ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a case study which examines BBC news journalists’ attitudes to, and uses of, audience material or user-generated content (UGC). Our fi ndings are based on a multi-method study of audience material at the BBC, co-funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the BBC, which studied the ways in which BBC news journalism is affected by audience material, which audience members submit material, and what public attitudes are towards it. We focus here on the production element of the research, and use data drawn from newsroom observations and interviews with practitioners. Our guiding research questions were as follows: What are the attitudes of BBC news journalists towards the increased use of audience material in the news? How do journalists use audience material on a daily basis? Has the increased use of audience material changed journalism practice, and if so in what ways? What roles do the institutional frameworks set up by the BBC to elicit content from the audience, and to integrate it into news products, play in cementing or disrupting established journalism practice?
