1. Assess the changing role of the audience in News
Audiences and news
Assess the changing role of the audience in News

2. Think of any examples of news stories that have been constructed thanks to UGC or Citizen Journalism.

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of audience participation?

4. Immediacy
Phones provide evidence- amazing footage
Audiences become more active
User generated content supports democratic values and upholds freedom of speech
Allows audiences to question and challenge values and ideologies
Audiences don’t have to bow to the demands of advertisers and political affiliations. They are independent and free to write their honest views.
Selection and mediation- audience become the gatekeepers. They can shape and create representations
Accuracy
Bias
Legal issues including libel and defamation
Diminished quality of news production eg filming portrait
News institutions can be criticised by their own audience
Issues with trust
UGC has lead to an increased number of social media news sites and news forums (not traditional news) eg BUZZFEED, LIVELEAK, VICE news. This has had massive impact on traditional institutions- resulting in a readership decline in mainstream news; in print and e-media.

5. Audience theory- new digital media
David Gauntlett – the prosumer creates a world of independent media producers. Gauntlett sees audiences as active and literate.
Andrew Keen – the prosumer creates a world of ‘amateurs’
Del Sol Poole Utopian perspective of NDM. Suggests new media will facilitate a positive media world
Habermas Argues that media texts should provide a space for citizens to debate and criticise government actions & form public opinion.
Henry Jenkins- Web 2.0 users develop more skills through active participation and multiple communications and as result are more media literate.

6. Ownership and control theory
Stuart Price – critical of global media and ownership
Noam Chomsky – Marxist readings on media ownership
Nick Lacey – on synergy, ownership and institution referencing the concepts of synergy and convergence as crucial to modern media.

7. Past paper question
“Audiences are no longer just consumers of media texts but producers too”. To what extent is this true in the media products from your cross media study? (32 marks)