A study of UGC at the BBC has found that audience contributions have consolidated, rather than changed, journalistic norms and practices.

The study by Claire Wardle, Andrew Williams and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen was presented at the Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff.

They found that the BBC mainly views UGC as part of its newsgathering operations, in essence as a way of obtaining photos and video, eyewitness accounts or story tipoffs. There were isolated examples of BBC journalists viewing participation as a way to collaborate on stories or as a shift towards networked journalism.

The researchers noted that this institutional framework towards UGC was reflected in the BBC course on the topic, entitled “Have they got news for us”.

The BBC has a dedicated UGC hub that has grown from three people in 2005 to 23 now, and it is physically located by newsgathering, at the heart of the corporation’s news operations.

The researchers found that the UGC hub trawl through comments and submissions for news content and for eyewitnesses to pass on to radio and TV as potential interviewees.

The study found that approach focused on sorting the wheat from the chaff, with the wheat defined as eyewitness material, tip-offs and case studies to feature on TV and radio.

The researchers concluded that UGC has become institutionalised at the BBC as a form of newsgathering, consolidating the existing relationship between journalists and the audience.

They did find some examples of BBC journalists experimenting with other forms of audience engagement, but these were largely taking place on the periphery.

At the core of the BBC News operation, UGC has become embedded as a form of gathering the news, rather than as a way to explore new forms of journalism.

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