Multimedia storytelling class in digital journalism

1. WEEK 8 – USER GENERATED
CONTENT

2. First of all:
WHAT IS UGC?

3. What is UGC
It can can be produced in any medium:
• text (comments, blog post, tweet, Facebook
update, etc)
• pictures (Instagram, Twitpic, Facebook, Tumblr
or blog post, etc)
• audio (podcast)
• video (video podcast, blog post, YouTube, etc).

4. Some iconic examples of UGC
2004
tsunami
2005
London
Bombing
2007 Virginia
Tech shooting

5. Iconic examples of UGC
The « Green Revolution » in Iran
The Syrian uprising today

6. The Russian meteor
February 2013
The death of
Nelson Mandela

7. UGC is here to stay
UGC has become integrated into almost
all mainstream newsrooms, all media
included.
It has become part of the journalism
toolbox, as much a part of a newroom’s
resources as agency pictures, field
reporters, background interviews.

8. Why has UGC become so
indispensable?
What is its added value?

9. What’s the added value of UGC?
• Seeing and hearing about a story that otherwise
would go unseen or untold
• Provide instant accounts and photographs and
videos of incidents as and when events happen
• Multiplies sources of information about any one
event
• Citizen reporters tend to be people who really
care about the story because it impacts their lives
directly
• Getting the voices and views that are actually
closest to a story

10. The real point of UGC:
Credibility in
story-telling

11. User Generated Content isn’t just a
tool for telling better stories.
It’s value can extend beyond
journalism and have a potentially
greater impact.
How so?

12. More added value
Potentially more powerful content:
• More accountability: videos/pictures of events
that might not have been filmed otherwise
because no journalists would have been present
• Puts constraints on governments and authorities
who might be tempted to use violence, if they
know they will be filmed/photographed and
these images will be distributed
Change is made possible when transgressions and
abuses are made visible

13. Example:
The Arab spring.
It didn’t put UGC on the map (it
was there before), but it made it
indispensable.
What do I mean?

14. Tunisia

15. Egypt

16. Syria

17. But how do you know that these
images correspond to the places
or the events that I claim?

18. Verifying UG video
• Find the original source
• Look for landmarks, cross-check with Google
maps
• To find out what is being said about the video,
take the unique identity code in the url of the
video and search for it on Twitter
• The first person who shared it on Twitter may
also well be the original owner of the video
• Seek direct contact with the uploader asking
them about their content

19. Verifying UG video
• check the source as much as the information
• people who are genuine witnesses to events
are usually eager to talk
• Do other images on social media corroborate
what you’re seeing?
• cross-check the news on social media: are
other sources/feeds telling the same story?

20. http://storyful.com/

21. Checklist from Storyful
• Can we geo-locate this footage? Are there any
landmarks that allow us to verify the location
via Google Maps or Wikimapia?
• Are streetscapes similar to geo-located photos
on Panoramio or Google Street View?

22. Storyful: Checking the light
• Do weather conditions correspond with
reports on that day
• Are shadows consistent with the reported
time of day?

23. Storyful: using all the information
• Do vehicle registration plates or traffic signs
indicate the country or state?
• Do accents or dialects heard in a video tell us
the location?

24. Storyful: cross-referencing
• Does it jibe with other imagery people are
uploading from this location?
• Does the video reflect events as reported on
Storyful's curated Twitter lists or by local news
sources?

25. Even more detailed Storyful checklist
(part 1):
• Where is this account registered and where is the
uploader based, judging by his or her history?
• Are there other accounts—Twitter, Facebook, a
blog, or website—affiliated with this uploader?
• How can they help us identify location, activity,
reliability, bias and agenda?
• How long have these accounts been in existence?
• How active are they?
• Does the uploader write in slang or dialect that is
identifiable in the video's narration?

26. Even more detailed Storyful checklist
(part 2):
• Can we find WHOIS (domain registration)
information for an affiliated website?
• Is the person listed in local directories?
• Does the person's online social circles indicate a
proximity to the story/location?
• Does the uploader "scrape" videos from news
organizations and YouTube accounts?
• Are video descriptions dated?
• Are you familiar with this account? Has the
content and reportage been reliable?

27. Getting permission
• Anyone who has taken photos or video needs
to be contacted to request their permission,
as the copyright holder, to use it
• If it is already uploaded to Flickr or YouTube or
other social platforms, the conditions for use
may already be cited
• When possible, credit the producer
• When possible, link back to the original source

28. When is it relevant to use
UGC?
Is it ever irrelevant?

29. So how do you find and use
UGC?
Where do you start

30. To every event, its community:
Every news event in the age of social media
creates a community. When news breaks, a
network gathers to talk about the story. Its
made up of:
• Witnesses
• Amplifiers
• Trusted filters
The key is locating the community, identifying
the actors, and using them as sources.

31. Case study: Syria
• Follow YouTube channels
• Clearing houses (Syria: Ugarit news and SNN)
• See what’s trending on Twitter
• Create twitter lists of people you can get to know
and trust
• If they don’t have content, they are contacts who
could potentially help you verify content
(especially if it’s in Arabic or a language you don’t
speak)
• Tap into Facebook news communities

32. Risks of UGC?
What are the risks of
UGC?

33. Risks of UGC?
Information that is false,
unverified, biased or
manufactured

34. Fakes abound and are easy to produce

35. An agenda or biased point of view
can potentially hide behind the
anonymity of the internet

36. Risks of UGC?
• Dilutes the standards of quality and reliability
inherent to what was traditionally called
journalism
• because of convenience and lower costs, less
fact-checking, less reliability
• that it will come at the cost of serious (costly)
investigative journalism

37. Risks of UGC
• It is about taking risks and engaging with
online communities
• There is no more traditional information
gatekeeper: all sources are viable, you are the
gatekeeper.
ULTIMATELY
IT IS NOW ABOUT THE CONTENT AND NOT THE
SOURCE.

38. Conclusion
“Social” journalism and offline
journalism complement each
other, but can’t replace each
other.

39. Good UGC hygiene In Brief
Get as much information as possible
about the source, the context, the
landmarks, the events
Practice triangulation with other social
media sources
Make an informed decision