Can User Generated Content or ‘Produsage’ Complement Mainstream Journalism

CAN USER-GENERATED CONTENT OR 'PRODUSAGE' COMPLEMENT MAINSTREAM JOURNALISM AND IN WHAT WAYS? SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER WITH SPECIFIC EXAMPLES AND RELEVANT ACADEMIC LITERATURE.
By (Student Name)
Course
Professor
University
City and State
Date
The journalism landscape is rapidly evolving, with user-generated content commonly regarded as 'produsage' emerging as a transformative power. Such a form of digital journalism, facilitated by social media platforms and digital technologies, empowers ordinary people to participate in producing and disseminating news. Although some people may perceive produsage as a possible threat to credibility and control of the mainstream media, user-generated content enhances and is complementary to traditional news reporting in different ways. For example, mainstream media can harness produsage power by integrating grassroots investigative efforts, diverse opinions, and real-time reporting to offer the local community more extensive, involving, and relevant news coverage. Moreover, incorporating citizen journalism is fundamental for audience engagement, collaboration, and a wider, more extensive comprehension of pertinent societal issues. This paper first delineates the link between user-generated content and mainstream journalism to develop a background and guide the direction of the paper in the subsequent parts. User-generated content supports the mainstream journalism by facilitating gate-keeping roles, increasing bias and subjectivity in the news, and making traditional media more consumer-driven. Moreover, user-generated content captures local news and perspectives, offers real-time news, crowd-sourced verification, audience engagement, investigative reporting, covering of niche stories, and creates room for unprofessional practices in journalism.
Produsage and Mainstream Journalism Demystified
While produsage and mainstream journalism serve diverse roles and present varying features, they can work collectively to offer a diverse and more comprehensive media ecosystem. As noted above, user-generated content is commonly known as produsage, and together with mainstream journalism, they can complement each other. Citizen journalism and produsage have emerged as significant driving forces for paradigm shifts, specifically in the media landscape, facilitating common citizens to actively engage in news production and dissemination (Xiang, 2019, p.55). Produsage disrupts news production and journalism (Bruns and Schmidt, 2011, p.6). Produsage is a representation of deviation from traditional media production, with the passive role of media consumers evolving into active roles or contributions. People can now use blogs and social media platforms to share their accounts of events, views, and experiences in real-time. Conversely, mainstream media is critical in offering comprehensive analysis, observing journalistic standards, and fact-checking. Professional journalists receive extensive training to ensure ethical standards and guidelines, verify information, and remain objective (Wang and Diakopoulos, 2021, n.p.). Such journalists have the expertise and resources to access official sources, cover extreme stories, and carry out investigative reporting.
News media organizations can take advan...