Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Transmedia Storytelling and UGC in Journalism


Transmedia storytelling is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies, and is not to be confused with traditional cross-platform media franchises, sequels or adaptations.

Transmedia storytelling doesn’t really equate all too much with journalism.  Journalism is a pretty straight forward field in which an article or story is written and published with little to no further expansion. With something as direct as this, it makes the aspect of transmedia storytelling pretty pointless. That being said there is one situation where transmedia storytelling is in journalism and that is with the news. Almost every news story that you see on the six o’clock news will appear in writing the next day in the newspaper. Or they may be an article that comes out during the day that will be developed into a new story for television later that night.

 

When it comes to sports though, the specific field of journalism that peaks my interest, there are a lot more forms of transmedia storytelling. There are a handful of classic sports stories that are first taken and written in a book, typically in the form of a biography of sorts. Then as time goes on a fair few of those biographies will be turned into a movie.

 

 

User generated content is literally everywhere you go and as far as journalism is concerned it’s a very good way to get your work out there. There a handful of people who merely started out as bloggers and have now either become successful journalist or they have kept with the blogging and now have a website. Barstool Sports, The Chive and Perez Hilton are all examples of websites that started out as a simple blog by one person and have now grown to become exponentially more successful that I’m sure any of them believed their sites would. If a person is really interested in going into the field of journalism then I would almost go as far to say that doing a blog is necessary. It is a place where you can write whenever you want and however you want which, if you are interested in journalism, is fun. What’s more fun than writing about anything you want? The best part about it is that you will also have a very good example and representation of how you write.

 

We see more user generated content in the news now more than ever. Last year The Guardian, a British newspaper, started a program that they called open journalism. The idea is that they opened up their online website for the public to comment and critique everything and anything they wanted to. People could go online and blast the website for poor writing or they could read an article on the site and react to that specific article.
 
 
 
It has created a whole new way for people to create user generated content. This isn’t the only way that user generated content has made its way into the news though. Take for instance the floods that hit here on the Gold Coast a few weeks back. It seemed as though every time I was turning on the television they were showing pictures where the flooding was at a very high level. Where were these pictures coming from? People were sending them in from home. After showing these photos the next thing that would pop up on screen would be tweets from more viewers reacting to the photos that viewers sent in. Besides what the reported was saying the whole entire segment consisted of UGC.

 

In the field of sports UGC is huge because the fans are the reason that these athletes go out there every day to participate. Throughout the season of almost all sports there always seems to be something that is voted on by the fans. This past weekend was the All-Star weekend for the NBA. Who do you think chose the starters for the all-star team? You guessed it, the fan. One of the most anticipated parts of the weekend is the slam dunk competition of which the winner was voted on by none other than the fan.


 

We are in a world that has obsequious amounts of UGC and it isn’t going anywhere. Not all UGC is good though as there are plenty of bad UGC. Not bad in the sense that it was poorly made, just bad in the sense that it is not enjoyable. Loser generated content is a term you can find on urban dictionary meaning; Digital content such as online videos produced by people on the Interweb lacking time, creativity or personal taste. The best part about this is that urban dictionary is ALL UGC and there are plenty of loser generated definitions on the website.
 
 
 
 
 

 
Sources:


Open journalism | Media | The Guardian . (n.d.). The Guardian . Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/open-journalism

Cha, M. (n.d.). I Tube, You Tube, Everybody Tubes: Analyzing the Worlds Largest User Generated Content Video System. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from www.land.ufrj.br/~classes/coppe-redes-2012/trabalho/youtube_imc07.pdf

Flew, T. (2008). New media: an introduction (3rd ed.). South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.

Ingram, M. (n.d.). Guardian says open journalism is the only way forward . GigaOM. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://gigaom.com/2012/03/01/guardian-says-open-journalism-is-the-only-way-forward/

The Power of UGC (User Generate Content) for Social Marketing  | SocialSteve's Blog. (n.d.). SocialSteve's Blog | Social Media Marketing Discussions. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://socialsteve.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/the-power-of-ugc-user-generate-content-for-social-marketing/

Thurman, N. (n.d.). Forum for Citizen Journalists? Adoption of User Generated Content Initiatives by Online News Media . Retrieved February 20, 2013, from www.land.ufrj.br/~classes/coppe-redes-2012/trabalho/youtube_imc07.pdf

Urban Dictionary, February 20: Coupon Karma. (n.d.). Urban Dictionary, February 20: Coupon Karma. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/

YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 20, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

 

 

 

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