User generated content and journalism: Friends or foes?

By Sam Park

Several positive and negative aspects to emerged from the rise of user generated content, some of them pose a threat to traditional professional journalism, where others open doors to a new and unlimited dimension of journalism.

One of the main threats to journalists is the recent increase in the use of blogs and social networking sites, and the emergence affordable quality camera/recording equipment. These developments allow anyone to become a "journalist" and could potentially lead to the decay of professional journalism. ]

An example of how anyone can make a successful media career from nothing is Perez Hilton. His real identity is Mario Armando Lavandeira, an American man who began blogging on Hollywood because he thought it would be easy, and has gone on to have massive success. Although this is an example of celebrity based journalism it still shows that anyone can make an impact in the media world.

The rise of user generated content has not only put the individual journalist under threat, it has also made media executives feel that, if they cannot control the media's content, they lose a substantial part of their power. A report published by Accenture highlighted this; Gavin Mann digital lead for Accenture’s Media &Entertainment said: “ This is just the beginning of a rapidly changing landscape where the media content environment grows more fractious and the user gains more control and power.”

One of the positive aspects of this form of media is the uncensored, unmediated potential that it provides journalists with and the unlimited points of view, angles and sources in order to create the best story possible. A good recent example is the crisis in Burma, where the military dictatorship censored the events by banning most foreign media and playing down the numbers of casualties and deaths. To counter this the people of Burma with access to the internet created blogs to report the truth, especially in terms of facts and figures regarding casualties and deaths.

Another good side is that anyone can get there own point of view across in order to defend themselves or publish real-life problems. It stops news production from being an oligopoly and so provides a wider contextual base for the bias of stories and can help to break up the narrow ideological production values perpetuated by the mainstream media. Examples of this are quick and easy blogs and websites set up by minority and marginalised groups allowing them to put their point of view across to the entire world. The black fist blog, for instance, seeks to shatter the illusions of the mainstream American media

In conclusion there seems to be an even distribution of positive and negative aspects in the new world of user generated content, although I feel that the a modern journalist must learn to adapt to counter the negative aspects by keeping their professionalism higher than amateur efforts and by using good judgement to assess the quality and reliabilty of independent online sources.

If this can be achieved, the world of journalism is set to change with more people from all over the world having more of say and a better chance of representation in the mainstream media.