Journalists’ "unsociable" nature is stopping them from making the most of user-generated content, Paul Bradshaw said at Journalism.co.uk's news:rewired event today.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, Bradshaw, who is director of the MA Journalism course at Birmingham City University and founder of Online Journalism Blog and Help Me Investigate, said pride plays a big part in poor interaction with users.

"There’s an awful amount of status that goes with being a journalist," he said. “To take a step back and share some of that power takes some humility. I also think a lot of journalists are quite antisocial beings. If you’re stuck behind a desk its easier to just churn content for a lot of journalists."

But, he added that on the other hand, journalists using user-generated content must also share information with their audience.

"It isn’t about going on your site and saying please help us, tell us your experience or paying people," he said. "Where it seems to work is where journalists lead by example, sharing yourself and contributing yourself. That’s when people will respond."

Also speaking on the issue at news:rewired, Chris Taggart, founder of OpenlyLocal, said mainstream media are often guilty of avoiding UGC.

"There are few examples of mainstream media doing this [user-generated content]," he said. "For them reader/viewer contributions are mostly vacuous comments that's treated as free content."

Hear Journalism.co.uk speak to Paul Bradshaw below:
 
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