A two-day workshop on the UNESCO-ABU Project on Promoting UGC and MIL started yesterday in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). It will be later followed up with the participants to collect the required information and good practices. The outcome of the workshop will be reported to the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2011, which is being held from 8 to 11 March in Kuala Lumpur. This annual event is being attended by over 400 delegates.

With changing scenario in broadcasting, UGC is being increasingly created and shared with broadcasters. This growth in user-generated content provides broadcasters with numerous opportunities, such as greater access to a higher volume and increased diversity of content for both news and non-news programming. UGC also provides a vehicle for strengthening broadcasters’ relationship with audiences and improves platform for a public discourse.

UNESCO has launched this project in cooperation with CBA and regional broadcasting unions, such as ABU, and other international broadcasting associations, such as the Iberoamerican Association of Educational and Cultural Televisions (ATEI) and the International Council of French speaking radios and televisions (CIRTEF), to encourage broadcasters to foster the use of UGC and, in the same time, promote MIL. ABU has included these areas in its activity agenda and intends to promote them among its members through capacity building and awareness raising. ABU, as well as other partners, will undertake case studies to collect relevant information on UGC and MIL, to identify critical issues in this area and best practices that need to be shared with and eventually applied by broadcasters.