*Symposium May 23-24, 2019*
*MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB, Canada*
****
*Eyewitness Textures: User Generated Content & News Coverage in the
21^st Century <https://symposiumamateurvideojournalism.wordpress.com/>*
**
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.
Join us for a discussion among news journalists and scholars about
the many issues raised by user generated content in the newsroom.
*Keynote Speakers*
The *keynote speaker on May 23 *will be *Pr. Lilie Chouliaraki*,
Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of
Economics and Political Science. Her main research interest lies in
the histories and challenges of mediated suffering. Dr. Chouliaraki’s
work has focused on three domains in which the human body-in-need
appears as a problem of communication: i) disaster news, ii)
humanitarian campaigns & celebrity advocacy, iii) war & conflict
reporting. She has published extensively on how digital platforms and
genres (twitter, mobile phone footage, selfies) are fundamentally
changing conflict reporting and the witnessing of war today.
The *keynote speaker on May 24* will be *Dr. Mette
Mortensen,* Associate Professor of media studies at the University of
Copenhagen and a CARGC Faculty Fellow at the Annenberg School of
Communication.
She is the Principal Investigator of the large, collective research
project “Images of Conflict, Conflicting Images” (2017-2021). She is
the author or editor of seven books, including the monograph
/Eyewitness Images and Journalism: Digital Media, Participation, and
Conflict/ (Routledge 2015).
*News Organizations *
The symposium will also host presentations by: Derek Thomson,
Editor-in-Chief of the Observer Program from *France24*; Aoife
Gallagher, News Intelligence Strategist, *Storyful*; Derek Bowler,
Head of Social Newsgathering, *Eurovision News Exchange*; Shauna
Rempel, National Managing Editor, Social Media Distribution, *Global*
*News*; Paul Moore, Executive Producer of News, *CBC Edmonton*; and
Natalie Miller, Assistant Editor, UGC HUB,*BBC. *
We are hoping to *live stream* the proceedings, please visit the
Eyewitness Textures Symposium website
<https://symposiumamateurvideojournalism.wordpress.com/> for updates
and details.
*For more information, send queries to *(UGC2019Conf /at/ gmail.com)
<mailto:(UGC2019Conf /at/ gmail.com)>.
