[ecrea] CFP Eyewitness Textures: UGC and News Coverage in the 21st Century

*Call for Papers: *

**

*Eyewitness Textures 
<https://symposiumamateurvideojournalism.wordpress.com/>*

*User Generated Content & News Coverage in the 21^st Century 
<https://symposiumamateurvideojournalism.wordpress.com/>***

**

May 23-24, 2019, MacEwan University (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

Among the many changes introduced by new media technologies to news 
practices, the growing utilization of User Generated Content (UGC) is 
one of the most challenging. Members of the public are capturing 
dramatic events around the world and then sharing them, not only on 
social media platforms, but with professional news media organizations 
which are eagerly incorporating posts, tweets and images into 
professionally produced news stories. The presence of amateur content in 
news discourses is a growing phenomenon that is reshaping the profession 
of journalism, news coverage and public expectations.

The issues raised by these practices often involve tensions between 
labour precarity and professionalism, entertainment and evidence, 
centralized and decentralized management of news rooms, traditional and 
emerging forms of social media news narratives, truth and immediacy.

The symposium <https://symposiumamateurvideojournalism.wordpress.com/> 
will bring together scholars and practitioners to share ideas and 
experiences in connection with the utilization of UGC in professional 
news coverage.

Among the Keynote talks we will have representatives from BBC, CBC, 
France24 and Storyful who will present on the different approaches taken 
by each institution to integrate UGC into their news practices.

We invite scholars and practitioners to submit abstracts exploring one 
or more of the following themes:

  1.   How is the use of UGC reorganizing professional practices?

  * User generated content and professionalism in news rooms
  * Role and significance of verification in news production
  * The problems of fake news when working with UGC
  * The growing shift of UGC onto private networks: threats and
    opportunities
  * The challenge and opportunities of new technologies for professional
    conditions of contemporary news rooms

2.   How is UGC transforming labour practices among journalists and the 
structural organization of news media?

  * Changing labour practices in the newsroom
  * Changing structures, staffing and organization of news desks
  * Organizational changes and emerging business models
  * Emerging forms of produsers and precarious labour
  * Professional labour /vis-à-vis/ labour of love

3.   How is UGC influencing the construction of meaning in news coverage?

  * The impact of user produced content on the form and aesthetic of
    visual news
  * Role of contextualization in UGC verification services
  * The influence of non-professional producers on news narratives,
    framing and agendas
4.   What are emerging themes and tensions in non-professional practices 
of production?

  * Emerging motivations for creating UGC news content
  * Emerging practices and conventions for UGC production
  * Precarity and risk in UGC production
5.   What are the theoretical, methodological and historical 
considerations helping to understand and explain the growing use of UGC 
in professional news coverage?

**Other topics related to the above themes are welcome.

The proceedings of the symposium will be livestreamed.

*Deadline*: Abstracts (300-500 words, including references) should be 
emailed to the convenors by *Oct 31, 2018* clearly identified by “UGC 
2019” in the subject line. Email: *(UGC2019Conf /at/ gmail.com)*

For more information, got to the symposium website 
<https://symposiumamateurvideojournalism.wordpress.com/> or contact 
Michael Lithgow at: (UGC2019Conf /at/ gmail.com)


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