Essay Example on User Generated Content UGC has affected the sourcing of television News

Significance of the Study The concern raised in this study has attracted the attention of researchers For instance Wardle 2009 quantitatively studied User Generated Content and Television News Creation The objective was to examine the extent to which User Generated Content UGC has affected the sourcing of television news material and consumption The interest of the researcher was purely to establish the rise or otherwise of how mainstream television reporters have utilized UGC materials in news production Also the Pew Research Centre 2013 carried out a study on Social Media News Access by American Mainstream Journalists also a quantitative study the researcher targeted mainstream journalists chosen from both the print and electronic media with the main objective of ascertaining their level of access and reliance on the social media for news materials and news ideas Both studies dwelt on the frequency with which journalists have used online platforms for news sourcing The studies did not touch on the perception journalists hold concerning the ethical issues involved in the use of online materials for the production of mainstream news contents Following the gaps identified in the studies mentioned above this study will be beneficial in diverse ways being that it dwells on the interpretive project of unearthing the perception held by journalists following the increasing practice of online news sourcing to the industry this study will determine how mainstream journalism will retain its quality in spite of the challenges online news sourcing had posed before it 

The operational treatment of the reportorial issues of credibility balance objectivism authenticity and attribution as well as the use of these principles in news sourcing and reporting will be analyzed 1 7 Limitation of the Study Quite prominent among the limitations faced by this work is the paucity of research materials in the area under discourse While some scholars have made efforts to study the use of online platforms for news gathering and reporting not much has been done in undertaking an interpretive analysis or exploration of how journalists themselves view the ethical issues that emanate from online news sourcing and reporting the above factor left the researcher scrambling to gather material in an area that had not enjoyed robust research Also putting a Focus Group Discussion FGD team together and getting an acceptable time for a session was difficult following the busy schedule of journalists who formed the participants for the study Another limitation to this study was the tasking nature of playing the role of a Complete Participant in a familiar research environment while undertaking a Participant Observation for this study This is because the researcher had to play such role in a manner that would not give him away as a spy The researcher did not also enjoy a robust time frame in the course of undertaking this study this is a factor that made the study not to bubble with so much life and flesh Quite worthy of mention is also the fact that even with the frowning times the researcher also had other academic undertakings that intermingled with this research task