Related Papers
Beyond user-generated content: a production study examining the ways in which audience material is used at the BBC
2009 •
Claire Wardle
Williams, A., Wardle, C., and Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2011). “Have they got news for us?” Audience revolution or business as usual at the BBC? Journalism Practice 5(1), 85-99.
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
The BBC elicits and uses a number of different types of audience material, but the corporation has most wholeheartedly embraced what we call Audience Content (eyewitness footage or photos, accounts of experiences, and story tip-offs). Indeed, when the term user-generated content (UGC) is used by BBC news journalists it usually denotes only this kind of material. Audience material is often described by commentators and practitioners as having revolutionised journalism by disrupting the traditional relationships between producers and consumers of the news. In the main journalists and editors see material from the audience as just another news source, a formulation which is perpetuated by the institutional frameworks set up to elicit and process audience material as well as the content of the corporation’s UGC training. Our data suggest that, with the exception of some marginal collaborative projects, rather than changing the way most news journalists at the BBC work, audience material is firmly embedded within the long-standing routines of traditional journalism practice.
Journalism Practice
Have they got news for us?
2011 •
Jeannie Kirsch
International Communication Gazette, 75(1)
Studying journalists in changing times: understanding news work as socially-situated practice
2013 •
Julian Matthews
Industry insiders and media academics often voice unease about the transformations taking place in the global news industry. Despite its usefulness in drawing attention to the twists and turns of organizational change and innovation in news production, much of the research on this topic shows less interest in journalists’ situated experience than is helpful. This article suggests that academic attention might be usefully refocused to the changing nature and experiences of journalists as they encounter the changes taking place in their industry. Such a focus can be justified on theoretical grounds: the implications of change in the news industry for its traditional democratic role cannot be understood without understanding in detail what journalists do and how they do it.While acknowledging that news production takes place in the context of competitive commercial enterprise, the authors argue that fruitful avenues for empirical enquiry can be opened up by adopting a more practice-centred analysis. The article concludes by introducing recent research that joins this pursuit.
Media, Culture & Society
Open Source and Journalism: Toward new frameworks for imagining news innovation
2013 •
Seth C Lewis
Journalists and technologists increasingly are organizing and collaborating, both formally and informally, across major news organizations and via grassroots networks on an international scale. This intersection of so-called ‘hacks and hackers’ carries with it a shared interest in finding technological solutions for news, particularly through open-source software programming. This article critically evaluates the phenomenon of open source in journalism, offering a theoretical intervention for understanding this phenomenon and its potential implications for newswork. Building on the literature from computer science and journalism, we explore the concept of open source as both a structural framework of distributed development and a cultural framework of pro-social hacker ethics. We identify four values of open-source culture that connect with and depart from journalism—transparency, tinkering, iteration, and participation—and assess their opportunities for rethinking journalism innovation.
Journalism Studies
Who's Reporting the Protests? Converging practices of citizen journalists and two BBC World Service newsrooms, from Iran’s election protests to the Arab uprisings
2013 •
Max Hänska
The 2009 protests in Iran and the 2011 Arab uprisings took place in complex and fast evolving media ecologies. The BBC's Persian and Arabic language services, which reach millions, drew heavily on content created by ordinary citizens to cover events. This paper traces the flow of this content through the news process to examine how collaboration between newsrooms and citizen journalists changed from 2009 to 2011. The article argues that participation in the news process hinges on the congruence between newsroom practices, and the practices of those producing content on the streets. Such congruence requires mutual knowledge of broadcasting requirements. It finds that by 2011 journalists felt more comfortable and effective integrating user-generated content (UGC) into their news output. Importantly, UGC creators appear to have taken on board the broadcaster's editorial requirements, making them savvier content creators.
Recherches en Communication
Journalism and participatory practices – Blurring or reinforcement of boundaries between journalism and audiences?
2013 •
Wiebke Loosen
Screening Protest
How the ubiquity of eyewitness media changes the mediation and visibility of protests in the news
2018 •
Mike Bode
Digital Journalism
The Multifaceted Role of User-Generated Content in News Websites
Idit Manosevitch
A large body of research has explored the employment of user-generated content (UGC) in journalism websites. While rich and informative, accumulated research offers discrete insights into an array of research questions but lacks a comprehensive account of the larger picture that emerges. With this in mind, we propose an analytical framework for evaluating UGC’s roles in professional news websites. Based on a synthesis of accumulated research, we differentiate between the realm of journalism as a business and a practice; and the realm of democracy, wherein news media may play a role as a public sphere and a means of political empowerment. By offering a comprehensive examination of key findings and themes arising from UGC research, the article seeks to advance our understanding of the evolving news media landscape. It concludes with directions for further research.
The Sociology of Professions, Boundary Work, and Participation in Journalism: A Review of the Literature
Seth C Lewis
Much has been written about journalism’s crisis of authority in an age of do-it-yourself media. Yet, questions remain about how best to conceptualize the tension between professional control and open participation, in order to research it appropriately. This review of the literature draws on the sociology of professions, with its emphasis on boundary work, as a theoretical lens for understanding this phenomenon. This essay explains how professions—including journalism—articulate themselves and their purpose, forge boundaries of jurisdictional authority, and guard against external change they perceive will threaten their autonomy. In elaborating journalism as a profession, a field, and an ideology, this article shows how its professional logic of control comes in conflict with digital and participatory cultures. Ultimately, this paper describes how the profession of journalism has negotiated audience participation in the digital age, and discusses these outcomes in light of emerging trends of innovation in journalism and future opportunities for empirical research.
