Histories of user-generated content : between formal and informal media economies

Debates about user-generated content (UGC) often depend on a contrast with its normative opposite, the professionally produced content that is supported and sustained by commercial media businesses or public organisations. UGC is seen to appear within or in opposition to professional media, often as a disruptive, creative, change-making force. Our suggestion is to position UGC not in opposition to professional or "producer media", or in hybridised forms of subjective combination with it (the so-called "pro-sumer" or "pro-am" system), but in relation to different criteria, namely the formal and informal elements in media industries. In this article, we set out a framework for the comparative and historical analysis of UGC systems and their relations with other formal and informal media activity, illustrated with examples ranging from games to talkback radio. We also consider the policy implications that emerge from a historicised reading of UGC as a recurring dynamic within media industries, rather than a manifestation of consumer agency specific to digital cultures.

Understanding Online Audio-Visual Content: A European Initiative, Media Literacy and the User

Recent debates about media literacy and the internet have begun to acknowledge the importance of active user-engagement and interaction. It is not enough simply to access material online, but also to comment upon it and re-use. Yet how do these new user expectations fit within digital initiatives which increase access to audio-visual-content but which prioritise access and preservation of archives and online research rather than active user-engagement? This article will address these issues of media literacy in relation to audio-visual content. It will consider how these issues are currently being addressed, focusing particularly on the high-profile European initiative EUscreen. EUscreen brings together 20 European television archives into a single searchable database of over 40,000 digital items. Yet creative re-use restrictions and copyright issues prevent users from re-working the material they find on the site. Instead of re-use, EUscreen instead offers access and detailed contextualisation of its collection of material. But if the emphasis for resources within an online environment rests no longer upon access but on user-engagement, what does EUscreen and similar sites offer to different users?

A Data Model for Content Modelling of Temporal Media

This paper describes a data model for content representation of temporal media in an IP based sensor network. The model is formed by introducing the idea of semantic-role from linguistics into the underlying concepts of formal event representation with the aim of developing a common event model. The architecture of a prototype system for a multi camera surveillance system, based on the proposed model is described. The important aspects of the proposed model are its expressiveness, its ability to model content of temporal media, and its suitability for use with a natural language interface. It also provides a platform for temporal information fusion, as well as organizing sensor annotations by help of ontologies.

Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Visitor Centre, Ggantija Visitor Centre:Prehistoric World Heritage Sites visitor centre media and academic content

2010-12 Expert Assistance with research material, digital illustration and text for Visitor Centres in Malta and Gozo (Heritage Malta) and National Museum

Content marketing and brand engagement on social media: a study of Facebook´s posts in the ecommerce industry in Brazil

Content marketing refers to marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. It is focused not on selling, but on communicating with customers and prospects. In today world´s, a trend has been seen in brands becoming publishers in order to keep up with their competition and more importantly to keep their base of fans and followers. Content Marketing is making companies to engage consumers by publishing engaging and value-filled content. This study aims to investigate if there is a link between brand engagement and Facebook Content Marketing practices in the e-commerce industry in Brazil. Based on the literature review, this study defines brand engagement on Facebook as the numbers of "likes" "comments" and "shares" that a company receives from its fans. These actions reflect the popularity of the brand post and leads to engagement. The author defines a scale where levels of Content Marketing practices are developed in order to analyze brand posts on Facebook of an ecommerce company in Brazil. The findings reveal that the most important criterion for the company is the one regarding the picture of the post, where it examines whether the photo content is appealing to the audience. Moreover, it was perceived that the higher the level of these criterion in a post, the greater the number of likes, comments and shares the post receives. The time when a post is published does not present a significant role in determining customer engagement and the most important factor within a publication is to reach the maximum level in the Content Marketing Scale.

Book Review: M. Holoubek, D. Damjanovic, M. Trainer: Regulating Content. The European Regulatory Framework for the Media and Related Creative Sectors

Review of 'Regulating Content - The European Regulatory Framework for the Media and Related Creative Sectors', by M. Holoubek, D. Damjanovic, M. Trainer (Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2007), including some thoughts on contemporary media regulation.

Looking for business models in digital media and content industries

International Conference on Dynamics of the Media and Content Industry. European Forum for Science and Industry.

Brand loyalties: rethinking content within global corporate media

Translating content from one media platform to another, a process here dubbed content streaming, is the leitmotif of contemporary globalized media. Yet widely divergent interpretations of the phenomenon have emerged. Academic political economy interprets content streaming as powerfully inimical to cultural diversity, media competition and freedom of speech. Mainstream business reporting, working from an opposing media economics schema, pillories ‘synergy’-based content strategies as oversold in theory and unworkable in practice. Challenging this established trend for the disciplines to develop in parallel, the article harnesses mainstream critique of content streaming to political economy’s traditionally circumspect view of corporate media. Examining first the commercial rationales for pursuing content streaming, before turning to the financial and managerial constraints on realizing these goals, the article positions content streaming as less all-pervasive than political economists have feared, but more commercially entrenched than the financial press currently allows.