Citizen journalism

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?

The concept of citizen journalism is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the 

process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information." 

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?

The recordings of the beating of Rodney King by four police officers was one of the early and most recognised examples of news being generated by 'ordinary people' it had been recorded, sent it by an everyday average man and was spreading across the internet and through newspapers, the policemen were then taken to court but were acquitted which then led to several days of riots within LA (I think). All because of that one moment where a man looked out his apartment window and decided to record the events of a beating became a huge news story.

3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.

Comments sections
Forums
Allowing videos and photos to be sent in
Twitter to message or send info one to one with a journalist

4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?

Professionally shot footage is taken at/recorded in high quality, has been edited and altered if needed, isn't shaky and usually has a journalist on site explaining a certain incident along with a set of lights to give a clear view of the journalist and the event unfolding behind them. While first-hand UGC is usually shaky, recorded on a low quality camera phone being slightly pixelated and hasn't been edited. The lighting would also be slightly off and there would be no professional on-screen/ on-site journalist

5) What is a gatekeeper?

A gatekeeper is someone who has control over saying what is news and what isn't, they have control over what is going to be shown to the public and portrayed as news an example of a gatekeeper would be a newspaper editor.

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?

The role of the gatekeeper has changed because they now have less control over what is news and what isn't news, the public are now more in control especially with UGC as it could make a video go viral and have everyone talking about it, therefore a UGC became news through word of mouth and not the gatekeepers

7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

One issue that has risen from the rise of UGC is that journalists feel slightly threatened as their jobs are being taken over by members of the public, audiences are more likely to believe a raw footage than to believe a journalist who is on-site of an incident an hour after it had happened.

Finally, consider the following questions:

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

• news stories
• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)
• the role of professionals in news

News stories have now changed, new and digital media has risen and millions have camera phones nowadays which therefore allows accidental citizen journalism to occur and a wider variety of stories to be captured on camera.

The news agenda has changed because of the variety created from the camera phones. UGC could also go viral and therefore have the public interest which may cause the news agenda to add in a certain story because of

Journalists feel slightly threatened as their jobs are being taken over by members of the public, audiences are more likely to believe a raw footage than to believe a journalist who is on-site of an incident an hour after it had happened. Professional content is losing its value and audience.

Citizen journalism: Is reality becoming more real? The rise and rise of UGC

examples
We first felt the effects of the new technologies way back in 1991. Video cameras had become more common and more people could afford them…unfortunately for four Los Angeles police officers! Having caught Rodney King, an African-American, after a high speed chase, the officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him with clubs. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window. The home-video footage made prime-time news and became an international media sensation. This video sparked six days of riots, 53 died, 4000 injured.
The natural disaster of the Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was another turning point for UGC. Much of the early footage of events was provided from citizen journalists, or ‘accidental journalists,’ providing on-the-spot witness accounts of events as they unfolded. Social networking sites provided witness accounts for a world-wide audience, helped survivors and family members get in touch and acted as a forum all those involved to share their experiences.


The London bombings on July 5th 2005, provided another opportunity for citizen journalists to influence the mainstream news agenda. No one was closer to events than those caught up in the bombings, and the footage they provided 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. An audience used to relatively unmediated reality through the prevalence of reality TV can now see similarly unmediated footage on the news.


Footage that student Jamal Albarghouti shot on his mobile phone video camera. Rather than concentrate on saving his own life, he recorded events from his position lying on the ground near the firing. The footage, available on YouTube and CNN brought events home to a worldwide audience. We now expect passers by, witnesses, or even victims, to whip out their camera phones and record events

Twitter and flickr came to the forefront during the Mumbai bombings in India in late November 2008. As bombs exploded across the city, the world’s media got up-to date with events through reports on Twitter and Flickr. There were questions raised, however, that by broadcasting their tweets, people may have been putting their own and others’ lives at risk.

The story of the Hudson River plane crash on January 15th 2009 was broken to the world. With a dramatic picture of a plane half sinking in the river, and passengers crowded on the wing awaiting rescue Janis Krun tweeted:

There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.

theory (audience reception etc.) 
Audience reception - Institutions created news and broadcast it to passive and receptive audiences. Now new tech means that the audience are no longer passive receivers of news.

Uses and gratifications - Entertainment, informed etc.


benefits to institutions 
UGC is cheaper and therefore could save institutions money, they can make staff redundant
They are able to have a USP if they are given video footage or a photo that is exclusive

benefits to audience 
We receive wider raw news (more real)
More hidden offences are able to be caught (e.g. the police beating of Rodney King)

wider issues and debates 
big institutions created the news and broadcast it to a variously passive and receptive audience. Now new technologies mean that the audience are no longer passive receivers of news. The audience have become ‘users’ and the users have become publishers. Audiences now create their own content. We are in the era of user generated content (UGC) where the old divide between institution and audience is being eroded.


Are the gatekeepers still fulfilling their old function of deciding what is and isn’t news, and what will and won’t be broadcast? In some ways, yes. You can send in as much UGC to the major news organisations as you want, with no guarantee that any of it will ever be aired. In fact, last year a BBC spokesperson reported that a large proportion of photos sent in to the news unit were of kittens. While this may represent the interest of the audience, or users, it still doesn't turn the fact that your kitten is really cute into ‘news.’ 


SHEP
Social - 
Historical -
Economical - 
Political - We as citizen journalist have some political say or right with video footage we capture

NDM article 14: @Future of Journalism: Hans Rosling on the case for data

The article states that Hans Rosling believes that we need to make news more interesting and we need to bring data alive to the world and allow everyone to easily understand and enjoy it. He states that well made videos are some of the ways of making data come more alive and become more appealing to audiences instead of just having one person talking and staring blankly into a single static camera, the BBC do well with animation but it's all for branding and not enough for making data come alive. He believes that this is where newspapers and their websites are failing.

NDM article 13: Flappy Bird creator removes game from app stores

Flappy bird the new popular iphone game has been taken down from the app store yesterday. The creator of the popular game states that the only reason to why the game had been taken. However, it is suggested that the game creator had actually taken down the game due to potential copyright infringment as the pipes used in the game as well as background look similar to those of Nintendo's famous Mario franchise. Flappy Bird has been downloaded more than 50 million times, making it this year's most popular mobile game so far. I believe that it is to do with legal issues as he does repeat it quite a few times on twitter and most people related the game to Mario when it was first released 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26114364

Murdoch's Paywall

1) Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online?

I disagree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online. The BBC isn't the only way people can receive news, if they don't receive it from the BBC then they'll just go else where, they could potentially get news from non-newspaper sites such as twitter or Facebook or Yahoo! News or they could receive professional journalist reviews and news from sites such as The Guardian. Also the BBC was created for the public, to serve the public and their remit. They'll be unable to properly fulfil their services and their remit if they are behind a paywall. 


2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a pay-wall?

I believe that Rupert Murdoch had every right to put his news content online behind a pay-wall, he had a USP of the up-to-date seconds of goals, he has over 140,000 paying digital subscribers who are willing to pay for this service, it's not necessary but some hardcore fans are willing to pay for it, it would make up for any loss in profits that NewsCorp may have made due to the decline in newspaper circulation and sales as well as advertising revenue. If readers wish to receive free news then there are plenty of other sites that they could potentially use.

Newspapers in decline: Telegraph group takes a great leap into the digital unknown

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/26/daily-telegraph-tony-gallagher-digital-unknown

The article is about the departure of the Daily Telegraph's Editor Tony Gallagher. He was fired even though he made profits for the business, it was a shocking decision made by the Telegraph Media Group as they attempt to move on to the next phase of its digital transformation.

Has the Telegraph made a good or bad decision in sacking editor Tony Gallagher? 

I believe that the Telegraph made a bad decision in sacking its editor Tony Gallagher, he has been with the business since 2006 and has made profits for the business and improved its popularity as well as provided huge stories such as MP's salaries and pay. If he was willing to go into the digital unknown then it's possible that his skill set and experience would have helped greatly.

New and digital media article 12: Sky's internet service mistakenly blocks web-critical plugin

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/28/sky-broadband-blocks-jquery-web-critical-plugin

This story is about how Sky had accidentally blocked a plugin that helps the operations of thousands of websites. The plugin and access to the code.jquery.com website was blocked by Sky's content filter, it was listed as being "malware and phishining." The site hosts code for jQuery, which is used by over three-quaters of the top ten-thousand websites to ease the burden of creating responsive websites. Which means that sites such as google and the guardian weren't able to deliver a quick instant response which most users expected. The code required to enable those instant responses is usually hosted on one of three "content delivery networks", run by Google, Microsoft and jQuery itself. The Guardian believes that the best explanation for this mistake is that an actual malware site was using the code hosted on jQuery and was found by Skys filters and therefore incorrectly categorised the plugin.

I believe that the Guardian are potentially correct in stating that it's possible that an actual malware site caused the incorrect categorisation of the plugin. This could have potentially damaged sky's brand image as they would have upset a lot of customers and received a lot of complaints and had left customers feeling frustrated.

New and digital Media article 11: Web advertising: still a small net in a very large pond

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/02/web-advertising-small-net-large-pond

The article talks about how the internet and web advertising is growing as well as the revenues it produces but isn't yet big enough compared to other advertising streams such as TV, Radio and Newspapers. 

I believe that in its current position that internet advertising will dominate global revenue eventually, currently it is quite cheap but most likely will increase in prices once it dominates advertising as a whole



Info from the article
Internet ad revenues are growing fast. But, even now, they make up only 4.5% of the global whole

 Revenues via the internet are up 32.4%, up 4.3% via TV and 5.1% on posters. But they're down 2.2% fornewspapers and 1.1% on magazines (with radio and cinema also in negative territory).

Step back, though, and look at the whole cake, neatly sliced. TV, at 57.6%, is the king of the jungle. But if you add newspapers and magazines together, they're a fat 28.7% against the net's 4.5% (which is outgunned by radio, too, and scarcely better than billboards).

What audience pleasures or gratifications does online news content offer?

Within online news audiences can feel a sense of entertainment through the fact that they could potentially find news they want from the newspaper on the online site instead and they may not need to pay for this content e.g. the guardian newspaper, Daily Mail etc. Online also provides easy access to all audiences as they can read the news whenever they want, wherever they want through their phones, tablets, eBook readers and apps such as the BBC News app or The Guardians app. Audiences also can view comments online below the article itself and can post their own comments, they feel a sense of being informed and socialisation as well as acceptance and identification with others as they are discussing with other readers and sharing their own opinions which they may agree with or disagree with. Audiences feel more informed or better informed from online news as it is able to be updated whenever something happens related to the story or could be removed if seen as inappropriate e.g. when a journalist on the Guardian (I think) mocked the Olympic opening ceremony and the NHS as well as being a bit racist. This therefore allows audiences and readers/viewers to receive up to date news about global events. The internet also can on some sites be localised to certain areas or audiences could search up national or international news. The news being online does as already stated allow socialisation and interaction with audiences but also allows a greater chance of citizen journalism to be discovered, many readers of a certain paper may have recorded something or photographed something that the newspaper companies did not see and the viewers then decide to send that photo or video to a certain paper such as the telegraph or the guardian or send it directly to a journalist over the internet through social networking sites such as facebook or twitter (mainly through twitter as facebook is usually a page and not always a direct message to the journalist). This also leads me onto another point; the internet also provides visual pleasure of video. Newspaper can only print photos while online newspapers can have both a video and photo.