Amateur footage: the increasing reliance on user generated content in news output

News outlets are using more and more footage filmed by eyewitnesses at breaking news events. With the proliferation of mobile phones with high quality cameras and easy access to the social web, citizen journalists and these ‘accidental journalists' can now film and upload photos and videos in seconds. This panel explores the issues that User Generated Content (UGC) throws up for for newsrooms integrating this type of content in their output in terms of ethics, verification, copyright law and vicarious trauma. Caroline Bannock and Fergus Bell work with UGC on a daily basis because of their roles at the Guardian and the AP, and Claire Wardle will be annoucing new findings from an ongoing research project on UGC funded by the Tow Center.