Otterblog

One of the abbreviations that has sprouted up in newsrooms in recent users is UGC. It means user-generated content. Essentially, it’s all the stuff on Web sites (and in print) that isn’t created by quote unquote professional journalists. It’s the letters to the editor, the comments on stories, the recipe swaps, milestones etc. There’s a lot of it out there.

And there are lots of ways to look at it and what it means. The cynic’s view (and I from time to time fall into that camp) says that cash-strapped newspapers are finding ways to get content for free to replace all the content they’ve lost through cutbacks. An honest appraisal would find some truth in that camp. But there’s more to it than that. There’s a sense of engagement and inclusion that is pretty powerful and important as institutional/mainstream media look for new ways to create stronger/better ties with readers. Technology has certainly pushed this along, as it’s incredibly easy for content to move from user to producer.

And in addition and quite honestly, some of this UGC is pretty good. It’s not filler. A case in point was our Sunday travel photo show on the Smokies and the 75th anniversary of Great Smoky National Park. Rather than using so-so art from the wire services to accompany the piece, we sent out a solicitation to readers for their photos. And they responded with some exceptional photos. You can see them all here. The one of the waterfalls near Gatlinburg is my favorite.

Speaking of the park, I just finished Serena, by Ron Rash, a North Carolina author and professor at Western Carolina. It’s Macbeth in the mountains, with timber barons battling the preservationists during the creation of GSNP. Very good.

Other books on the OTTERBLOG summer reading list: The Gulag Archipelago, probably more relevant today than ever, and the the Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, which I’m about a third through and is sort of a combination of Huckleberry Finn and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

Finally, a note of recognition. At 5 p.m. on Saturday, while most of us were winding up our chores or hanging out in the air-conditioned splendor of inside, a hundred or so folks were at Hanes Park for the Ultimate Runner competition. It consists of five races: a 100m, 400m, 800m, 1 mile and 5,000m race. It tires me just to type that out. Three Journal staffers were among the competitors: James Romoser, Dan Galindo and John Dell. Impressive performances by all.