1) Read Media Magazine archive: MM30 page 55.
2) NOTES FROM MEDIA MAGAZINE 30:
- The case of Rodney King, who was a victim of police brutality. The event was filmed by an onlooker from their apartment window and made it to prime-time news, and led to the charges of four police officers.
- The natural disaster of the Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 is another example. Much of the early footage of events was provided from citizen journalists. Tourists who would otherwise have been happily filming holiday moments were suddenly providing on-the-spot witness accounts of events as they unfolded.
- The London bombings, the people who were caught up in this attack provided the majority of footage from this event. The footage provided by those caught up in the bombings from their mobile phones was raw and uncompromising. This first-hand view, rather than professionally shot footage from behind police lines, is often more hard-hitting and emotive.
- The Hudson river plane crash made it into the news due to a Twitter of the plane crash. A dramatic picture of a plane half sinking in the river, and passengers crowded on the wing awaiting rescue was posted by Janis Krun, with the tweet saying: "There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy." It was the citizen journalists, empowered by social networking sites, that first broke the story, not international news organizations.
- Seung-Hui Cho Attack- 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho mailed videos into NBC news of his shooting. In his 'manifesto, ' Cho showed his paranoia and obsession, likening himself to Jesus Christ. The reporting of the terrible events at Virginia Tech that day was also affected by citizen journalists and the footage that student Jamal Albergotti shot on his mobile phone.
THEORIES:
- Uses and Gratifications theory - Personal identification
- Surveillance (Uses and Gratifications - Katz and Blumler) - in terms of obtaining information useful for living, we now rely on other people as well as institutions.
- Gatekeepers are there to stop misleading the public in the news - and prevent invalid stories that haven't been fact-checked. Blogosphere provides an opportunity for independent, often minority and niche views and news to reach a wide audience.
- Footage of events that their professionals may not have been able to obtain can be gained for free through social media
- Canalso engage with the audience more easily
- They now become the producers of content, also makes the news more interesting as there is first-hand footage which is appealing to the audience.
- Access to news on a wider scale, it is now available through social media sites
- 'Monitoring' UGC content
- Influx of unmoderated content
- User privacy would be a huge issue and debate
- Dumbing down society due to content that anyone can make anywhere anytime
- Potential job losses in the future for trained staff
- The existence of gatekeepers
-SOCIAL: UCG allows audiences to voice their own opinions and not have their freedom of speech taken away through the blogosphere. An issue, however, is that whether a news story from a citizen journalist is accurate or valid is never sure - and needs to be fact-checked first. This also means the quality of news will go down as a result.
- HISTORY: As early as 1991 with the recording of the Rodney King beating, UGC has been becoming more prominent
-ECONOMICAL: In terms of big institutions, there are some issues because journalists and institutions are affected by citizen journalism - as people are more willing to focus on citizen journalism.
-POLITICAL: News is less biased, raw footage of the action usually shows all perspectives but this could be challenged
3) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?A citizen journalist is someone who plays an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. This can be done through footage collected by a citizen journalist and the distribution of it on social media.
4) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
One of the first examples of news being generated by 'ordinary people' is the case of Rodney King, who was a victim of police brutality. The event was filmed by an onlooker from their apartment window and made it to prime-time news, and led to the charges of four police officers.
5) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
User generated content footage tends to be more realistic and uncompromising. First-hand is often more emotive as it is a lot more closer to the scene compared to professionally shot footage which are almost always behind police lines due to regulations. Professionally shot footage a lot more mediated and first hand UGC content is unmediated which audiences can experience a lot easier through news makes audiences relate to the the stories a lot more.
7) What is a gatekeeper?
A gatekeeper is someone who processes information so it can filtered for the mass audience, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication.
8) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
The role of the gatekeeper has changed due to the audience's becoming producers of the news, leading to a smaller amount of gatekeepers to process UGC. Additionally, bigger institutions have been buying up social networking sites for the last few years, meaning they can have access to UGC content more easily, making the use of gatekeepers almost irrelevant.
9) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
One of the primary concerns held by journalists is that the need for trained staff at news organisations is decreasing. The idea of crowd sourcing is becoming more prominent where a small amount of staff 'gatekeep' content from citizen journalists which reduces the need for having large number of actual trained journalists.
What impact is new/digital media having on:
- news stories
New and digital media is having an impact on news stories due to the engagement between audiences and the news industry. The audience have a role in producing stories i.e. citizen journalism, for example viral tweets that have the potential to be breaking news has led to the increase of journalists who are now on social media to find stories such as these. Furthermore, with the shift to news online, audiences can share and comment on stories.
- the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)
- the role of professionals in news
The roles of professionals in the news is decreasing due to the reliance on the audience producing the news. Majority of the footage in the news is citizen based.
No comments:
Post a Comment