Jay Rosen goes multimedia with his definition of Citizen Journalism

It’s such a rich definition in that it doesn’t really define what it does as much as it defines why it’s such a challenge for the mainstream media. And perhaps why they can’t get a handle on it.

Jay cam up with the definition a while back- the video just cements things. So there is a tonne of useful after matter, as Jay calls it, on his blog.

But I posted it up as CJ was foremost in my mind when I read a post over at Online Video Watch (not sure which one of the team wrote it) proclaiming the death of User Generated Content

Well, I’m calling it – user-generated content is officially dead. Hulu is here, ABC is raking in the views with their player, the studios are still adapting but beginning to develop business models, and semi-professional content creators now have the tools to compete with mainstream content.

The argument relies on the idea that UGC is a commercial model rather than a descriptor of anything not done by the pros but used by them.But ultimately it’s purely economic

The content universe is larger than ever before, and while UGC is worthless there’s plenty of time for those with passion to become successful professional producers

If UGC is dead then all that has really died is the indusrties defintion. The industries attempt to control and corall rather than understand havnt worked. As one commentor noted “UGC is only dead to slightly dead to most advertisers, not the people who publish the content.”

I thought Jay’s definition made an interesting contrast this view. Jay’s definition is about defining the activity and not its relationship to the media. It isn’t an attempt to define on the industries terms.

Maybe UGC isnt dead. Perhaps, in Godfather style, it is just ‘dead to us’

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