 |
Web-Based Issue Tracking
Free 30-Day Trial - Click
Here |
|
|
04.10.06
CGM In The News
 By
Shel Holtz
Consumer Generated Media (CGM) has been in the news the last couple days. Two items in particular caught my attention.
First, blogger Derek Powazek has called for an end to the use of the term "User Generated Content." I suppose that would be UCG. Funny, that wasn't one of the many three-letter-words I've heard applied to the concept of media created by members of the audience instead of the traditional purveyors of content (ad agencies, marketing firms, etc.). Part of the problem is that we haven't settled on a single term for this stuff. Joseph Jaffe, for instance, likes "citizen media," if I recall correclty fromthe first of his two-part Across the Sound podcast with Pete Blackshaw and Jackie Huba.
In any case, what bothered me about Powazek's post was his articulation of what "User Generated Content" means: User: One who uses. Like, you know, a junkie.
Generated: Like a generator, engine. Like, you know, a robot.
Content: Something that fills a box. Like, you know, packing peanuts.
So what's user-generated content? Junkies robotically filling boxes with packing peanuts. Lovely.
Calling the beautiful, amazing, brilliant things people create online "user-generated content" is like sliding up to your lady, putting your arm around her and whispering, "Hey baby, let's have intercourse." So what's his alternative? "Authentic Media." Well, now, let's see. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition), "media" in Powazek's post refers to "a means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television." The same source defines "authentic" as "conforming to fact and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief."
Web-Based Issue Tracking
Free 30-Day Trial - Click
Here |
|
So, "authentic media" then, is some kind of mass communication that conforms to fact and is worthy of trust. This defines everything coming out of the CGM space? And all traditional advertising and marketing creative is inauthentic? C'mon. All Powazek has done is add another term to the list that people have announced they hate. These include podcast, blog, blogosphere, Web 2.0, and a host of others. The nice thing about labels, though, is that everyone knows what you mean when you use them. No need for labored explanations. For all the essays condemning "Web 2.0" as marketing hype, I know when it's used that it's addressing the combination of social media and read-write web applications like those created using Ajax. (Oh, yeah. Some people don't like "Ajax.")
Besides, Derek, it's just as easy to use these definitions instead of the ones you stretched for:
User: Someone who uses tools someone else has created specifically
to be used.
Generated: Produced or created.
Click
here to read the full article.
About the Author:
Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology.
|
