Fergus Bell has helped establish AP as a leader in finding, vetting and distributing user-generated content around the globe. Bell has focused on the impact of social media on the news industry since it started to take off in 2010. He now leads AP’s UGC and digital newsgathering operation in London and is responsible for identifying UGC when a story breaks so AP can acquire, verify and publish it across formats. Bell also trains AP staff globally in UGC acquisition and social media monitoring. He has used social media to aid AP’s newsgathering operations and source UGC for the events of the Arab Spring, the civil war in Syria, the shootings in Norway and the Japanese earthquake. In 2012, Bell won the Oliver S. Gramling Achievement Award for his pioneering work in the area of UGC.
