Exploiting citizen journalists

Australian TV media have finally woken up to the value of incorporating citizen journalism into the mix. But it's interesting look at the approach of each outlet and what it says about their expectations for community participation. Here's how it looks:

* The Ten Network have something called News Pics, which is an offer to be a "roving reporter" that sends them pictures via camera phones. But make sure you note the fine print: "you agree, in submitting footage to TEN to grant to TEN a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, unrestricted world-wide licence to use, and license others to use, your footage." There is no mention on the site, from what I can see, of what you gain in return for your efforts - that is, apart from paying mobile data charges. There are no guarantees the picture will appear anywhere, and if it is, whether they will credit it to you.

* Channel 9 calls their citizen journalism effort Newswatch. Like Ten, there is no promise of fame or fortune, as per the terms and conditions. They are, however, far more explicit about what you are giving away (my emphasis added): "In submitting Footage through the Footage Services, you grant to Nine an exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, transferable, royalty-free licence to use, copy, reproduce, edit, modify and exploit the Footage in any media, and to sublicence such rights to others, for any purpose whatsoever."

* The Seven Network offers a similar service that lets you send in news tips to any of their national newsrooms. I couldn't see any obvious disclaimer about what you're giving up. They do have a broad privacy policy, but it's unclear how this relates to citizen journalism. What is more interesting is this big "7Listens" campaign, which has the potential to unearth some interesting stories (and some valuable marketing stats on who's watching, what you think, and what you buy). But again, there is no clear statement on what you're giving up or will get in return for your information. From a marketing perspective, it seems more important that you understand the bigger message that they care about you more than the other stations.

* ABC TV does not seem to offer any meaningful citizen journalism. There are plenty of RSS feeds and other goodies for the technically minded, including video on demand, but precious little in terms of community participation.

* Likewise, SBS has nothing.

The obvious conclusion to draw is that the commercial stations can see a financial benefit from involving citizens in the reporting cycle. They're also not afraid to tell you that your content will be exploited for commercial gain with little credit given to you for your work. And so you'd have to ask why you'd bother, right?

Meanwhile, it's surprising that the community-minded folks at ABC and SBS are behind the game on this given ABC's embrace of digital media. And given the government's penchant for cutting public broadcast funding, you'd think there were decent opportunities for ethical, intelligent contributions to help balance the equation.

So while we're making some good progress, there's a long, long way to go.

Comments

[Steven Noble]

Interesting use of the term "citizen journalism", Mark. While your usage makes complete sense, I've always used the term to describe situations where citizens control the news organ, like Oh My News, rather than just situations where citizens tip off journalists.

[Darren]

Such a pity - I guess it illustrates that they just don't get it.

[Simon]

The fabulous irony here is that if these TV stations' 'current affairs' shows found an example of a big business stiffing the little man with contracts like these, they would howl with outrage.
What chance Today Tonight or A Current Affair will narc on their rivals over some phonecam footage?

[Mark Jones]

Steven, it's fair to say that the term "citizen journalist" is applied pretty liberally by these TV stations to the notion of audience/community participation in the news gathering process. MSM giving more control to the community within the context of highly valuable TV and online properties is one of the great untouched debates in Australia. You'll note that these guys do not even have forum-style content where pics or tips that didn't make the cut can get some online airtime. But I think it's a question of when, not if it will happen.

[James Farmer]

Great post Mark, definitely something well worth looking into, but I'm a little unsure as to what you're driving at.

Do correct me if I'm wrong (which I frequently am!) but if 'the value of incorporating citizen journalism into the mix' centres around getting reportage / people sending stuff in then isn't that always going to have a pretty limited appeal to the both parties?

First up (and again I'm guessing here) I'm not sure what % of submitted material would be publishable. Secondly, given the rather abject failure of Town Halls / Bayosphere I'm not sure how many people would actually get value out of contributing.

I guess my perspective is that 'citizens' (i.e. non-media professionals in the context) are more interested in ideas / opinion / perspective a la The Age's 'Your Say' or The Guardian's 'Comment is Free'.

Which isn't to say though that an examination of the pretty frickin horrible terms & conditions as you provide isn't anything but very valuable, just that perhaps it's of limited importance as long as the readers/viewer's contribution is seen in the same terms as the journalists.

Perhaps :)

[Sheila]

Traditional media will soon learn that the citizen journalist is their friend. These are loyal listeners/viewers/readers that care about their communities.
As far as internet journalists- of the type that broke the Dan Rather fiasco - well, that's a different story.
Enjoyed your blog.
Take care -
Sheila
an Internet / Citizen Journalist - www.Go-Reporter.com

[Bob M]

Mark, there's a good example of how the BBC uses citizen journalism. On 11 April, 14 stories of scaffolding collapsed in Milton Keynes. Read about the 600 photos emailed to the BBC:
http://stuarthughes.blogspot.com/2006/04/you-probably-didnt-notice-but-minor.html

If you check the comments on that blog post, you'll see that "Stuart" shares your concerns about the surrendering of digital rights by the submitters.

The BBC states that it will publish the name of the submitter for photographs, but not for video.

[Mark Jones]

Hi James - to make the subtext more obvious, I think the future input from readers/viewers/participants in the news gathering and distribution process is one of the most interesting developments in new media. It's really early days in terms of figuring out what both sides want from this new dynamic, but one thing is clear: more people want to participate in news cycle. As Bob's comment above this one illustrates, anyone who is deeply fascinated by a yarn about a stack of scaffolding falling down can, in his example, wade through hundreds of photos sent in to the BBC. Imagine what impact that sort of community contribution will have to the growth of news sites and online portals in the future. The number of contributions becomes a story in itself. And traffic levels on MSM sites jump dramatically in direct proportion to how easy it is for the community to participate. And journalists and "citizen journalists" will always occupy different roles in this context, but that's another argument. The reason why this discussion matters is because precedents are set during these early days. Everyone is learning and experimenting. The balance for MSM is incorporating the community for the obvious commercial upsides without exploiting their rights (unless people want to give them away?). It's an extension of the linking/credit philosophy that underpins the blogosphere. If you think about it in the context of Yahoo7 or NineMSN, failing to link back to the contributions of people in Yahoo!360 or Spaces from stories on the respective main news sites or TV stations, is effectively missing a valuable cross-promotion opportunity.

[genevieve]

Jay Rosen has a broader definition of citizen journalism, as James has noted. It will be a long time before print journalism in Australia moves past Clem Bastow asking people to leave ideas for her column at her Age blog.
As for TV news, CBC/Radio Canada is way ahead of everybody - have you seen this site in your travels, Mark?
http://zed.cbc.ca/go?c=homepageV4