by Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) What is user generated content — or UGC in digital speak — worth journalistically?
UGC is greatly coveted by online editors as it means that the audience is engaging with your content and it drives up time spent of site. If it comes in for free, so much the better.
However, it’s difficult to attract quality UGC beyond opinion pieces by a small group of users (some with fringe views) and comments (that also come with trolls and can descend into hate speech and defamation).
Bevan Lakay, community editor of News24, South Africa’s biggest news portal, says most of uploads to MyNews24, the UGC zone of the site, are images – lots of selfies and weather pictures especially if the site puts out a call for a dramatic event such as this year’s Cape Town fire – and opinion pieces, which number between 20 and 25 per day.
“And if we put out a call to action for pictures of people’s pets, they come in by the bucket load,” he says. “But we’re very careful about pictures of children because we don’t know if the person submitting the photo is the parent of the child.”
Videos are rare while the words are a mixed bag in terms of content.
Small dedicated community
“It’s predominantly religion and politics. We have a very dedicated crowd that submit about religion – atheists versus Christians. They have their ongoing battle so it’s quite an interesting little community that is growing there… Some write about what’s topical such as the UCT-Rhodes statue debate at the moment.”
At News24, users upload their own content after signing in with their Facebook profiles and it is approved by News24 staff before being published. People who wish to comment must also first register with their Facebook profiles.
Independent Newspapers’ February panel recommendations on online comments (that moderation is needed to eliminate hate speech) ties in with the existing thinking on the issue in the industry, Lakay says.
He says that News24’s view is that if the comments thread is not adding value (degenerating into hate speech, for example) it must be closed. The site is also looking at closing comments on the outset on articles that are likely to veer off track.
“We don’t want to be censors but when you look at what some people post, they just do not hold back. It’s difficult to find the balance but we’re hoping to get there eventually.”
The quality of News24 UGC is reasonable, says Lakay, and he has been in contact with some of the regular writers to suggest topics.
Many have been receptive to taking direction, he says, but when he has put out calls to action in this regard it hasn’t borne fruit.
“We are looking at ways to take this forward but they basically do what they please, which is absolutely fine because we don’t have specifics or limitations on what they can write about except for the obvious offensive things like racial hatred. And in terms of grammar and spelling, the idea is that they take responsibility.”
Striking a balance
Managing UGC is about striking a balance between allowing the users the freedom to express themselves and keeping an eye out for offensive content, Lakay says.
The odd borderline piece does come along, he says. And while the News24 team prefers not to fiddle with the user’s writing, they will edit out a couple of sentences that may cause offence and if they don’t add substantively to the writer’s argument.
“We’re getting a fair amount in terms of quantity, a reasonable amount in terms of quality and we’re working towards growing the quality at some point.”
UGC news stories from “citizen journalists” never come in, says Lakay, and while paying for UGC news would mean News24 could insist on better quality, there is concern about the accuracy of stories from untrained journalists.
Kenyan success
However, in Kenya it’s a totally different story and the News24 Kenya website’s UGC is dominated by news from an army of freelance journalists, who are paid small amounts through M-Pesa, for each upload.
Africa editor Corli van der Merwe says the majority of users uploading content are journalists with whom the Nairobi News24 team have built relationships.
“Because of the currency rates, we really don’t pay them a lot – about R50 per story, if that. But many say we pay more than the local newspapers do.
“Initially, the idea was to get content in but then we realised that in Kenya we get really good quality content,” says Van der Merwe. “We often have to rework the copy as some don’t necessarily write that well but we’re getting unique content from all over Kenya – and from places the wire services don’t cover.
“In Kenya people really want content from their area. Kenya is divided up into counties, and what county you come from is really important. People (in the cities and towns) really want to know what’s happening in the area where they grew up and where their families live.”
Beating the wire services
When big breaking news events such as the recent Garissa University attack occur, Van der Merwe says, the UGC reporters have sent through news and pictures before it has hit the wire services.
News24 started the Kenyan and Nigerian news sites, which are run by staff from the Cape Town head office and editorial teams in Nairobi and Lagos, in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
In Nigeria, the plan to pay for UGC news was abandoned, says Van der Merwe, as plagiarism was such a big problem and paying people was a difficult because so few people have bank accounts.
“In Nigeria people want cash whereas in Kenya all you need is the person’s cellphone number and you can pay them. It’s very easy for us to handle as there is not a lot of admin involved.”
At Daily Maverick, which seems to escape the attentions of the worst of the trolls in SA comments threads, editor Branko Brkic says he is unsure why users comment more constructively on the site, where you need to register in order to comment.
“We have developed a nice community over time and I hope that people recognise the hard work and good will that goes into the site and respect that – that they want to be part of something meaningful.
“But the trolls are impossible to stop and the problem is that this country is so polarised at the moment. People still vent regardless of what is said on the page. I don’t know if we manage to keep the trolls out as much we manage to attract some wonderful people in.”
UGC versus expert contribution
Daily Maverick distinguishes itself among SA websites by attracting many high quality opinion pieces by leading experts who are not paid for their work. However, Brkic says he does not view this as user generated content.
“The point of UGC is to lower the cost of content and you don’t even know who it comes from,” he says. “I get five to 10 submission a day and publish one every two or three days because we have to edit them and find out who the people are. Some are rubbish and some are very good because they are leading experts who want to express their opinions.”
South Africa’s leading media commentator, Gill Moodie (@grubstreetSA) offers intelligence on media, old and new. Reprinted from her site Grubstreet with Biznews.
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every Monday and Thursday. Sign up here!