Content creation

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Content creation is the act of producing and sharing information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. According to Dictionary.com, content refers to "something that is to be expressed through some medium, as speech, writing or any of various arts" [1] for self-expression, distribution, marketing and/or publication. Content creation encompasses various activities including maintaining and updating web sites, blogging, article writing, photography, videography, online commentary, social media accounts, and editing and distribution of digital media. In a survey conducted by Pew, content creation was defined as "the material people contribute to the online world." [2]

Contents

Content creators

News organizations

News organizations, especially those with a large and global reach like The New York Times, NPR, and CNN, consistently create some of the most shared content on the Web, especially in relation to current events. In the words of a 2011 report from the Oxford School for the Study of Journalism and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, "Mainstream media is the lifeblood of topical social media conversations in the UK." [3] While the rise of digital media has disrupted traditional news outlets, many have adapted and have begun to produce content that is designed to function on the web and be shared on social media. The social media site Twitter is a major distributor and aggregator of breaking news from various sources, and the function and value of Twitter in the distribution of news is a frequent topic of discussion and research in journalism. [4] User-generated content, social media blogging and citizen journalism have changed the nature of news content in recent years. [5] The company Narrative Science is now using artificial intelligence to produce news articles and interpret data. [6]

Colleges, universities, and think tanks

Academic institutions, such as colleges and universities, create content in the form of books, journal articles, white papers, and some forms of digital scholarship, such as blogs that are group edited by academics, class wikis, or video lectures that support a massive open online course (MOOC). Through an open data initiative, institutions may make raw data supporting their experiments or conclusions available on the Web. Academic content may be gathered and made accessible to other academics or the public through publications, databases, libraries, and digital libraries. Academic content may be closed source or open access (OA). Closed-source content is only available to authorized users or subscribers. For example, an important journal or a scholarly database may be a closed source, available only to students and faculty through the institution's library. Open-access articles are open to the public, with the publication and distribution costs shouldered by the institution publishing the content.

Companies

Corporate content includes advertising and public relations content, as well as other types of content produced for profit, including white papers and sponsored research. Advertising can also include auto-generated content, with blocks of content generated by programs or bots for search engine optimization. [7] Companies also create annual reports which are part of their company's workings and a detailed review of their financial year. This gives the stakeholders of the company insight into the company's current and future prospects and direction. [8]

Artists and writers

Cultural works, like music, movies, literature, and art, are also major forms of content. Examples include traditionally published books and e-books as well as self-published books, digital art, fanfiction, and fan art. Independent artists, including authors and musicians, have found commercial success by making their work available on the Internet. [9]

Government

Through digitization, sunshine laws, open records laws and data collection, governments may make statistical, legal or regulatory information available on the Internet. National libraries and state archives turn historical documents, public records, and unique relics into online databases and exhibits. This has raised significant privacy issues. [10] In 2012, The Journal News , a New York state paper, sparked outcry when it published an interactive map of the state's gun owner locations using legally obtained public records. [11] Governments also create online or digital propaganda or misinformation to support domestic and international goals. This can include astroturfing, or using media to create a false impression of mainstream belief or opinion. [12]

Governments can also use open content, such as public records and open data, in service of public health, educational and scientific goals, such as crowdsourcing solutions to complex policy problems. [13] In 2013, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) joined asteroid mining company Planetary Resources to crowdsource the hunt for near-Earth objects. [14] Describing NASA's crowdsourcing work in an interview, technology transfer executive David Locke spoke of the "untapped cognitive surplus that exists in the world" which could be used to help develop NASA technology. [15] In addition to making governments more participatory, open records and open data have the potential to make governments more transparent and less corrupt. [16]

Users

The introduction of Web 2.0 made it possible for content consumers to be more involved in the generation and sharing of content. With the advent of digital media, the amount of user generated content, as well as the age and class range of users, has increased. 8% of Internet users are very active in content creation and consumption. [17] Worldwide, about one in four Internet users are significant content creators, [18] and users in emerging markets lead the world in engagement. [19] Research has also found that young adults of a higher socioeconomic background tend to create more content than those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. [20] 69% of American and European internet users are "spectators," who consume—but don't create—online and digital media. [19] The ratio of content creators to the amount of content they generate is sometimes referred to as the 1% rule, a rule of thumb that suggests that only 1% of a forum's users create nearly all of its content. Motivations for creating new content may include the desire to gain new knowledge, the possibility of publicity, or simple altruism. [21] Users may also create new content in order to bring about social reforms. However, researchers caution that in order to be effective, context must be considered, a diverse array of people must be included, and all users must participate throughout the process. [22]

According to a 2011 study, minorities create content in order to connect with their communities online. African-American users have been found to create content as a means of self-expression that was not previously available. Media portrayals of minorities are sometimes inaccurate and stereotypical which affects the general perception of these minorities. [23] African-Americans respond to their portrayals digitally through the use of social media such as Twitter and Tumblr. The creation of Black Twitter has allowed a community to share their problems and ideas. [24]

Teens

Younger users now have greater access to content, content creating applications, and the ability to publish to different types of media, such as Facebook, Blogger, Instagram, DeviantArt, or Tumblr. [25] As of 2005, around 21 million teens used the internet and 57%, or 12 million teens, consider themselves content creators. [26] This proportion of media creation and sharing is higher than that of adults. With the advent of the Internet, teens have had more access to tools for sharing and creating content. Increase in accessibility to technology, especially due to lower prices, has led to an increase in accessibility of content creation tools as well for teens. [27] Some teens use this to become content creators through online platforms like YouTube, while others use it to connect to friends through social networking sites. [28]

Issues

Quality

The rise of anonymous and user-generated content presents both opportunities and challenges to Web users. Blogging, self-publishing and other forms of content creation give more people access to larger audiences. However, this can also perpetuate rumors and lead to misinformation. It can make it more difficult to find quality content that meets users' information needs.

The feature of user-generated content and personalized recommendation algorithms of digital media also gives a rise to confirmation bias. Users may tend to seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs and ignore information that contradicts them. This can lead to one-sided, unbalanced content that does not present a complete picture of an issue.

The quality of digital contents varies from traditional academic or published writing. Digital media writing is often more engaging and accessible to a broader audience than academic writing, which is usually intended for a specialized audience. Digital media writers often use a conversational tone, personal anecdotes, and multimedia elements like images and videos to enhance the reader's experience. For example, the veteran populist anti-EU campaigner Farage's tweets in 2017–2018 used a lot of colloquial expressions and catchphrases to resonate the “common sense” with audiences. [29]

At the same time, digital media is also necessary for professional (academic) communicators to reach an audience, [30] as well as with connecting to scholars in their areas of expertise. [31]

The quality of digital contents is also influenced by capitalism and market-driven consumerism. [32] Writers may have commercial interests that influence the content they produce. For example, a writer who is paid to promote a particular product or service may write articles that are biased in favor of that product or service, even if it is not the best option for the reader.  

Metadata

Digital content is difficult to organize and categorize. Websites, forums, and publishers all have different standards for metadata, or information about the content, such as its author and date of creation. The perpetuation of different standards of metadata can create problems of accessibility and discoverability.

Ethics

Digital writing and content creation has evolved significantly. This has led to various ethical issues, including privacy, individual rights, and representation. [33] A focus on cultural identity has helped increase accessibility, empowerment, and social justice in digital media, but might also prevent users from freely communicating and expressing. [33]

Intellectual property

The ownership, origin, and right to share digital content can be difficult to establish. User-generated content presents challenges to traditional content creators (professional writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians, choreographers, etc.) with regard to the expansion of unlicensed and unauthorized derivative works, piracy and plagiarism. Also, the enforcement of copyright laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the U.S., makes it less likely that works will fall into the public domain.

Social movements

2011 Egyptian revolution

Content creation serves as a useful form of protest on social media platforms. The 2011 Egyptian revolution was one example of content creation being used to network protestors globally for the common cause of protesting the "authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa throughout 2011". [34] The protests took place in multiple cities in Egypt, and quickly evolved from peaceful protest into open conflict. Social media outlets allowed protestors from different regions to network with each other and raise awareness of the widespread corruption in Egypt's government, as well as helping coordinate their response. Youth activists promoting the rebellion were able to formulate a Facebook group, "Progressive Youth of Tunisia". [34]

Other

Examples of recent social media protest through online content include the global widespread use of the hashtags #MeToo, used to raise awareness against sexual abuse, and #BlackLivesMatter, which focused on police brutality against black people.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital media</span> Any media that are encoded in machine-readable formats

In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic device, including digital data storage media and digital broadcasting. Digital is defined as any data represented by a series of digits, and media refers to methods of broadcasting or communicating this information. Together, digital media refers to mediums of digitized information broadcast through a screen and/or a speaker. This also includes text, audio, video, and graphics that are transmitted over the internet for viewing or listening to on the internet.

Social software, also known as social apps or social platform includes communications and interactive tools that are often based on the Internet. Communication tools typically handle capturing, storing and presenting communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a pair or group of users. They focus on establishing and maintaining a connection among users, facilitating the mechanics of conversation and talk. Social software generally refers to software that makes collaborative behaviour, the organisation and moulding of communities, self-expression, social interaction and feedback possible for individuals. Another element of the existing definition of social software is that it allows for the structured mediation of opinion between people, in a centralized or self-regulating manner. The most improved area for social software is that Web 2.0 applications can all promote co-operation between people and the creation of online communities more than ever before. The opportunities offered by social software are instant connections and opportunities to learn. An additional defining feature of social software is that apart from interaction and collaboration, it aggregates the collective behaviour of its users, allowing not only crowds to learn from an individual but individuals to learn from the crowds as well. Hence, the interactions enabled by social software can be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many.

New media are communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for the influx of interactive CD-ROMs for entertainment and education. The new media technologies, sometimes known as Web 2.0, include a wide range of web-related communication tools such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, virtual worlds, and other social media platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social networking service</span> Online platform that facilitates the building of relations

A social networking service or SNS is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personal web page</span> Web page created by an individual to contain personal content

Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than content pertaining to a company, organization or institution. Personal web pages are primarily used for informative or entertainment purposes but can also be used for personal career marketing, social networking with other people with shared interests, or as a space for personal expression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">User-generated content</span> Online content created by users

User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is generally any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online content aggregation platforms such as social media, discussion forums and wikis. It is a product consumers create to disseminate information about online products or the firms that market them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crowdsourcing</span> Sourcing services or funds from a group

Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digital platforms to attract and divide work between participants to achieve a cumulative result. Crowdsourcing is not limited to online activity, however, and there are various historical examples of crowdsourcing. The word crowdsourcing is a portmanteau of "crowd" and "outsourcing". In contrast to outsourcing, crowdsourcing usually involves less specific and more public groups of participants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media</span> Virtual online communities

Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. Social media refer to new forms of media that involve interactive participation. While challenges to the definition of social media arise due to the variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available, there are some common features:

  1. Social media apps are online platforms that enable users to create and share content and participate in social networking.
  2. User-generated content—such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through all online interactions—is the lifeblood of social media.
  3. Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.
  4. Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital journalism</span> Editorial content published via the Internet

Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital journalism is debated by scholars; however, the primary product of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video, or some interactive forms like storytelling stories or newsgames, and disseminated through digital media technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health 2.0</span>

"Health 2.0" is a term introduced in the mid-2000s, as the subset of health care technologies mirroring the wider Web 2.0 movement. It has been defined variously as including social media, user-generated content, and cloud-based and mobile technologies. Some Health 2.0 proponents see these technologies as empowering patients to have greater control over their own health care and diminishing medical paternalism. Critics of the technologies have expressed concerns about possible misinformation and violations of patient privacy.

The American online video sharing and social media platform YouTube has had social impact in many fields, with some individual videos of the site having directly shaped world events. It is the world's largest video hosting website and second most visited website according to both Alexa Internet and Similarweb, and used by 81% of U.S. adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital footprint</span> Ones unique set of traceable digital activities

Digital footprint or digital shadow refers to one's unique set of traceable digital activities, actions, contributions, and communications manifested on the Internet or digital devices. Digital footprints can be classified as either passive or active. The former is composed of a user's web-browsing activity and information stored as cookies. The latter is often released deliberately by a user to share information on websites or social media. While the term usually applies to a person, a digital footprint can also refer to a business, organization or corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paywall</span> System that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content without a paid subscription

A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of decline in paid print readership and advertising revenue, partly due to the use of ad blockers. In academics, research papers are often subject to a paywall and are available via academic libraries that subscribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet celebrity</span> Someone famous because of the Internet

An internet celebrity is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large, global audience. Internet celebrities are often found on large online platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, which primarily rely on user-generated content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital citizen</span> Person using IT to engage in society, politics, and government

The term digital citizen is used with different meanings. According to the definition provided by Karen Mossberger, one of the authors of Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, digital citizens are "those who use the internet regularly and effectively." In this sense, a digital citizen is a person using information technology (IT) in order to engage in society, politics, and government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital content</span> Content that exists in digital data form

Digital content is any content that exists in the form of digital data. Digital content is stored on digital media or analog storage in specific formats. Forms of digital content include information that is digitally broadcast, streamed, or contained in computer files. Viewed narrowly, digital content includes popular media types, while a broader approach considers any type of digital information as digital content.

Crowdmapping is a subtype of crowdsourcing by which aggregation of crowd-generated inputs such as captured communications and social media feeds are combined with geographic data to create a digital map that is as up-to-date as possible on events such as wars, humanitarian crises, crime, elections, or natural disasters. Such maps are typically created collaboratively by people coming together over the Internet.

Social media as a news source is the use of online social media platforms rather than moreover traditional media platforms to obtain news. Just as television turned a nation of people who listened to media content into watchers of media content in the 1950s to the 1980s, the emergence of social media has created a nation of media content creators. Almost half of Americans use social media as a news source, according to the Pew Research Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open source</span> Practice of freely allowing access and modification of source code

Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. A main principle of open-source software development is peer production, with products such as source code, blueprints, and documentation freely available to the public. The open-source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open-source appropriate technology, and open-source drug discovery.

References

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  24. ↑ Correa, Sun Ho, Teresa, Jeong (2011). "Race And Online Content Creation". Information, Communication & Society. 14 (5): 638–659. doi:10.1080/1369118x.2010.514355. S2CID   142853028.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ↑ Schrøder, edited by Kirsten Drotner & Kim Christian; Kirsten Drotner; Kim Christian Schrøder (2010). "3". Digital content creation : perceptions, practices, & perspectives. New York: Peter Lang. pp. 61–62. ISBN   978-1433106958.{{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  26. ↑ Am; Lenhart, a; Madden, Mary (2 November 2005). "Part 1. Teens as Content Creators". Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
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  30. ↑ Bullinger, Cory (30 September 2017). "AFTER A DECADE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: ABSTAINERS AND EX-USERS" (PDF).
  31. ↑ Buck, Amber (30 September 2017). "GRAD SCHOOL 2.0: PERFORMING PROFESSIONALISM ON SOCIAL MEDIA" (PDF).
  32. ↑ Beck, Estee (30 September 2017). "SUSTAINING CRITICAL LITERACIES IN THE DIGITAL INFORMATION AGE: THE RHETORIC OF SHARING, PROSUMERISM, AND DIGITAL ALGORITHMIC SURVEILLANCE" (PDF).
  33. 1 2 Kristine L., Blair (2020). "Social Media Ethics and the Rhetorical Tradition" (PDF).
  34. 1 2 Rainie, Lee; Wellman, Barry (2012). Networked: The New Social Operating System. The MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-01719-0.
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