Villefranhe sur mer, Nice, France (2019)

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña

What is User-Created Content?

Am I a sharing any type of content? 

         User Creative Content (also known as UCC) is a recently coined term used to differentiate it from User Generated Content (UGC). UCC has lots to do with what people do on the Internet, especially while sharing their lives on social media. As we delve deeper into understanding the type of content one can get to produce, one gets to think what is actually being created and then then shared on social media and how it should be named.

         Based on The University of Sydney (n.d.), there are three types of content that can be labelled as UCC. Gathering my thoughts for a while and revisiting the information provided by The University, here you have an infographic that summarizes what UCC is, the three types being listed, and examples for each kind of content that is shared.

As it can be seen, this user-created content that is now being produced is not meant to be linked to any kind of paid work or fan endeavor; otherwise, that work will be classified as user generated content (UGC), not UCC. Both types of content generated by users must be differentiated for better comprehension.

         So what is UGC? “User Generated Content is defined as any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid contributors or, using a better term, fans” (Gallegos, 2016). UGC’s content can be in the form of blogs, tweets, photographs, video recordings on Vimeo, WhatsApp, or YouTube, etc.; the very same means of sharing used by UCC contributors. What is important to understand here is that UCC is done for the sake of sharing content in online communities out of commonality, reciprocity, identity, collective action (or civility) and respect. No “free promotion” of objects or services is present in UCC sharing. UGC contributors are fans, as stated by Gallegos (2016), who follow a product, (micro) celebrety, program, and the like.

         Now the question: “Do you create any type of content?” My answer is: Yes, I do. And this creative content of mine is produced as part of my reflections and ideas linked to what I teach at the university in content or language classes, what I do at work in terms of curriculum design, what I continue to study as a self-regulated life-long learner, and what I feel like sharing with anyone who is part of a community of learning in education, mostly. The only kind of collaborative content I tend to develop as a virtual instructor at a local university in my home country is with students in my classes where I can coach them in their writing skills or help them develop their literary interpretations of classic writers; this is done through Google Drive. I have no experience in small scale tools at the moment. To conclude, this is pretty much the bedrock of my own UCC history.

References

Gallegos, J. (2016, August 23). What is User Generated Content (and Why You Should Be Using it). Retrieved August 5, 2020, from https://www.tintup.com/: https://www.tintup.com/blog/user-generated-content-definition/

The University of Sydney. (n.d.). What is user-created content? Retrieved 8 5, 2020, from https://www.futurelearn.com/: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ethical-social-media/1/steps/824136