The user-generated content phenomenon

Response to Stephen Quinn and Deirdre Quinn-Allan’s ‘User-generated content and the changing news cycle’ – WEEK 3

This article prompted a lot of thought. It seems UGC can create problems for the media industry – on the one hand news outlets stand to gain from UGC because it gives them a number of views and reactions to news as well as some scoops from citizen journalists.

On the other hand it can present ethical issues for journalists, because it means they have to make a decision of whether using UGC is worth the time they have to spend time checking facts on stories that may turn out to be fake or legally problematic. Also, it takes them away from their own stories.

I think that while it is important to recognise the value of UGC and how it can provide greater coverage of news events, its value is something that needs to be assessed on a case by case basis, as it won’t always be accurate or suitable for use in the mass media.

YouTube has a range of videos about user-generated content, including this one called ‘Future Talks: user generated content’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eef4Fgrb5c4.

Read this article from Entrepreneur.com called ‘The rise of user generated content’: http://www.entrepreneur.com/technology/managingtechnology/web20columnistfrankbell/article183432.html

A short video with the YouTube CEO on the power of user-generated content can be accessed by clicking here: user-generated-content1

(Video originally from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcAwrLw92rw)