Thursday 15 March 2012
Friday 3 February 2012
Case Study Preparation
Step One - Generating Topic Ideas for Individual Case Studies:
A study of the impact of new and digital media on;
1. Music promotion and the charts
2. TV broadcasting
3. Advertising
4. The media and democracy
5. The role of the distributor and exhibitor
6. The internet & social networking sites
7. The role of media institutions
My Ideas;
Ø Impact of New and Digital Media
Ø Traditional Media in Decline?
Ø The feel of ‘power’ online
Ø Interactive consumers
Ø Values and Ideologies on the impact of New and Digital Media
Ø New Technologies and the audience
Ø Audience power
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- Book/ Publication
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Hegemony - Antonio Gramsci was the founder of the theory Hegemony. He was a leading Marxist thinker. He believes that dominant groups in society maintain their dominance with the values and ideologies that they carry including the subordinate and working class people. It is said that consent is given by those in power. He brought out hegemony to highlight the predominance of people over others due to their social class e.g. Bourgeoisie and Proletariat
Telling the truth is always revolutionary" – The Life of Antonia Gramsci
"...Dominant groups in society, including fundamentally but not exclusively the ruling class, maintain their dominance by securing the 'spontaneous consent' of subordinate groups, including the working class, through the negotiated construction of a political and ideological consensus which incorporates both dominant and dominated groups." (Strinati, 1995: 165)
'Common sense is not something rigid and immobile, but is continually transforming itself' (Gramsci cited in Hall 1982: 73).
Marxism - Karl Marx looked at his beliefs in the development of human society which were outlined in the Communist Manifesto. Marxism believes the proletariat are the owners of the means of production, and the higher class people are the ones who are in control, compared to the bourgeoisie. Media Theorist believes that the owners of mass media are in control compared to a pluralist view of the media giving freedom of speech.
Karl Marx: From the Preface to "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy"
If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.
Marx, Letter to His Father (1837)
Marx, Letter to His Father (1837)
Marxists view capitalist society as being one of class domination; the media are seen as part of an ideological arena in which various class views are fought out, although within the context of the dominance of certain classes; ultimate control is increasingly concentrated in monopoly capital; media professionals, while enjoying the illusion of autonomy, are socialized into and internalize the norms of the dominant culture; the media taken as a whole, relay interpretive frameworks consonant with the interests of the dominant classes, and media audiences, while sometimes negotiating and contesting these frameworks, lack ready access to alternative meaning systems that would enable them to reject the definitions offered by the media in favour of consistently oppositional definitions. (ibid.)
Pluralism - According to a pluralist model, power is exercised by the mass of production rather than a small elite group. A core value of a pluralist is the tolerance towards different religions and cultures within society.
Pluralists see society as a complex of competing groups and interests, none of them predominant all of the time. Media organizations are seen as bounded organizational systems, enjoying an important degree of autonomy from the state, political parties and institutionalized pressure groups. Control of the media is said to be in the hands of an autonomous managerial elite who allow a considerable degree of flexibility to media professionals. A basic symmetry is seen to exist between media institutions and their audiences, since in McQuail's words the 'relationship is generally entered into voluntarily and on apparently equal terms'... and audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite variety of ways according to their prior needs and dispositions, and as having access to what Halloran calls 'the plural values of society' enabling them to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject'. (Gurevitch et al. 1982: 1)
Cultural Imperialism - Cultural Imperialism theory states that western nations dominate the media around the world, which then affect the third world countries. This is because these views and beliefs are carried into their countries through the media and destroys their culture and narrative. It is also believed that western countries are the main producers of media, and the less developed countries, purchase their media as it is cheaper to do so, rather than producing their own.
“The claim to a national culture in the past does not only rehabilitate that nation and serve as a justification for the hope of a future national culture. In the sphere of psycho-affective equilibrium it is responsible for an important change in the native. Perhaps we haven't sufficiently demonstrated that colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a people in its grip and emptying the native's brain of all form and content. By a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures, and destroys it. This work of devaluing pre-colonial history takes on a dialectical significance today.”
― Frantz Fanon, the Wretched of the Earth
― Frantz Fanon, the Wretched of the Earth
Globalisation - Globalisation within the Media has many different concepts. One of the concepts is The Global Village. This consists of people being antisocial by concentrating on the computer or the gaming console, but at the same time, you are in a social world on the internet which can be connected together. It also believes that the internet gives people power. The theorist who thought of the Global Village is Marshal McLuhan.
“Alone Together” – Sherry Turkle
Turkle – “We make our technologies, and they, in turn, shape us”
Turkle – “And as connections to the internet went mobile, we no longer “log on” from a desktop”
“We ask [of the computer] not just about where we stand in nature, but about where we stand in the world of artefact. We search for a link between who we are and what we have made, between whom we are and what we might create, between whom we are and what, through our intimacy with our own creations, we might become.”
― Sherry Turkle
― Sherry Turkle
Post Colonialism - Feminist discourse shares many similarities with post-colonial theory and for this reason the two fields have long been thought of as associative, even complimentary. Firstly, both discourses are predominantly political and concern themselves with the struggle against oppression and injustice. Moreover, both reject the established hierarchical, patriarchal system, which is dominated by the hegemonic white male, and vehemently deny the supposed supremacy of masculine power and authority. Imperialism, like patriarchy, is after all a phallocentric, supremacist ideology that subjugates and dominates its subjects. The oppressed woman is in this sense akin to the colonized subject. Essentially, exponents of post-colonialism are reacting against colonialism in the political and economic sense while feminist theorists are rejecting colonialism of a sexual nature.
“Everything, all those great things, had happened so far away--or so it seemed to [Mma Ramotswe] at the time. The world was made to sound as if it belonged to other people--to those who lived in distant countries that were so different from Botswana; that was before people had learned to assert that the world was theirs too, that what happened in Botswana was every bit as important, and valuable, as what happened anywhere else.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, the Double Comfort Safari Club
― Alexander McCall Smith, the Double Comfort Safari Club
Step Three – My Chosen Case Study
“New Technologies and the Audience”
Things I can talk about in my case study;
Ø Citizen journalism
Ø Social networking
Ø Convergence
Ø Consuming media
Ø Tradition media in decline
Ø The feel of power online
Ø Interactive consumers
Ø Audience power
Ø Colonialism
Why I chose this case study;
The reason I have chosen to look at this area of research to do on my case study is because I believe that this is a broad area in which I can talk about many things. This is different to many other case studies such as social networking. I believe this is just a specific area, whereas I have chosen new technologies in the audience, which will allow me to cover many of the other areas; such as decline in traditional media, social networking, interactivity and audience power. I believe that this is a strong case study to talk about as it is a very broad subject which will enable me to talk about many theorists, and how they link with the audience, and the impact of new and digital media.
1. Has new and digital media had an impact upon ownership and control of the media institution(s) involved in your case study area? Explain in detail any impact and what exactly has changed.
By looking at the way in which new and digital media has had an impact on the owners of the means of product and their power has been very big. This is due to the fact that many audiences have the power to control what and how they consume media. This can be due to the fact there is a wider range of ways in which the audience can be interactive. The case study area I have chosen to look at is New Technologies and the audience. This will link into the way in which new and digital media has an impact on the ownership and control of media institutions as this is due to new technology. The media institution I will be looking at is News Corporation. I believe that new and digital media has had a great impact upon the control and the ownership Rupert Murdoch has over News Corp. This is due to the fact that there has been a massive decline in Newspapers, and he is one of the main players in terms of the owners of big newspapers. The way in which this has had an impact on News Corp is that he has had to look how he can still be one of the main players in the mainstream media.
The way in which he has tried to do so, is that he has brought out many different online newspapers. One of which is The Daily, online only newspaper. This was a plea of Rupert Murdoch’s to ensure that he was still one of the main producers of news and media. This was one of the successful ways in which he has brought himself and adapted to the impact of New and Digital Media. However, he has attempted many ways to adapt to new and digital media, although not all have been successful. Rupert Murdoch in 2005 brought MySpace. This was one way he thought he would adapt to the impact of New and digital media, but little did he know it would not be successful. This buy caused him a great loss and impacted his career and the revenue of News Corp massively.
2. What impact has there been on the way in which the audience now consume the media products/ texts involved in your case study? How does it differ from what went before? Consider (SHEP)
Over the years there has been a massive change in the way audience consume media. This is due to many factors, the impact of new and digital media, convergence, globalisation and many other factors. Within my case study I have been looking at all the different ways in which new technologies have affected the audience. One of the way in which they have been affected is the way they consume media. This has changed as media is available in many different forms compared to how it was in the previous times, where there was only traditional media and fewer ways in which it could be consumed. New technologies have allowed this to change. The convergence of many new technologies has now allowed audiences to consume media in many different ways compared to what they could.
An example of this would be Smartphone’s. This is an example of convergence and audiences can use smart phones for normal daily use of a phone, but also consumer many different types of media outlets, these are things such as music, news apps, and the weather. This links back to my case study of new technologies and the audience, as it is due to the new technologies that audiences are now able to access media, more mobile, and consume it in many ways that were not possible before.
3. What impact has there been on how the media institution now has to produce the texts and the way in which the texts/ products are distributed and exhibited? This should involve a detailed textual analysis of at least 3 texts to demonstrate the point.
There has been a big impact on media institutions in the way in which they now have to produce media. This is because there has been a change in the way in which people consume media. This would then affect media institutions that products traditional media as it is currently in a decline. They would then have to look at the most popular ways in which media is consumed, and how it would be adapt them accordingly. One of the media institutions that have done this is again News Corp. This is because Rupert Murdoch has to look at how he would have to adapt the ways in which he would produce the media.
He has been successful in doing so in many ways. One of the ways in which he has done this successfully, is through is news apps which he has and the online newspapers. He has created an online newspaper for The Sun, which is called The Sun International. This was only brought out recently in replacement of The News of The World. This was brought out to keep figures for News Corp up and to allow people to read The Sun more mobile and through new technologies. Another way in which he has adapted to producing media due to the way, in which audiences consume media, is through Sky Go. This is an online interactive service where people can access their recorded programmes and live Sky TV from their smart phone or internet. This was a successful plea to present media in different ways as people can now access their programmes more mobile and with easier access from a Smartphone.
4. Is the size of the audience any different now than before the impact of new and digital media (or has the pattern of usage changed)? E.G. consider for the impact of new and digital media on TV broadcasting the change in audience ratings for programmes as a consequence of the deregulation of TV. (Prior to deregulation audience figures could be 20m+ for Eastenders etc to a situation today where, due to the massive number of channels now available, audiences are vastly reduced and fragmented)
I believe that due to the up rise in technology and the way in which people can access and consume media, has massively affect the size of the audience. This is due to people now having easier access to the media and how they can access it, is easier so people will be more likely to use this media. An example of this would be convergence. Majority of people in the UK, all have a smart phone. This affects the size of the audience which consume the media as it is more easily accessible. Previously, people were able to only access their media traditionally which was newspaper or TV. It then lead on to mobile music players, which consumers would have to carry cd and tapes. This in itself increased the size of the audience, it was then mp3 players came out which allowed more people to access their media. Through many of these stages it has now been people only need to carry one thing around. Which is a smart phone; Convergence has allowed music, news, phone features and TV all in one bit of technology which appeals more to the audience.
Contradicting this, it may have had a negative effect on the size of the audience. This may be due to the fact that people now have more option. In the mid 1900’s people did not have much choice of what they wanted to watch on TV or listen to on the radio. Whereas people only had access to channels 1-5 they now have hundreds of channels which subcategorize into many different genres of TV. The way in which this will affect the size of the audience is that people are no longer limited as to what they can watch so they may be more likely to watch something else. Eastenders on BBC1, their audience may have decreased over the years as the audience had fewer channels and less choice, so were more likely to watch Eastenders, where as now, they have a much wider choice of soaps and channels to watch from.
5. Who are the primary target audience now and has this changed? Who was it before and how do you know?
The text I have chosen to look at is Eastenders. This is a BBC1 programme which started to broadcast in the 1980’s.The primary text for this audience I believe was a C1, C2 audience demographic within the age range of 19-30. This was due to the programme being very set in its ways and the characters which were in the soap opera and the storylines which were being acted out where those which would appeal to that audience demographic. The way in which I believe this was done was through the use of mise en scene. This is due to the costume which was used and the way in which the characters would wear this, and carry themselves out. Another way in which they targeted their primary target audience was through the use of speech. When talking about speech, I am looking at the way in which they spoke and how they would portray their character. An example of this would be the character of “Dot”, the way in which she spoke was very well spoken and the grammar she used.
I believe that this has changed over the years and I believe that this due to new technologies and the audience. The reason I believe this is that there is more technology which enable BBC1 as an institution to improve their productions to increase sales and have a wider range of audiences. I believe that one of the ways in which this was done was through interactivity. Reason being, is that I believe through the up rise in technology now allows the audience to be more interactive. This has allowed the audience to be more interactive with what they watch and they now have more audience power. This I believe this allowed the audience to control what they see on TV. Eastenders then brought out new characters of new ages and which can relate to a younger audience.
I now believe the audience demographics for Eastenders have not changed but now has a wider appeal to a C2, D, E audience between the ages of 16-30. One of the ways in which they have done this is through the character of “Author/Fatboy”. He is one of the characters which now appeal to a younger audience, as again through the use of mise en scene. The costume which he wears is what to be known as “ghetto” clothing. He then speaks in a type of “slang” which is how young people now are seen to talk. Along with Fatboy, there are many new young characters which I believe is one of the ways in which it creates a wider appeal to the Eastenders soap opera.
6. How have the audience responded to the changes? Is there more customer choice? Is there evidence of a more pluralistic model? What evidence do you have to support this?
I believe that the audience has responded to these changes well. This is due to there now being a wider appeal and a new sense of genre to the soap opera with the use of new character, which have different characteristics as to what the “normal” Eastenders characters would have. This is because they have a younger audience which have different attitudes to life and act in different ways. I believe that dependent on the audience demographic, they would have a different reading to the changes and how they would react to the changes. I believe that a younger teen audience with the demographic of D, E between the ages of 16-20 would now have more of appeal to Eastenders as there are now younger characters which have storylines which would relate more to their lifestyle.
Due to this I believe they would have a positive reaction to the changes in the BBC1 soap opera Eastenders, as the show has been adapted to appeal to a wider audience, and these audience demographics are the target for these changes; this I believe would be the dominant reading.
This is compared to the alternative reading of the older audience which the demographics of C1, C2 in the age range of 20+. This is because Eastenders is a long running production line which has been broadcasting since the 1980’s. I think that this audience demographic would have a negative respond to the changes as they would be used seeing Eastenders the same they have seen over the years. They may have a negative response as they may not be used to seeing younger people which have brought a modern 21st century twist to Eastenders.
7. What concerns/ considerations are there (if any) for the media institutions involved in your case study as a result of the impact of new and digital media? (e.g. deskilling or multi-skilling of the workforce/ decline in workforce etc)
Within the mainstream media institutions, there have been many worries and concerns in regard to the changes in new technologies and the audience. This is due the fact that audience are no longer happy to consume traditional media and I believe that this is the result of the impact of new technologies. I believe this because as the world and society is now changed, technology around has changed in many ways, we are more global and connected with other countries, we as the audience have more power and media is now more interactive. These changes have concerned the mainstream media institutions as many of the “owners of the means of production” all carry Marxist, hegemonic views. They are generally white, middle aged, middle class men who carry dominant views and ideologies.
Due to the up rise in technology, this has worried the institutions as they will be losing control and power. I think this because due to new technology the audience can now be more interactive which gives them more power as to what they want to consume in the media. An example of this would citizen journalism. As we now have smart phones, as a result of convergence many of us carry a camera and video recorder in our pockets. With this change people are able to create their own media which in many cases has made the news. This concerns the institutions, as they are no longer the producers of media, but only the ones to show it. Although many news producers have gatekeepers which decide as to what is shown and what isn’t shown in the news. Is this the case now? Citizen journalists are the deciders of
what is news and as the audience so we.
what is news and as the audience so we.
8. What are the political and social implications of the new technologies and the methods of their consumption? E.g. moral panics etc?
Looking at new technologies and the audience, there has been many different implications which have come across in terms of political and social problems. This is due to the new technologies which have been introduced and now applied in the media production. This has been shown around the world, not just in the UK, an example of this would be the killing of Colonel Gadaffi in Libya. The way in which this implicated the media which was due to the new technologies and the audience is that there was a massive leak all over the news, which was mainly on e media forms of news of pictures and videos of Colonel Gadaffi being killed. This is due to the world being more global and being connected in more ways than which were ever possible. One of the main links is the internet. “Globalisation has been largely driven by the needs of the developed world." Grieco & Holmes. This created a lot of controversy within the UK and many other countries as the videos and pictures which were available on the internet were very explicit as they were taken by people which were abusing Gadaffi. This created a political and social implications as many people were not happy with seeing such vulgar pictures available so freely on the internet, however, within Libya. This almost brought a lot of people together. This is because all the people who were not in favour of Gadaffi would all contact each other by posting videos of Gadaffi being killed on YouTube which connected all these people together.
It is argued that if the rebels in Libya did not have the new technologies and the access to some of the other rebels, they would have not been able to contact each other and organise places which they would attack and how they would. On the other hand, it is said that regardless of the technology which was involved, if the rebels wanted to attack they would have done either way. But due to the rise in technology and the access they had to each other made it easier for them to rebel.
9. Consider the effects so far, and possible effects in the future, on media institutions involved in your case study (media production).
Looking at the effects that new technologies and the audience have had on media institutions so far have been both positive and negative. The way in which this has been positive is that many media institutions have been adapted the ways in which they produce media, to meet the demand of the audience and how they wish to consume media. This will be through convergence, and the mobility of the media, and also the different ways in which they can consume the media. These so far have been some of the positive affects which have affect media institutions. Some of the negative have been many media institutions for example News Corp, have had many pleas’ to try and adapt to new technologies. However, these have not all be successful. News Corp brought MySpace in a statement to represent them in meeting the demand of their audience. This was not successful as it caused News Corp a loss of millions.
So far these have been the effects of new technologies and the audience on the media institutions. These affects would have worsened over the years. The way in which this could happen as new technologies will constantly be coming out, this will then affect the media institutions and audiences will have more power and the media institutions will have to adapt the ways in which they are producing media and giving more options to the audience as to how they can consume the media. Traditional media such as print newspapers have been in decline. New technologies and the audience would have a negative effect on the newspapers as they would be more likely to increase the decline.
This would be the negative effects of how new technologies and the audience can affect media institutions. On the other hand, I believe that there will be a growth in tablets. This is due to many people now having access to one within their household. This will create the growth in them as they are an example of convergence. This is because people can access many differ types of media all through this one tablet. Due to the new technologies and the change in how the audience now wants to consume their media. This will also lead to the decline in PC’s and how many people will have a PC in the near future. This is because within the last 10 years, the main players in terms of media institutions have changed. This is through Traditional Media, as the News of The World had closed down, there is now The Sun on Sunday’s. Also in terms of social networking and E Media Institutions, 7 years ago YouTube did not exist and the main social networking site 5 years ago was MySpace, and it is now Facebook.
10. What issues may there be regarding media effects and /or regulation/ censorship as a result of changes due to new and digital media?
The way in which new technologies and the audience could affect the censorship of the media which is being shown to the audience is through the use of citizen journalism. This is because many people now have access to the internet. With new technologies many people are now the own creators of media. This has been able to happen through convergence. Majority of the people now have smart phones, with these they are able produce their own media. The way in which this will affect the censorship is that we are now in a global world, where many people from around the world now have access to the internet, which is the main place where people now share media and are now connected. Whereas before we would have censorship on TV, with what times shows would be on according to the target audience. This is not the case on the internet, as just with the click of a button anyone can agree to terms and conditions which say that they are 18. An example of this would be the killing of Colonel Gadaffi in Libya. These pictures and videos were available for many people to access.
This could affect the way in which people act as this could think to the effects theory of audiences copying what they see on TV. This would have a worse affect on the audience if there was no censorship or hardly any. This is due to the fact what people are now seeing within the media is available to almost everyone as compared when media was being shown which had an older target market would be after the watershed. Whereas e media, anyone can agree that they are 18 and watch whatever they wanted to. However it is argued that it would depend on the reading of the audience. From a Hypodermic Needle point of view, it would be said that the audience is passive and the ideologies and the values which are being put across in the media, the audience will passively take that in. This contradicts with what Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratification theory would suggest. They would say that the audience is more active audience. This suggest that audiences are consuming a media for a reason , and what they can do with the media, in comparison as to what the media can do to you.
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Is reality becoming more real? The rise and rise of UGC
Sara Mills explores the rise of the citizen journalist and considers the impact of user-generated content on news stories, the news agenda, and the role of the professionals.
Once, it was all quite simple…the 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.
Key to this change has been the development of new technologies such as video phones and the growth of the internet and user-dominated sites. Both who makes the news and what makes the news have been radically altered by this growth of media technologies and the rise of the ‘citizen journalist’.
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, and a focus for complaints about police racism towards African-Americans. Four officers were charged with assault and use of excessive force, but in 1992 they were acquitted of the charges. This acquittal, in the face of the video footage which clearly showed the beatings, sparked huge civil unrest. There were six days of riots, 53 people died, and around 4000 people were injured. The costs of the damage, looting and clear-up came in at up to a billion dollars. If George Holliday hadn’t been looking out of his apartment window and made a grab for his video camera at the time Rodney King was apprehended, none of this would have happened. King’s beating would be just another hidden incident with no consequences. The film footage can be still being viewed. Try looking on YouTube under ‘What started the LA riots.’ But be warned – it makes for very uncomfortable viewing, and even today, it is easy to see why this minute and half of blurry, poor-quality film had such a huge impact.
This was one of the first examples of the news being generated by ‘ordinary people,’ now commonly known as ‘citizen journalists’, ‘grassroots journalists’, or even ‘accidental journalists’. As technology improved over the years, incidents of this kind have become more and more common. Millions of people have constant access to filming capability through their mobiles, and footage can be uploaded and rapidly distributed on the internet. The power to make and break news has moved beyond the traditional news institutions.
It is not only in providing footage for the news that citizen journalists have come to the forefront. UGC now plays a huge role in many aspects of the media. Most news organisations include formats for participation: message boards, chat rooms, Q&A, polls, have your says, and blogs with comments enabled. Social media sites are also built around UGC as seen in the four biggest social networking sites: Bebo, MySpace, YouTube and Facebook. People also turn to UGC sites to access news: Wikipedia news, Google news and YouTube score highly in terms of where people go to get their news.
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. Tourists who would otherwise have been happily filming holiday moments were suddenly recording one of the worst natural disasters in recent times. In addition, in the days after the disaster, 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.
A second terrible event, 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.
The desire for everyone to tell their own story and have their own moment of fame may explain the huge popularity of Facebook, MySpace and other such sites. It also had a more negative outcome in the package of writings, photos and video footage that 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho, an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, mailed into NBC News. Between his first attack, when he shot two people, he sent the package from a local post office, before going on to kill a further 30 people. In his so-called ‘manifesto’ Cho showed his paranoia and obsession, likening himself to Jesus Christ. The reporting of the terrible events at Virginia Tech that day was also affected by citizen journalism, and the 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, an instinct almost as powerful as that to save their own or others’ lives. Perhaps the news now seems old-fashioned and somehow staged if it lacks the raw, grainy low-quality footage provided by citizen journalists.
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.
It was on Twitter again that 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.
The picture is still available on Twitpic, under ‘Janis Krun’s tweet.’ While national news organisations quickly swung into action, it was the citizen journalist, empowered by social networking sites, that first broke the story.
So who’s keeping the gate?
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.’
The way around the gatekeepers is with the independent media on the web. The blogosphere, for example, provides an opportunity for independent, often minority and niche views and news to reach a wide audience. In fact uniting disparate people in ‘micro-communities’ is one of the web’s greatest abilities. How else would all those ice fans communicate without the ‘Ice Chewers Bulletin Board?’ And the only place for those who like to see pictures of dogs in bee costumes is, of course, ‘Beedogs.com: the premier online repository for pictures of dogs in bee costumes.’
On a more serious note, the change in the landscape of the news means that groups who had little access to self-representation before, such as youth groups, low income groups, and various minority groups may, through citizen journalism, begin to find that they too have a voice.
What about the professionals?
Do journalists fear for their jobs now everyone is producing content? It is likely that in future there will be fewer and fewer permanent trained staff at news organisations, leaving a smaller core staff who will manage and process UGC from citizen journalists, sometimes known as ‘crowd sourcing.’ Some believe that the mediators and moderators might eventually disappear too, leaving a world where the media is, finally, unmediated. This does raise concerns however. Without moderation sites could be overrun by bigots or fools, by those who shout loudest, and those who have little else to do but make posts the risk of being dominated by defamatory or racist or other hate-fuelled content raises questions about unmoderated content: ‘free speech’ is great as long as you agree with what everybody is saying!
If there will be fewer jobs for trained journalists, will there also be less profit for the big institutions? This seems unlikely. Although how to ‘monetarise’ UGC – how to make money for both the generator and the host of the content – is still being debated, bigger institutions have been buying up social networking sites for the last few years. Rather than launch their own challenge, they simply buy the site. Flickr is now owned by Yahoo!, YouTube was bought by Google, Microsoft invested in Facebook, and News Corp., owned by Murdoch, bought MySpace.
There is a whole new world out there. With it comes new responsibility. There is enormous potential to expand our view of the world and our understanding of what is happening. Our collective knowledge, and wisdom, should grow. On the other hand, in twenty years time, the news could be overrun by pictures of people’s kittens and a few bigots shouting across message boards at each other.
Sara Mills teaches Media Studies at Helston Community College, Cornwall, and is an AQA examiner.
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 30, December 2009.
1. What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?
The term Citizen Journalism means the ordinary people that make their own news. The people that film their own footage and the footage are used by news producers when airing the news to the rest of the world. An example of this would be the Rodney King footage; the person who filmed the high speed chase where four officers beat Rodney King to death. This was given to the use of the news and was available for all people consuming the news.
2. What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?
One of the first examples of news being generated by ordinary people; was the filming of the Rodney King attack. This was filmed by a man overlooking the incident from his flat window where he recorded the whole thing. This was then aired on the news and shown to the rest of the world. The film showed Rodney King being attacked by four Los Angeles Police officers and showed him being beaten.
3. List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.
One of the formats for participation that are offered by new organisations, is that they offer people to film their own user generated content and are able to send it into news organisations and if the content is good enough, it may be shown on air.
4. What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?
One of the main differences between professionally shot footage and footage taken firsthand, is that footage which is shot firsthand by ordinary people, this would not be biased. Compared to the footage which is filmed by professionals, it would be edited to show the sections which would follow their ideologies and beliefs, whereas firsthand shot will be what actually happened.
5. What is a gatekeeper?
A Gatekeeper is the person within news organisations which decide what news should be aired and what shouldn’t. They decide the difference between hard and soft news.
6. How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?
The role of a gatekeeper has changed slightly due to the rise in UGC, this means more people would shoot their own footage of the news events and will send it in if they want it to be aired. The role of the gatekeeper has changed in terms of looking at more UGC to see what should be aired, but has stayed the same with regard to them making the final decision as to what is shown. An example of this would be people sending in news of kittens, which wasn’t shown as the gatekeeper decided it wasn’t hard news.
7. What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?
One of the main concerns which are held by professional journalists is that they believe that their jobs are becoming less secure. This is due to the rise in UGC and citizen journalists, who are shooting footage which is shown on the news. Journalists believe that their jobs are slowly going to be wiped out and in the near future less journalists will be needed within news organisations.
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