Elvira Garcia de Torres

1. UGC Status and Levels of Control in Argentine, Colombian, Mexican, Peruvian, Portuguese, Spanish, US and Venezuelan Online Newspapers Austin, 2009

2. Lyudmyla Yezers’ ka Miladys Rojano Roberto Igarza Elvira Garcia de Torres Jose Azevedo Fernando Zamith Nora Paul Silvia Martinez Martinez Janet Rodriguez Martinez Mabel Calderin Jorge Badillo

3. Lyudmyla Yezers’ ka Miladys Rojano Roberto Igarza Elvira Garcia de Torres Jose Azevedo Fernando Zamith Nora Paul Silvia Martinez Martinez Janet Rodriguez Martinez Mabel Calderin Jorge Badillo

4. UGC - Journalism • Bowman and Willis (2004):a form of participatory journalism • Hermida and Thurman (2008): a process… opportunity to participate or contribute • De Keyser and Raeymaeckers (2008): the sum of participatory and citizen journalism • Wunsh/Vincent and Vickery (2007): publication, creative effort (also adapting) and outside of professional practices

6. Approach • In this context, we propose to analyze participatory journalism messages taking into consideration the relationship between users and producers as the relationship provides a context in which messages acquire meaning

7. Framework • Our approach is based in the Interactional view, that looks into verbal and non verbal messages to find out the rules of the relationships • There can be, for example, a pattern of authority/submission or weakness/assistance

8. Messages • Also, tacit messages and explicit messages on the relationship acquire importance • We found them in the terms of use and privacy policies, the more or less control of the users’ participation, data on participation and so on.

9. Purpose • In this preliminary approach we seek to explore relational messages in the user- producer relationship regarding control and recognition of UGC

10. Research Questions Q1. Are there any patterns in messages regarding UGC? Q2. Do media give visibility to the users contributions? Q3. Is there a correlation between control for comments on journalistic and amateur content? Q4. How far do media get involved in producing a citizen reporter toolkit?

11. Method Survey of 24 websites of Argentine, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, US and Venezuela Sample takes circulation in consideration. It is based on circulation audits data and other significant sources when reliable figures are not easily available

12. Argentine

13. Argentine

14. Argentine

15. Colombia

16. Colombia

17. Colombia

18. Mexico

19. Mexico

20. Mexico

21. Peru

22. Peru

23. Peru

24. Portugal

25. Portugal

26. Portugal

27. Spain

28. Spain

29. Spain

30. United States

31. United States

32. United States

33. Venezuela

34. Venezuela

35. Venezuela

36. Parameters • The coding scheme is based partially in Domingo et al (2008) • We put emphasis in • The rules • The mechanisms of control • Recognition of UGC • I.e. Send a picture

37. Send a picture • For example, for “Send a picture” in our grid it is possible to code: • Moderator/ moderator on ocassion • Registration • Categories • Conceptualization: what news is • Tips: how to take a better picture • Undesirable material • Report Abuse • Displayed in other sections • Monetary compensation /on ocassion

38. Send a picture • Users have to pay • Photos can be shared • Post a comment • Editing tools • Specific rules / Read / Accept • General rules / Read /Accept • Grant license on rights • License for adaptations • Minimum age to participate • Minors are supposed to have permission • Has to be original work /consent by people shown/ parents or guardians if minors • Right to reject the picture

39. CR Channel Rules Formats What “news” is Ethics Control Monetary compensation Warning signals for sensitive material Unwelcome content Posibility to publish in other sections/webs/media

40. Codebook

41. Reliability Test of the codebook (two papers per country) and final version Test of reliability, as a prior step, before entering the coding process When the level of agreement was considered sufficient, the analysis took place We decided that each paper would be coded by two analists, in view of the length and the attention it required

42. Communication • A wiki was created to facilitate the coordination and communication between the members of the group. • Challenges: • Working at different hours along the day • Language barriers

43. Conclusion 1 Results reflect a duality regarding UGC status: there is a wide implementation of 2.0 tools, but the most accepted are those that allow users to work on the content provided by the newspapers, but not so much the tools to produce content.

45. Conclusion 2 At the same time, recognition of content provided by users is high regarding both the number of options given to them to be contributors to the newspaper and the publication of their contributions in the front page.

46. Conclusion 3 The most significant pieces in the puzzle of status is who retains the rights over content and if monetary compensation for contributions is given. This is where the real recognition or the status is established in terms of authorship and both were found to provide little in the way of protection or rights for the users’ contributions.

48. Conclusion 4 This is significant given that users were generally not asked to explicitly accept the legal terms, that is, the contract, as a step prior to uploading or sending contributions.

49. Example for “Read the rules” (El Mundo, (Spain) Read the rules

50. Example for “Accept the rules” ( Clarín, Argentine) Acceptance is compulsory to post a comment