Networks Cool on Viewer News Video

NETWORKS COOL ON VIEWER NEWS VIDEO
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Anne Becker]
When the London subway was bombed a year ago, the work of “citizen journalists,” the often grainy footage shot on personal digital cameras and cellphones, was everywhere. Almost immediately, mainstream TV news organizations began a quest to fill their broadcasts with such freelance firepower. But a year later, none of the major TV news organizations have included citizen journalism as a major part of their newscasts. The news networks’ hesitancy to embrace content from viewers on-air has less to do with concern about video authenticity than with a desire to keep a certain level of quality and control. TV news organizations’ success depends on building trust with their viewers and establishing themselves as a dependable destination for viewers to learn the events of the day, and camcorder clips of stories, however newsworthy, aren't necessarily reliable or always ready. So far, networks’ efforts to ride the current wave of popularity for viewer-submitted video have been mainly for promotional reasons.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350836.html?display=News

* Citizen Journalists Break News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350788.html?display=News