Today’s post will be about User Generated Content and at the end of the post there’ll be a parody video about feminism so do look forward to that! Without further ado, let’s jump into it!
User Generated Content
User generated content is content generated by people like you and me. We aren’t celebrities or influencers, but we have the capability of generating content and putting it up on the web such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc for everyone to view. With today’s technology, we rarely turn to our television when we want to watch shows or know about the news. We would simply take out our cellphones, click on Netflix or Viu to watch shows or head towards websites to read about the news instead of flipping the newspaper. Times have change.
Companies would use user generated content to help with their marketing tactics as it’s seen as authentic. People don’t trust marketers anymore, and with the user generated content, it gives a more personal touch to it knowing that your favourite celebrity is using it too (without seeing them using it on an actual advertisement). It creates a community instead of an “us” against “them” situation. It’s also not only cost effective; it helps with raising brand awareness. With the rise of adblockers on our computers, it is hard for advertisers to have us see their ads. But with UGC, even with the adblockers on our phones or computers, we are still able to see the brands being promoted on our social media without it looking like an actual advertisement.
One example would be the ice bucket challenge. A few years back, people pouring ice water over themselves to help raise money and awareness for ALS went viral. Not many people knew about this illness before this challenge and through it the ALS Association raised $100 million in donations. While I believe that feeling numbness of the ice water for a couple of minutes doesn’t actually help you feel what the ALS patients are actually going through, it sure did help raise money and awareness for those that are suffering from it.
The user generated content has changed the way I view mainstream television as they opened my eyes and mind to a bigger world than a small box in my living room from where only Singapore is supplying the information. With UGC, I was brought to know many more information that a small television doesn’t deliver. I am not opposing to mainstream media because I think it worked very well for the years that has passed in generating and spreading content and advertisements. But technology is constantly improving itself and it doesn’t stop. People now crave for more information than before; we are constantly on the lookout for news about the world or if there is a new trend arising.
People want to be kept at their toes when it comes to media. I believe we’re living in an age where user generated content is more beneficial than mainstream television. It reaches its audience much faster and it’s a lot more accessible than it used to be.
Over the weekend my group and I put up a little parody video of our take on Feminism.
Parody Video
In this parody video, we swapped the gender roles to portray if men were treated like women. After some research we realized that workplace discrimination, cat-calling and unappreciation of daily house hold chores are very common for females and we disagree with that. We believe that household chores should be shouldered by both men and women. Workplace discrimination shouldn’t happen in our time and age as it’s very degrading yet still so real. Through this video, we hope to shed some light on the instances that women come across during their day to day lives and how it affects her.
Thank you for reading my post all these while, this will be the last blog post for this module. I had fun writing all of them. It has been a fun journey.
Cheers,
Caryn Yong
References
What is User Generated Content (and Why You Should Be Using it). (2019). Retrieved 4 September 2019, from https://www.tintup.com/blog/user-generated-content-definition/
Caryn. 
Hi Caryn!
Love the video that your group has done for the parody, it’s really hilarious yet it shows us a very real situation of how women are being treated like on a daily basis in the outside world. It’s a really good idea to have a man in that position instead because it really helps puts things into perspective. Anyhow, I have to agree that UGC has definitely opened my eyes to the world, without UGC there would be no way to know more about the different perspectives of various people around the world, and our knowledge would be so limited without it.
See you in class!
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Hey Caryn, interesting blog post on UGC and well done to us, especially to you as you helped us edit the whole video! We even filmed it in a day, it felt good 🙂 I do not really agree that people do not trust marketer anymore, I feel that they just chose a more effective way to promote their brand. Like you said, it is more cost-effective and allows more brand awareness. Now, user generated content is definitely more accessible than it used to be and allows anybody to search for what they want. Even my grandmother uses youtube right now to watch shows on channels we don’t subscribe at home. Technology has really improve a lot since last time but humans are also improving with it, learning how to use it and how to create their own content through their imagination. Interesting blogpost Caryn, see you in class 🙂
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Hi caryn;)
Its a nice blog post. Only after reading your blog post I knew that the ice bucket challenge was to raise awareness for an illness hahaha I thought people were just doing it for fun. However, it is a good example to show the power of UGC as even people who do not know what is the main purpose of the thing will just do it because their favorite celebrity is doing it or because it is in trend.
I liked your teams’ video especially showing the part where the family members demand the mother for more instead of appreciating what she has already done for the family. I think that we ourselves make the same mistake by not appreciating what our mum does for us so the video is an eye-opener for everyone. Good job:)
Cya in class
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Hello Caryn!
User generated content has definitely shown more benefits as compared to traditional media. UGC is much faster in spreading information than traditional media. Since television follows a schedule, people have to wait for news. This can be problematic especially when people are in urgent need to know what is happening around the world. With UGC, people can just go to social media to look for news without having to wait.
However, UGC is still not as credible as compared to traditional media. Although we rely to social media for latest updates, as active audiences, we tend to wait for it to be broadcasted on the TV or radio in order to confirm the news. This is because fake news is very prominent in social media. Traditional media is still considered to be more credible since they have long been producing trusted information.
Anyways, I enjoyed watching your parody video! It was very entertaining. Great job! :”>
~Precious
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Hey Caryn!
I think your group did a good job on the video considering how swapping the gender roles turned out to be funny but was able to send a good message as well. You brought up an interesting thought that never occurred to me that with the increase in adblockers companies would find it much more difficult to advertise and market their products and services. I personally agree that by employing UGC through brand ambassadors and influencers they’ve been able to overcome the problem. It is true that through this marketing strategy, followers will find it more appealing to purchase products as well unlike traditional advertisements. Also, it might gratify their personal integrative needs too in the process. Although this my first comment on your blog, I’ve read other posts by you as well and I think you’re a really good writer! Cheers on the final post!
~arun
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