Make no mistake. Those who aspire to join the ranks of today’s professional media face many challenges. From the mastering of pyramids (inverted or otherwise) to the networking of contacts, would-be professionals have a lot to learn. Underpinning everything is a strict journalistic code, adhered to by journos with a diligence that often borders on fanaticism. As if this were not demanding enough, a new challenge to the professional hack has been steadily gaining ground over the last decade.
This challenger often has no formal training and, more often than not, doesn’t even bother paying lip service to the ethics of the trade. Whether we refer to these challengers as “citizen journalists”, “bloggers” or “egotistical wannabes”, it’s clear that the output they’re producing a.k.a User Generated Content (UGC), is reshaping the modern media.
Dan Gillmor, often cited as the pioneer of citizen journalism, neatly summarises the new climate: “In a world of ubiquitous media tools, which is almost here, someone will be on the spot every time.”
Indeed, there have been numerous examples over the last few years that appear to validate this statement. From the mobile phone video footage of the Buncefield fuel depot fire,to the live blogs of students caught-up in the Virginia Tech Massacre, professional journalists can no longer assume first dibs on the breaking of news events. Members of the public are increasingly able to produce news for themselves and others, thus circumventing the professional media entirely.
It could be argued that a shift in the balance of power can only be regarded as a good thing. Consecutive MORI polls reveal journalism to be one of the least trusted professions amongst the general public, and the rise of UGC might well represent both a symptom and response to this trend.
With individuals now able to produce the content they once passively consumed, news stories can now be gleaned from a variety of web-based sources, other than the traditional media outlets. Since it is unable to compete with the 24/7 ubiquity of citizen journalism, the professional press can only but respond by increasing the fastidiousness of it’s own reporting. In this scenario, theoretically, everyone’s a winner.
The problem of course is that much of what constitutes UGC is often unbalanced, unsubstantiated, unethical or simply untrue. CNN, in its attempts to embrace the media revolution, has had to learn the hard way, with its ireport website often falling prey to UGC hoaxes.
Furthermore, irrespective of public opinion, professional journalists are required to conform to guidelines and operate within a strict ethical framework. This may yet prove to be the professional journalist’s main trump card: a dependable level of veracity and accuracy that is far from de rigueur in the world of UGC.
Whilst it’s doubtful that digital democratisation and UGC alone signal the end of professional journalism, the latter has had no choice but to accept former and accommodate it as best it can. Ultimately, the freedom of expression that UGC affords, if successfully counterbalanced by the regulated press, could arguably be the ideal medium for modern society.
