User Generated Content

Mapping Digital Media: Netherlands

by Levien Nordeman

Co-authored with Martijn de Waal, Thomas Poell, Andra Leurdijk

"The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by the transition from... more "The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by the transition from traditional to digital media. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes affect the core democratic service that any media system should provide: news about political, economic, and social affairs.

This is an exciting and difficult time for independent journalism and civil society in the Netherlands. Thanks to unprecedented opportunities for new ways of doing journalism, connecting to audiences or mobilizing civil society, and getting one’s voice heard, a new media ecology seems to be taking shape.

However, the challenges are great. Although newspapers still reach significant readerships, they face grave economic threats from decreasing subscriptions and sales, and shrinking revenue from advertising. "Shocklogs” are making sectors of public debate less civilized, and intensified competition is changing the tone of much news reporting. There is a looming threat of concentration in the distribution market, mostly by foreign companies such as Apple and Google. The rise of PR influence and wire stories, meanwhile, undermines original news-gathering, and poses a particular danger to independent news at the local level.

The means of countering these threats have not yet realized their potential, and may never do so. Investigative journalism on blogs exists, but is for most part still marginal, crowd-funding and other innovative techniques are promising, but it remains to be seen whether they can off set the negative developments. Public broadcasting has so far preserved its traditional standards, but there is no guarantee that it will be able to fill any of the emerging gaps—due to budget cuts and the threat of having to curtail its internet activities."

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/media/articles_publications/publications/mapping-digital-media-netherlands-20120123

La participación como bien de consumo: una aproximación conceptual a las formas de implicación de los usuarios en proyectos audiovisuales colaborativos

by Antoni Roig Telo

This paper focuses on the concept of participation, widely used —and also contested— in relation to the engagement of... more This paper focuses on the concept of participation, widely used —and also contested— in relation to the engagement of users in the creation of media content.on the internet. particularly, our interest lies in the participation of publics in the design, development and diffusion of complex media products, such as feature films, webseries or transmedia projects. even if most of the academic debates on user agency, in terms of participation, are connected to content sharing platforms —which rely heavily on user–generated content—, or the so–called social media, the engagement of individuals in participatory–related media projects becomes an important contribution to the delimitation and reevaluation of key concepts around the engagement of users in cultural production processes.

CONSUMER AS AN ADVERTISER

by Ebru Uzunoglu

The Google Effect

by Tara Brabazon

Libri, Vol. 56, No. 3, September 2006, pp. 157-167

Nieuwe contentmakers

by Skylla Janssen

Publicatie van Joke Hermes en Skylla Janssen verschenen in Jaarboek ICT en Samenleving 2006.

Social TV. Il futuro è nelle conversazioni

by Emanuela Zaccone PhD

A short paper about Social TV and its evolution for the Telecom Italia's "Working Capital" blog.
Published on July 4th 2011

What is Social TV?
How does it affect Social Media Marketing for audiovisual products? What is Social TV?
How does it affect Social Media Marketing for audiovisual products?

Co-creation and user-generated content-elderly people's user requirements

by Petter Bae Brandtzaeg

Karahasanović, A., Brandtzæg, P.B., Heim, J., Lüders, M., Vermeir, L., Pierson, J., Lievens, B., Vanattenhoven, J., & Jans, G. (2009). Co-Creation and User-Generated Content – Elderly People’s User Requirements. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(3), 655-679.

There is an increasing demand on citizens to participate in social network websites and to create and share their own... more There is an increasing demand on citizens to participate in social network websites and to create and share their own user-generated content (UGC), such as photographs, videos, and blogs. So far, little is known about how elderly people respond to these new trends and master the techniques required. This paper reports on three studies that investigated elderly people’s user requirements related to consumption, sharing and co-creation of UGC in new media. The first study, conducted in Norway, identifies patterns of Internet usage, age differences, and participation in online communities and the consumption, sharing and co-creation of UGC on a macro level. The second study, conducted in Belgium, investigated the social requirements of elderly people on a group level. The third study, also conducted in Belgium, investigated user and context requirements on an individual level. The results of the first study show that the elderly rarely participate in online communities and share audio-visual UGC. However, they embrace some aspects of the new media and more often express themselves politically. The results of the second study show that the elderly are very motivated to contribute with UGC, given the right circumstances. The results of the third study show that it is important for elderly people that they be able to use the new technologies easily and identifies their worries about using them.

"AUDIOVISIVI E SOCIAL NETWORKS: IL TESTO E I MODI DELL’ESPERIENZA 2007-2010"

by Emanuela Zaccone PhD

This is my PhD thesis

The doctoral research project "Audiovisuals and Social Networks: Text and Experiences 2007-2010" is mainly... more The doctoral research project "Audiovisuals and Social Networks: Text and Experiences 2007-2010" is mainly based on the analysis of the international audiovisuals landscape and of the promotional strategies of these products in Social Networks environment.
The aim is to understand what kind of changes we can find about the concept of "text", users and marketing.
The thesis is focused not just on Social Network marketing but also on new media development, such as Social TV and mobile.

Social Networks and the Diffusion of User-Generated Content: Evidence from YouTube

by Anjana Susarla

Co-authored with Jeong-Ha Oh and Yong Tan

This paper is motivated by the success of YouTube, which is attractive to content creators as well as corporations for... more This paper is motivated by the success of YouTube, which is attractive to content creators as well as corporations for its potential to rapidly disseminate digital content. The networked structure of interactions on YouTube and the tremendous variation in the success of videos posted online lends itself to an inquiry of the role of social influence. Using a unique data set of video information and user information collected from YouTube, we find that social interactions are influential not only in determining which videos become successful but also on the magnitude of that impact. We also find evidence for a number of mechanisms by which social influence is transmitted, such as (i) a preference for conformity and homophily and (ii) the role of social networks in guiding opinion formation and directing product search and discovery. Econometrically, the problem in identifying social influence is that individuals' choices depend in great part upon the choices of other individuals, referred to as the reflection problem. Another problem in identification is to distinguish between social contagion and user heterogeneity in the diffusion process. Our results are in sharp contrast to earlier models of diffusion, such as the Bass model, that do not distinguish between different social processes that are responsible for the process of diffusion. Our results are robust to potential self-selection according to user tastes, temporal heterogeneity and the reflection problem. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed.

‎Mine, Yours and Ours - How narrative structures may influence User Generated Content

by Thais Weiller

Published at McLuhan Galaxy 2011 annals.

This article investigates the existence of different kinds of User
Generated Content (UGC) and the connection... more This article investigates the existence of different kinds of User
Generated Content (UGC) and the connection between UGC and some narrative structures of the media product itself. The corpus of the analysis is constituted by videogames and the UGC related to them, in particular Halo and Metroid series and illustrates how small differences in, for instance, character presentation may influence both player’s understanding of the character itself and the kind of production is mainly created in the subject.‎

Conceptualizing UGC in the context of Participatory Journalism

by Edith Manosevitch

Paper prepared for presentation at the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Istanbul Conference, July 13-17, 2011

User generated content (UGC) is an emerging concept that has been applied in reference to a variety of platforms and... more User generated content (UGC) is an emerging concept that has been applied in reference to a variety of platforms and contexts (Leung, 2008). In recent years, scholars have begun looking specifically at the exploitation of UGC within the context of professional journalism (e.g., Vujnovic et al., 2009; Ornebring, 2008; Paulussen & Ugille, 2008; Singer et al., 2011). Theoretically, these scholars have placed the concept in the broad terms of participatory journalism. One of the prevalent definitions in this context holds UGC as "a process whereby ordinary people have an opportunity to participate with or contribute to professionally edited publications" (Hermida & Thurman, 2008: 344). Consequently, the concept incorporates an array of user content—from user comments, blogs and forums, to user ratings and hierarchical lists of most read or shared sections.
As UGC becomes an integral component of online journalism, with scholars and practitioners exploring ways to enhance its utility to journalism and democracy, it is essential to further conceptualize UGC, making distinctions that illuminate varying facets of UGC and their effects. In this research I offer an elaborate conceptualization of UGC, which is based on two distinctive assessments: (1) user-created UGC and editorial-created UGC. Whilst the user-initiated requires intentional and active contribution by the user; the editorial-created could be based mainly or solely on users' activities that can be aggregated and exhibited; (2) open-ended UGC and closed-ended UGC. Open-ended refers to content which users generate by using their personal choice of expression. Closed ended refers to content provided by users in response to close-ended questions. The paper provides a detailed discussion of these distinctions and their implications for journalism and participatory democracy, along with a variety of examples in which these continuums are been implemented in leading online newspapers.

Marketing 2.0: A new marketing strategy

by Fabio Musso

Musso F., Consoli D. (2010), “Marketing 2.0: A New Marketing Strategy”, Journal of International Scientific Publications: Economy & Business, Vol. 4, Part, 2, ISSN 1313-2555, pp. 315-325.

The advent of Web 2.0 and its collaborative tools (forums, chat, blogs, wikis) simplified the interaction among... more The advent of Web 2.0 and its collaborative tools (forums, chat, blogs, wikis) simplified the interaction among various business subjects (company, customers, suppliers). A new model of Enterprise 2.0 communicates interactively with all stakeholders, cooperate with them, listen, create, share and capitalize knowledge. Web 2.0 enhances customer relationships and supports, fully, developments in the field of marketing: from advertisement to participation, from social networking to mobile communication. In this paper we talk about Marketing 2.0 that with interactive web 2.0 tools facilitates the relationships between enterprise and customer. The enterprise communicate with customer, by a bidirectional channel, during pre and post purchase. The customer affections sentimentally and emotionally to brand and company. The enterprise can know, in real-time, reviews of customers on product/service and the degree of satisfaction and behaves accordingly. Marketing 2.0 leds companies to reach business goals using technological tools and social media that exploit, in the interactive dialogue, the old power of word of mouth.

Edited Participation: Comparing Editorial Influence On Traditional and Participatory Online Newspapers In Sweden

by Michael Karlsson

Published in Javnost/The Public, 2011 18(2) pp. 19-36, co-authored with Kristoffer Holt

Although participatory journalism involves publishing content created by users, editorial influence is an important... more Although participatory journalism involves publishing content created by users, editorial influence is an important aspect of participatory online media. Editors shape the conditions under which user generated content is produced, the context of publication and the perceived prominence of the content. It is still unclear how this influence manifests itself, and how it can be related to the discussion about participatory media’s potential for revitalising democracy. In this paper, three online news media in Sweden are analysed comparatively: Sourze – the first Swedish participatory newspaper; Newsmill – a social media focusing on news and debate; and DN – the online version of the largest Swedish morning paper Dagens Nyheter. The question is how participation is affected by editorial influence. The findings suggest that participatory arenas are constrained by the logic of their context of production. People from different categories in society participate on different terms. Furthermore, editors influence the agenda by suggesting topics, and by rewarding articles that follow their suggestions. These fi ndings do not challenge assumptions about participatory newspapers as more accessible channels for citizens and therefore interesting as possible means of allowing a more democratically involved citizenry, but it challenges assumptions about freedom from constraints related to traditional mass media, such as agenda setting, gate-keeping and media logic.

Revisiting cacheability in times of user generated content

by Fabian Schneider

Auhtors: B. Ager, F. Schneider, J. Kim, A. Feldmann
Published in Proc. GI'10

Today’s Internet traffic is dominated by users’ demand for exchanging content. In particular, multi-media content, i.... more Today’s Internet traffic is dominated by users’ demand for exchanging content. In particular, multi-media content, i. e., photos, music, and video, as well as software downloads and updates contribute substantially to today’s Internet traffic. One option for reducing network costs is to use caches—exploiting the observation that content popularity is consistent with Zipf’s law. Yet, Web caching became unprofitable due to the increase in popularity of dynamic Web content. However, since at this point rich content is not very dynamic caching appears to be worthwhile again.
We base our analysis on anonymized traces from a large Euro- pean ISP connecting more than 20,000 residential DSL customers to the Internet, collected in 2009. We focus on the most prominent protocols in this environment—HTTP, BitTorrent (BT), eDonkey, and NNTP—and estimate the potential of caching for traffic reduction. On the one hand, our results show that the potential for caching most client/server-based applications like HTTP and NNTP is small. On the other hand P2P-based applications such as BitTorrent and certain HTTP based applications have high content duplication ratios.

TEACHING VS. COACHING IN VISUAL DESIGN PROGRAMME. A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH BASED ON SELF-LEARNING & USER GENERATED CONTENT.

by Letizia Bollini

Published in INTED2011 Proceedings CD
ISBN: 978-84-614-7423-3

The research project was developed inside a multidisciplinary cultural environment: the students, graduated in... more The research project was developed inside a multidisciplinary cultural environment: the students, graduated in technology courses or a psyhco-cognitive training, learn the basic knowledge of visual communication and design. Starting from a constructivist pedagogical perspective, the Visual Design class – held inside the Theory and Technology of Communication Degree Programme at Milano-Bicocca University – was designed to build up a global, immediate, direct student experience giving up with the traditional approach that separates a previous stage to learn guidelines and rules and a successive direct application.
According with the constructivist theoretical approach the whole course of Visual Design was designed and improved during the years, exploiting the potentiality of collaborative dynamics of web 2.0 & social networks. The final goal was the immediate involvement of the students as leading subject in the manifold activities of the visual communication design.
Classe’s activities were focused on retrieving, discriminating, elaborating, discussing, sharing, producing and disseminating cultural content on basic visual design main issues. Students – divided in team working on monographic issues like: the grammar of visual design, digital typography, the language of colors, use and meaning of images and so on – were supported in a self- development and self-teaching process through a collaborative approach.
In this experiment, the role of didactics was to coach and to enable the learning process based on the experience, to gain the ability to discriminate between Internet sources and materials, or to propose theoretical or disciplinary point of views. The class was supported by a FaceBook Page to post links, videos, images and other stuff, where invited practitioners and experts shared in an open dialog the knowledge and professional experience. Seminars and interviews were other supports to discover, from leading contributors of the field the recent history of graphic design.
The final assignment was to edit and publishing on a print-on-demand platform and ePublishing free distributors a professional – although User Generated – essay to directly implement in a real project the learned and shared principles and notions.
The project will be prosecuted next year: the new class will use the edited eBoooks to learn the visual design principles and will be requested to improve and to enhance examples, bibliography and materials elaborated during the previous year.

Citizen Journalism and Democracy: How User-Generated News Use Relates to Political Knowledge and Participation

by Sebastián Valenzuela

Co-authored with Kelly Kaufhold and Homero Gil de Zúñiga; published in 'Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly,' vol. 87, pp. 515-529 (2010)

Does user-generated news increase individuals’ political knowledge and political participation? Addressing this... more Does user-generated news increase individuals’ political knowledge and political participation? Addressing this question is the purpose of this study. Using national survey data, results indicate that both professional and citizen journalism have an effect on democratic citizenship. The picture however, is rather complex. Those who consume news through professional outlets—online and offline—tended to score marginally higher in our political knowledge scale than those who consumed news through citizen outlets. Thus, professional journalism excels over citizen journalism at informing individuals about national political figures. In relation to political involvement, however, both types of journalism seem to have a positive impact. Nevertheless, citizen journalism seems to mobilize individuals to a level that professional journalism doesn’t reach.