Is Big Media Liable for Hosting Consumer Generated Content?

When I spoke at the OMMA conference this week someone from a top 10 magazine asked me how news organizations such as the Austin American Statesman, Advance Internet, MSNBC, etc are dealing with verifying the legitimacy of the citizen journalism content they use. They are concerned about potential liability issues. For example, it's fairly easy for a consumer to use Photoshop to create and submit faked photographs. This particular media company I am talking to believes this is a huge issue for pro-am partnerships like these. If anyone out there can help, please leave a comment or link to this post from your own blog. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: Journalism, Media

Comments

[Dennis Howlett]

1. moderation
2. check the key facts as normal

[Terry Heaton]

Steve, please remove the term "consumer generated content" from your lexicon. It's a set-up for questions like the one being asked, because it frames the personal media revolution into a mass marketing subset. It isn't, and the sooner everybody realizes that, the sooner we can get on with appropriate business models and such. Cheers.

[Kevin Burton]

DMCA safe harbour prevents them from being sued over copyright issues.

As for false content... they're just going to have to get used to it.

The telephone allows me to call them and give them fake tips. We're not throwing away the telephone are we?

Blogs are the future.. they aren't perfect but they're a lot better than what we've got now.

[Mike Driehorst]

In echoing Dennis Howlett's comment, treat any -- ANY -- submission from a non-staff member as any ol' news tip. That's why newspapers and TV and radio stations have "news tip" lines and e-mails. They encourage their audience to participate and act as "citizen journalists."

Contact the person(s) submitting to ensure there are no games or submitting under false pretenses.
Verify the information.

Pretty simple.

[Carlos Saldivia]

<>

Well Steve--if you don't mind--them first..Then we'll move to worrying about citizen journalism legitimacy..

[Steve Shu]

When we set up the end-user generated content MBA blog community for BusinessWeek at http://www.mbablogs.businessweek.com, BW set up an end user set of terms and conditions that each end-user blogger needs to accept. Liability, warranty, etc. clauses are spelled out. http://www.businessweek.com/copyrt.htm

This kind of thing does not prevent people from abusing things and/or submitting illigitimate content. However, the limitations of liability, etc. are spelled out when the blogger registers, etc.

[KOB]

I run dcblogs.com and the issue of getting entangled in someone's chain of liabilty is a concern, but not too much of one. I think the issues I face relate to your point.

Aside from categorizing blogs local to DC metro, I post a daily feed of new and interesting blog posts with an excerpt and perhaps a partial screenshot. A great hobby and fun.

In picking posts to make note of, I apply rules that served me well in a distant life as a newspaper editorial page editor/letters editor.

I won't make a note of blog post that involves a personal attack, business dispute or someone's employment. I'll also avoid anything that generally requires a serious fact check on my part.

The most common problem involves business dispute related issues, "the waiter overcharged me" "my cellular provider is ripping me off" "my medical insurance provider wants me to die" etc. I also have to admit to being a little cautious with extremely negative restaurant reviews -- especially if I don't know the writer behind the blog and if the blog is new. I have no doubt that as local blogging gains more notice, that competitors will use blogs to trash one another.

But I really do believe that solid editorial practices will protect newspapers and blog publishers, like myself.

I'm more concerned about automated feeds and community bulletin board type blogs that allow members the freedom to post to locally high-traffic sites. Will the publishers there be potentially liable if their automated feed helps spread a personal attack, or a community bulletin board is used to trash a local business with rumor and falsehood?

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