The amount of content produced by citizens is rising. With the advent of high-performance cameras in mobile phones, rising transmission speeds and dropping prices, the amount of (visual) contents that can be a valuable sources for journalistic reporting is constantly rising. Such can be texts, photos or videos deliberately produced to raise awareness to a topic as well as videos of coincidental eye witnesses.
When confronted with crisis situations like terror attacks in urban settings, natural disasters, or civil war, the mass media is increasingly dependent on the use of content produced by non-professionals. Most mass media news rooms today frequently monitor different social media platforms for interesting content to use for their own reporting. Some maintain regular relationships to single non-journalistic content producers in order to have frequent updates from difficult to reach areas such as conflict zones and occasionally support these individuals with journalistic advice or technical devices.
Dependence from user generated content however, may lead to bias in reporting as the material often cannot sufficiently be fact checked. Furthermore, ethical concerns have been raised as citizens often lack resources and knowledge to secure their own safety during reporting, but might feel encouraged to produce more (dramatic) content after seeing their videos, comments or pictures circulated by mainstream media. Some media have used content from social media platforms without consent from its creators, with insufficient credits or inadequate verification. The circulation of UGC by mainstream media should be distinguished from citizen journalism and participatory journalism.
