Media Execs Weigh User-Generated News
By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer2 hours, 1 minute ago
The avalanche of high quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division said Wednesday.
Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, told a conference the broadcaster's prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster to a facilitator of news.
"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."
Sambrook likened the increasing use of user-generated news material to a sports game in which the crowd was not only invading the field but also seeking to participate in the game, fundamentally changing the sport.
Sambrook was speaking on a panel with other media professionals at a conference on "citizen journalism" organized by The Media Center, a media think tank based in Reston, Va., and hosted by The Associated Press at its headquarters building in New York.
Larry Kramer, the head of digital operations at Viacom Inc.'s CBS unit, said CBS was eager for more feedback from listeners via its newly expanded online presence, but he said the company would keep a "filter" on such contributions rather than allow open posting by users.
The goal was to "treat news more like a loop," Kramer said. "Stories don't end when we post them. ... People respond. We wanted to create a vehicle through which people could respond."
Tom Curley, the president of the AP, noted that the news cooperative has used material such as photos contributed by users for many years, pointing out recent examples including video from the tsunami in Asia and photos from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"This is something we do every day," Curley said. However, the emerging area of citizen-generated news was still in the "first inning," Curley said. "There are lots of opportunities — The audience is growing."
Another member of the opening panel, Farai Chideya, a correspondent for National Public Radio Inc. in Los Angeles and founder of blog called PopandPolitics.com, expressed concern that many big stories may be affecting people who don't have broadband access to the Internet, resulting in a risk that they could be excluded from citizen-generated news.
Chideya said it "breaks my heart" that many poor people and people of color may not be able to participate in the online generation and dissemination of news. The big question, she said, was how to get people "in the caboose of the digital train" involved.
Chideya suggested a "middle ground" where journalists can collaborate with non-journalists, such as distributing tape recorders to people in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina to collect sound, which could then be culled and edited by NPR journalists.
In a keynote speech, former presidential candidate Al Gore, who now runs a cable TV channel that uses user-generated material, railed against the state of television, saying that the growing entertainment focus of newscasts was undermining the country's political dialogue.
"The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy," Gore said. "I'm trying to work in the medium of television to have a multiway conversation."
Yet even as media outlets seek more input from users, participants on a later panel said those organizations can encounter difficulties when covering their own affairs.
Jessica Coen, editor of the popular media gossip and commentary site Gawker, said CBS News' online user forum Public Eye was falling far short of expectations. Any time a large media outlet tries to launch a blog, she said, "they have to bite their tongues all the time."
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On the Net:
http://www.mediacenter.org/wemedia05/
The avalanche of high quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division said Wednesday.
Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, told a conference the broadcaster's prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster to a facilitator of news.
"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."
Sambrook likened the increasing use of user-generated news material to a sports game in which the crowd was not only invading the field but also seeking to participate in the game, fundamentally changing the sport.
Sambrook was speaking on a panel with other media professionals at a conference on "citizen journalism" organized by The Media Center, a media think tank based in Reston, Va., and hosted by The Associated Press at its headquarters building in New York.
Larry Kramer, the head of digital operations at Viacom Inc.'s CBS unit, said CBS was eager for more feedback from listeners via its newly expanded online presence, but he said the company would keep a "filter" on such contributions rather than allow open posting by users.
The goal was to "treat news more like a loop," Kramer said. "Stories don't end when we post them. ... People respond. We wanted to create a vehicle through which people could respond."
Tom Curley, the president of the AP, noted that the news cooperative has used material such as photos contributed by users for many years, pointing out recent examples including video from the tsunami in Asia and photos from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"This is something we do every day," Curley said. However, the emerging area of citizen-generated news was still in the "first inning," Curley said. "There are lots of opportunities — The audience is growing."
Another member of the opening panel, Farai Chideya, a correspondent for National Public Radio Inc. in Los Angeles and founder of blog called PopandPolitics.com, expressed concern that many big stories may be affecting people who don't have broadband access to the Internet, resulting in a risk that they could be excluded from citizen-generated news.
Chideya said it "breaks my heart" that many poor people and people of color may not be able to participate in the online generation and dissemination of news. The big question, she said, was how to get people "in the caboose of the digital train" involved.
Chideya suggested a "middle ground" where journalists can collaborate with non-journalists, such as distributing tape recorders to people in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina to collect sound, which could then be culled and edited by NPR journalists.
In a keynote speech, former presidential candidate Al Gore, who now runs a cable TV channel that uses user-generated material, railed against the state of television, saying that the growing entertainment focus of newscasts was undermining the country's political dialogue.
"The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy," Gore said. "I'm trying to work in the medium of television to have a multiway conversation."
Yet even as media outlets seek more input from users, participants on a later panel said those organizations can encounter difficulties when covering their own affairs.
Jessica Coen, editor of the popular media gossip and commentary site Gawker, said CBS News' online user forum Public Eye was falling far short of expectations. Any time a large media outlet tries to launch a blog, she said, "they have to bite their tongues all the time."
___
On the Net:
http://www.mediacenter.org/wemedia05/
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