a band, your fans are your strongest asset. Telling them they can’t take photos or shoot some shaky video is counter intuitive.

The music industry has found it hard to cope with the MP3 file-sharing phenomenon. Perhaps it is also struggling to understand user-generated content and social media.

The gig itself was hugely enjoyable old skool rock, with fireworks, flames and psychedelic visuals.

Filed under: internet, social media, technology, user-generated content , , , ,

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Alfred Hermida
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