Posts Tagged ‘free content’

Citizen Journalism- The Backlash Begins

Jared Newman captures my feelings about the whole citizen journalism thing perfectly. He sees it as a complete rip off by the media companies with no benefit to the “citizen journalist”. The article is serious but the style is humorous – always a plus.

The launch of You Tube Direct provides the platform for the article.

For the mass media, it’s a great tool. They get first-hand footage of breaking news without even having to look for it, probably for free (YouTube says the news sites can work out their own terms of service, which I assume would include the right to publish, transmit, re-publish, and so on). Precious time and money is saved.

What’s in it for the so-called citizen journalist? Not much, unless you’re still clinging to the idea that getting your name and 15-second video clip on a news Web site or broadcast is a big deal.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/182362/

A bit of advice: if you have something that you think the media may be interested in contact their news departments and offer to sell them your footage / image or sound recording. If they think that broadcasting it will add value to their network they will deal. They will also have a whole lot more respect for you than if you just send it to them.

Ethical point: Everytime a network uses your content they are not having to pay someone else for content. It is, in effect, free money for them.

h/t http://twitter.com/ikeoo