According to Lotta Holmström, from Aftonbladet, and Thomas Mattsson, from Expressen Nya Medier, user-generated content will improve journalism because “if we do something wrong we get to hear it immediately."

Pnina Yavari Molin, from the Göteborgs-Posten, had a more nuanced answer. According to her, journalists are losing their “monopoly” as opinion leaders, and they should be the ones to filter user-generated content.

The main trouble, as discussed by all panelists, related to user-generated content’s credibility.

For user-generated pictures, editors must spend a considerable amount of time to authenticate them. Blogs are another matter altogether. Editors must pay close attention to a blog’s writing before including it on their website, as when they do link to it they are lending the blog their own credibility.

User content can also drift into destructive extremes, if users put their lives in danger to report for the media, or if they even deliberately create news in order to report and publicize it…

The main conclusion of the debate was that professional journalists should remain the gatekeepers and monitor user-generated content. The second main conclusion: that editors shouldn’t discuss whether to include user-generated content, but how they can include it.

For the full summary of the debate, please click below.

Source: Media Culpa