No abstract

No abstract

A content analysis of 353 local television station websites found 49.6% of stations are including user-generated content (UGC), mostly designed to capture eyeballs, rather than to engage citizens in the journalistic process. The user-generated material included video (50.9%), audio (14.3%), still photos (82.3%), and other content (13.7%) including blogs, event announcements, news tips, and viewer comments. The overwhelming majority (76%) of UGC focused on weather-related events with only 17.7% classified as breaking news. Editorial guidelines focused on legalities such as terms of use and privacy policies related to accepting content, not editorial standards. Gatekeeping theory was applied to find that the local press largely retains its traditional editorial function.

No abstract

Through a content analysis of 571 videos posted on the self-generated YouTube channels of five international news channels, this study examines whether user-generated content is a significant part of today’s international journalism. The study includes international news channels Al Jazeera English, France 24 English, Russia Today, CNN International, and Al Arabiya. Exploring the implications for gatekeeping theory, the study looked at how these international news channels incorporate user-generated content in their daily news coverage. Results show that the international news channels are generally not using user-generated content—both work produced by citizen journalists and various measures of ‘interactivity’—to its full potential and that user-generated content is not disruptive to the conventional application of gatekeeping theory.