Hi everyone! It is finally time to pen down our thoughts for our last blog post for this course! This time around, I am going to be discussing about what user generated content is all about and why we should be concerned with it in the 21st century.
Well first off, we got to start with the definition. User generated content is being defined as any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid contributors or, using a better term, fans. It can come in the form of an advertisement, a newspaper, Facebook posts, tweets and even writing a blog post, which is what I am doing right now.
More often than not, media users produce their own content online as a means to earn some extra revenue as a form of livelihood. As we live in such a fast-paced world nowadays, user generated content is becoming more and more rampant. Because of this, many of us have very short attention span, which is why user generated content needs to be short and sweet, delivering the message as effectively as possible without boring the readers too much. To me personally, a user generated content to earn revenue is no different from someone who is doing a business outside. Both parties have to scan the market and find out from the consumers about their likes and dislikes, and find out what is the latest trend in order to stay competitive in this fast sand changing world.
In the 21st century, most of us if not all of us carry a smartphone or a laptop with us wherever we go, and check our online notifications every now and then. This is the best opportunity for users that generate their own content to convince and engage us in their content so as to convince us to buy their product or watch the advertisements through advertising.
Based on what I have learnt from the lecture on UGC taught by our lecturer, the user generated content needs to satisfy 5 important aspects. The 5 aspects are cognitive needs, affective needs, personal integrative needs, social integrative needs and tension release needs. To me personally, I feel that tension release needs rank the highest in terms of creating the most successful user generated content. This is especially true in Singapore’s context, where everything is so fast-paced and everyone and everything requires great efficiency and accuracy to carry out our daily tasks. This causes us to burn out very easily and get stressed. With the amount of stand up comedy shows on YouTube and various exciting TV shows like Netflix, the media is a good way to de-stress from our stressful lives, thereby satisfying the tension release needs.
OUR VERY OWN USER GENERATED CONTENT!
My team and I decided to generate our own content on the topic of Feminism, particularly at the workplace. The purpose of this video is to highlight the importance of feminism and why women should stand up for themselves when they are being treated unfairly.
Hope you all will enjoy the video!
Sean's blog 
Hi Sean!
I do agree on your point that a large portion of UGC that is uploaded is mainly base on commercializing purposes such as that of Youtube whereby the producer gets paid base on views etc. However, some UGC like personal blogs or publications on facebook can simply be a place where individuals take to in order to release their own personal opinions on matters as well! Though i do feel that most UGC that caontains “inappropriate” content such as vulgar, violent and socially unaccepted contents are geared more towards the hope that such content will go viral and eventually enabling its creators to benefit financially from it. Also, I like your point on how you feel that most of us living in Singapore take to mediated platforms in order to fulfill our tension free needs! Thinking about it, I myself may have engage in video watching to lessen my stress as well (:
Cheers!
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Hello! Good point on mentioning that both media users and business men/women are on the same page, dealing with similar target audiences, keeping up with ever-changing trends and knowing how to approach consumers. I have a few acquaintances who initially started off with setting up a clothes business and only using social media platform to promote and sell. Overtime, with the earned profits, a physical store was set up recently. I feel that it was through social media, the business was able to soar up high. I fully agree with you that tension release needs are ranked the highest as we are always so swamped with work and things to do that we rarely take time off to relax and recuperate. This is not good for our mental health and thus watching netflix and comedy shows really help us to release some tension. Plus it’s available on our mobile phones or tablets or laptops, so we can just do it on the way back home or to another destination. Anyway, great effort and cheers to our last blogpost!!
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