Rise of UGC.

Examples-

• ·         The cause of the LA riots was caused because of an ordinary person using UGC.

• ·         The natural disaster of the Asian Tsunami on December 26^th 2004, much of the early footage of events was provided by citizen journalists providing on the spot witness accounts as they unfolded.

• ·         The London bombings on July 7^th 2005 provided another opportunity for citizen journalists to influence the mainstream news agenda by showing their footage of the bombings on their mobile phones.

• ·         An undergraduate student from Virginia Tech killed up to 30 people and it was recorded by another student as he was laying on the ground near the shooting.

• ·         Mumbai bombings November 2008, people were updated via Twitter.

• ·         Hudson River plane crash January 15^th 2009, somebody posted a picture on Twitter of this which first broke the story.

Benefits to institutions-

• ·         It is easier to get a hold of a story if it is popular rather than finding one themselves.
• ·         They know what news the audience are interested in.
• ·         They do not need to hire many workers to investigate stories.
• ·         Crowd sourcing

Benefits to audiences-

• ·         Audience gets more credit
• ·         They create their own content
• ·         Their opinions are heard about through social media.

Wider issues and debates-

• ·         Without moderation sites can be overrun by bigots.
• ·         Opinions could be dominated which isn’t good for society (e.g. racism)
• ·         There would be fewer jobs and trained journalists
• ·         Less profit for bigger institutions

SHEP-

Social- Social rise in UGC, society opinions could be voiced through social media.

Historical- In the past the way people got their news was from professional journalists doing their jobs looking for news stories which were then broadcasted on TV or printed on newspaper.

Economical- Money is being made from websites such as YouTube and Twitter as people post up user generated content. However online viewing is free.

Political- The government would want institutions such as the BBC to be broadcasting and getting the most views as they are a neutral company, rather than nobody watching the news and looking up news on UGC sites such as Twitter.

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

News stories-

 The audience can now express their views on news stories through social networking sites. Due to news being easier to access on apps and websites through smartphones the audience can put a twist to news stories and add their own opinions which could be flourished within society.

The news agenda-

The choice of stories that make up the news could be put together by what the most popular stories may be currently, usually shown through trends and popular topics on social media such as Twitter or Facebook. Therefore new/digital media has a big impact on the news agenda as more people would probably want to watch the news to find out more about topics they want to know about.

The role of professionals in news-

Professionals in news are most likely becoming less watched as the audience nowadays tend to put their own views on news stories which they may present on YouTube or just general video footage on Twitter or Facebook which could be shared further making it popular. Therefore news professionals are sort of becoming less important in a way as the news is becoming less mediated.