Since the advent of social media in the mid 2000s, the use of user-generated content (UGC) by news organisations around the world has dramatically changed the media landscape, with editorial agendas and programme rundowns now strongly featuring eyewitness content.
Internationally, media organisations are investing large sums in building units and tools to help discover, verify and distribute such content across their platforms.
Media organisations in Ireland, too, have been quick to use UGC as a new source of content. Yet many of these organisations are using such content unethically; without proper verification standards, without permissions from content owners; instead, they often favour a "Fair Use" policy in using the content.
Numerous media organisations and outlets in Ireland have used UGC in broadcasts, online and across their social media platforms without permissions from the content owners, and without attribution or courtesy to them. There have also been repeated instances of misattribution and the re-use of unauthorised copies of the original content.
Here I investigate the use of user-generated content by Irish media organisations and their disregard for content ownership, potentially denying revenue for content creators.
The piece highlights the editorial practices of BenchWarmers.ie in publishing content which they do not own or have permission to post to their own social profiles. BenchWarmers are backed in this practice by Landmark Media Investments, who have provided them with desk space inside theIrish Examiner newsroom. The piece also looks at how TV3 botched the verification of a widely debunked video during the #Brusselsattacks.
This piece was produced as part of a Final Year Project at the University of Limerick.
