eMedia Vitals

User-generated content is more than just YouTube videos about cats. Media sites are learning how to incorporate many flavors of audience contributions, from article comments and reviews to local news coverage and live chats. How can you better leverage UGC for your website? These resources should help.

Reader comments: Can’t live with ‘em …
Allowing site visitors to add comments to articles, blogs and other digital content has become accepted practice for most digital content publishers. But techniques are evolving as publishers seek to improve the quality of comments while filtering out the rants.

Can you be sued for comments posted by users?
You are unlikely to be sued for defamation because of article comments, but you should understand how the law does and does not protect you if you feature user generated content on your website.

Content networks push user-generated content to the next level
Four cities have built content-sharing networks around major metropolitan dailies. We take a look at what makes each one stand apart.

Facebook, others spearhead new engagement trend
When it comes to reader engagement, there’s some hidden brilliance behind the growing popularity of the “like” option. The problem is that “like” has no universal standard.

Curated video: A winning formula?
Video is hot. Curation is hot. So why not combine the two? That’s the premise of Magnify.net, a video publishing platform designed to help publishers build libraries of videos culled from a variety of sources.

6 things you should know about choosing the right community platform
Community platforms are powerful tools for growing an audience and opening up new revenue opportunities by allowing members to interact with one another. Here are some tips for finding the right technology solution.

Tips for building a B2B blogger network
User-generated content isn’t just for local news sites and enthusiast magazines. The B2B sector is also active with contributed content, often in the form of blogger networks featuring subject-matter experts. Here’s how to build your own.

Citizen journalism still a mystery for most news publishers
Most newspaper publishers have kept citizen journalists at arm’s length for anything beyond photos or user-generated videos. They’re missing out on a potentially valuable opportunity to expand their news-gathering operations while engaging more deeply with the community.

CoverItLive drives engagement metrics for real-time events
CoverItLive fancies itself the Swiss Army Knife of live coverage. The service has become a popular way for writers and reporters to cover a live event or to hold an online chat.

VIDEO: How CNN lowered its “curmudgeon index”
CNN’s Lila King explains the evolution of iReport, the network’s user generated content program. The culture has become more supportive of the content source as more examples of stories that CNN never would have seen are submitted.

How Lawrence.com makes hyperlocal work
Lawrence.com is an offshoot of its parent newspaper, The Lawrence Journal-World. But the site leaves traditional coverage to LJworld.com, having found a successful formula for covering what its target audience cares about: music. The site’s archives are filled with content written by the site’s community while its servers are stuffed with mp3s of Lawrence music.

PBS chronicles life in the ‘digital nation’ – with a dose of UGC
Digital Nation, an open source PBS project that explores life in the digital world, encourages UGC through a multi-channel, targeted approach to building community engagement.

Cultivating a community for user-generated content
iStockphoto pays nearly $1.2 million in weekly contributor royalties and expects to see $200 million in revenue this year. With all this money riding on user-generated content, how does iStockphoto encourage submissions and engagement from its community?

Tough love: Gawker finds making it harder for comments to be seen leads to more (and better) comments
When Gawker Media Group moved to a tiered commenting system last fall, there was an immediate decline in comment volume. But comments quickly rebounded and have since skyrocketed at a much faster slope than before the switch.
Source: Nieman Journalism Lab

The downside of user-generated content
The problem with user-generated content is the loss of control it involves. We’ve seen it play out in a hundred different ways, from the fight many news outlets are having over blog comments to the issues YouTube has had with repeated uploading of copyright-infringing videos.
Source: GigaOm

Why we need better metrics for measuring user-generated content
Without reliable data and sensible comparative metrics, it is impossible to say if we have experienced a golden age of open creative possibility.
Source: TechDirt

Must user-generated-content threaten quality journalism?
A recent study on audience contributions and gatekeeping practices at the BBC raises interesting questions about the value of UGC and how it should be measured.
Source: Online Journalism Blog

6 tips for user-generated content from ‘monkey on the loose’
Lessons learned from a story that progressed from neighborhood incident to “Today” show spot.
Source: Poynter Online