“If you find yourself in the right place at the right time, if an event is unfolding before your eyes and you capture it on a camera or mobile phone, either as a photograph or video, then please send it to BBC News.”
The BBC has just made a bold move into user-generated, or rather user-augmented, news. If anyone thinks that a community-built media is only being explored on a smaller, local scale (see here and here), then think again. The world is in a frenzied state of self-documentation – laying down a vast mosaic of images, video, graphics and text on top of every inch of reality. If the mainstream media is to keep up, it will have to a certain extent “employ” everyone as stringers. To put a slight spin on Shirky‘s formulation: the only group that can record everything is everybody.
(image: Andrew Vorobyov’s photo of the “orange revolution” in Ukraine)
if:book
A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book
I’m not so sure that’s such a bold move. If I read it correctly, they want you to send them your photos for free, and they’ll consider whether or not to use them.
A better approach would be to include a comments section with every article (perhaps moderated), where readers could post or link to their photos.
Bold as in, they’re a mainstream media entity that is experimenting with opening up the apparatus. But within that, you’re right – it’s a very cautious, un-risky move compared with what it could be.