Mobile phones and the news: How UK mainstream news broadcasting is stalling the video revolution

Abstract

From the mid-2000s, a sudden surge in the use of mobile phone footage by national and international broadcasters was widely anticipated as the precursor to a revolutionary change in the generation and dissemination of news. In the wake of events such as the London bombings of 2005, user generated content (UGC) bureaux and hubs were established by major media organisations from the BBC and CNN to Al Jazeera while new software and hardware was developed. The potential for covering virtually any news development from at least one of the world’s 7 billion mobile phones suggested a whole new phase of broadcast journalism was imminent. This study of news bulletins by three UK-based broadcasters – Channel 4, the BBC and ITV – establishes a new methodology for the identification of mobile phone content in broadcasting. It also finds that a decade later, mobile phone footage has not lived up to its early potential.