Mobile phones and the news: How UK mainstream news broadcasting is stalling the video revolution. (June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hadland, Adrian; Borges-Rey, Eddy; Cameron, Jackie
• Is Part Of: Convergence. Volume 25:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 428
• Page End: 448
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Subjects: Broadcasting -- citizen journalism -- crime -- journalism -- mobile phones -- news -- user generated content -- violence; Mass media -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; Telecommunication -- Periodicals; Mass media and technology -- Periodicals; 621.3897
• DOI: 10.1177/1354856517703964
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-8565

Abstract

From the mid-2000s, a sudden surge in the use of mobile phone footage by national and international broadcasters was widely anticipated as the precursor to a revolutionary change in the generation and dissemination of news. In the wake of events such as the London bombings of 2005, user-generated content bureaux and hubs were established by major media organizations from the British Broadcasting Corporation and CNN to Al Jazeera while new software and hardware was developed. The potential for covering virtually any news development from at least one of the world's seven billion mobile phones suggested a whole new phase of broadcast journalism was imminent. This study of news bulletins by three United Kingdom-based broadcasters – Channel 4, the BBC and ITV – establishes a new methodology for the identification of mobile phone content in broadcasting. It also finds that a decade later, mobile phone footage has not lived up to its early potential.