User-Produced Content

User-produced content refers to the explosion of new media products made possible by the Internet revolution and includes everything from product reviews to tweets to personal YouTube channels. Also known as user-generated content (UGC), these resources represent a shift in the production of intellectual property. In the past, intellectual property was produced and distributed by large corporations in the form of books, movies, television and radio programs, magazines, and so forth. These mass-produced media objects were transmitted to consumers, whose only option was to passively accept them and digest their content. A different model prevails with UGC, one in which every consumer can use technology to produce his or her own media and distribute it over the Internet at little or no cost. Furthermore, much ...