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.