User-generated content and its use in news media

This diploma thesis aims to explore the increasing activity of internet users who intensively create, publish and spread their own content. The majority of this content is related to news and traditional forms of mass media organizations, which now must contend with the new means in which to disseminate information. The theoretical portion of this thesis describes the development of network media and strives for ground active user participation in media discourse and a historical context. Kinds of user-created contents will be introduced, defining their characteristics and analyzes these users who are called "prosumers" or "produsers" in the Web 2.0 era. Attention is also focused on user-generated content accessed by news websites and citizen journalism. The second part analyzes how the foremost world news media use and benefit from user-generated content. Examined media are iReport CNN, uReport Fox News and Have Your Say BBC. The text also analyzes the Czech news media, especially ČT24 news channel and main Czech news websites. The thesis closes with a comparison between Czech and world media and offers analysis of different media organizations approaches to user-generated content. Both parts of the thesis focus on web and television news service