User Generated Content And Its Relation To The Sports Industry

User generated content has become a generally new phenomenon with the advent of social media and the ability for users to create a new form of journalism that ultimately has no filter, or a filter that restricts users toward a particular theme regarding the site they are using. The true definition though of user generated content (UGC) is material on websites, and occasionally other media sources, that is produced by the users of the website. This is different than, for example, a website designed by a company that puts forth material produced by professionals. In UGC, it is the amateur, in most cases, who contributes the content. Larry Lessing gives an intriguing speech on TED that gives the consumer a metaphorical history lesson, allowing you to see the evolution of user generated content beginning with the metaphor explaining how people who owned land always had to give permission to certain people in order for them to cross their land. This begins the process of how we now take those principles and pertain them to social websites and how we have distinguished the new from the old and created this new form of journalism that has really no filter to what people can post and say. For example, Facebook and Twitter really have disguised the old form of journalism where you need to source everything that you say and record. Now, you can really say whatever you would like to say knowing the only precautions are what anyone says back to you or even at worst, getting booted from the medium. Sports have been very published, even in recent years professionals are doing most of the writing and publishing for sites like ESPN and others major news pertaining to sports. However, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Vine have allowed sports to become more "naked"or in other words have allowed sports to be written and recorded upon by the masses creating user generated content that is basically unfiltered. People now have the ability to share the in-game experience with everyone around the world, which has more than likely allowed for more people to become interested and connected with a wider variety of sports. This has allowed me to be more interested in the concept of user generated content and its application to sports. I have thought of ideas that shall not go public right now due to the respect of the building and modeling practices that I am working on for content that I would like to generate in the near future for ESPN, Facebook and Twitter applications. These ideas along with many others in the future will change journalism and the way people talk and receive information about sports. I predict positive results however, and believe the changing world of social media and other mediums will boost businesses due to the amount of people tuned into the wide variety of sport entertainment that not just the U.S holds, but the entire world.

Social Media & Relationships

Social Media can be an extremely effective way to establish worthwhile relationships not only on the internet, but in the real world as well. Giving people the opportunity to connect with one another through medium's like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter, really allows for someone to heighten their social status in order to prove their worth within particular fields they may be interested in. For example, individuals within the sports industry looking to establish connections with people that may be higher up in the industry, will ultimately benefit from that online connection in the real world because they created a way to make a relationship and online presence with someone in order to show how serious they are about gaining insight, communicating issues, and ultimately talking about the sports industry with other people that are in your field. This can help you gain status and ultimately move up within your company for your industry. By offering your insights, opinions and research abilities, employers can connect, share, communicate back and forth and move the company forward in a positive direction, by using these social media sites in their most effective ways. The social media site that I have seen most effective for not only the sports industry, but all industries is LinkedIn. LinkedIn offers the ability for people to connect with organizations of their interest and professions, which then connects them to people within that particular industry for the purpose of strengthening relationships with people in your "like" field. Overall, this makes individuals, companies and industries more powerful and well connected than ever, which is always a positive for everyone.

Introduction to the World

My blog for this semester is directly related to the social media course that I am currently taking at California State University, Chico. I chose to write to the world about the connection between sports (particularly professional) and the positive correlation it holds with major social media hubs. Professional sports is one of the most people driven industries in the entire world. Sports are played by people, enjoyed by people and most of all, directly communicated by people through major mediums like television, the internet, print and now so interestingly new; social media hubs. I have always been interested in all sports and talking about them with friends, family and even people I do not even know has and always will be a passion of mine. However, I would like to take a different approach on my blog. Instead of strictly talking about sports and what went on during the game, I would like to talk about the connection that each individual game has on the world, through the elements correlated with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. People explore one another's thoughts, emotions and reactions towards similar sporting events through social media and that connection is extremely revolutionary towards our world today.  So much more personal content is being driven through and shared within multi-million dollar industries like ESPN and News stations, giving people more insight and "up-front" reactions to better engage their experiences with the sports they are watching, with the people they are watching them with even if they are on the other side of the world. This is what drives me and fascinates me to share my thoughts and opinions with the world everyday and it all has to do with this new fad of social media.