User generated content over hyped
When Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger says that user generated content (i.e. blogs and the like) is to become more dominant he’s in tune with most of us already immersed in the technology.
Yet while I’m a keen (and profitable) blogger myself who’s not shy of spreading the word, I do think this is an idea that should be more readily challenged. It’s almost certainly true that, ‘to have people sat in a newsroom in Wapping or Farringdon Road thinking they know everything is barmy’, as there will often be a blogger sat in pajamas at home with a deeper specialist knowledge of a particular story. However, the media is already too heavily dominated by views rather than news and most of the time that’s what user generated content means.
Whatever happens, we’ll still need people who know what they’re doing – that is, people who have had some journalistic training – to go out into field and get their hands dirty taking real risks. In a world were so much is available free of charge, this will be old fashioned newspapers’ unique selling point.
In the meantime, the larger threat is to public relations professionals who have to contend with people letting off about every little thing in public.
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