If the trend during the early of 2000s was mini-homepages and blogs, then now it’s got to be User Created Contents (UCC). The popularity of UCC is increasing in our societIy. Many people regardless of age or sex watch UCC as well as creating diverse material themselves.

As a result, UCC has influenced daily life and society in positive and negative ways.  Chonnam Tribune examined the major causes of the popularity of UCC and its influence and solutions for the problems induced by it.  - Ed.
 

　The development of digital technology makes it possible for ordinary people to produce media contents using various digital media and computer software.

However, they mainly expressed their opinions and desires by replying to pieces of writing on internet cafes or postings on homepages and blogs until the early of 2000s.

Even though the expressions were based on literary texts and still images in those days, they had a big effect on our society.

　UCC has become highly popular in a short period of time because it allows the users to have first hand participation. The development of digital technology has opened the way for anyone with access to digital equipment to become producers of UCC.
　

How about CNU students?

　Many people have been using UCC to obtain information, to have fun and express their ideas, since its advent. How about CNU students?

Tribune reporters interviewed students to gauge their usage of and thoughts on UCC last February.  A student of the Dept. of Business and Administration said, "I use UCC whenever I visit the internet. And also I created a documentary film about Gwangju and uploaded it to the internet myself.”

UCC affecting political field

　UCC is also expected to play an important role especially in the political field. Many politicians, especially presidential hopefuls are currently using UCC as part of pre-electioneering for the upcoming 17th presidential election in Korea. The power of UCC in the field has become so great that it is said that whoever uses UCC best will win the election.

　The influence of UCC in an election was already demonstrated last year in the United States. Senator Conrad Burns failed to be re-elected in Montana because a video clip containing scenes of him dozing off during a farm bill hearing in August was distributed through YouTube, a well-known free video sharing web-site.

The video file spread all over the country, raising the ire of farmers who comprise a majority of the Montana electorate, causing the Republican senator to lose the election.

　Nobody denies that UCC plays a crucial role and has an effect on elections. We have a good example of the kind. In Korea, the power of the internet has significantly influenced the political arena during the 2002 presidential election.

At that time, ‘Nosamo’, President Roh’s fan group, demonstrated how the internet had an enormous impact on politics as an important campaign tool. Now, the internet is supposed to transfer its power to UCC. The latter is expected to have potentially enormous effects on the upcoming presidential election.

What causes the popularity of UCC?

 UCC, long a part of the young generation’s daily lives, is working its way into the broader spectrum in Korea. What causes the popularity of UCC all over the world? The main reasons maybe summarized as follows.

　First is the technological factor.  A new digital communication environment based on the internet has been established worldwide making it possible for new communities to connect directly through the internet.

It has also transformed passive users to become pro-sumers, a compound word of producer and consumer. UCC is in the center of such a change.

　Second, the popularity probably corresponds to such contemporary cultural trends as totalitarian individualism, which refers to the strengthening of both individuality and collectivity. Most people are individualistic as well as collective in contemporary society. They prefer to play alone and also fear being isolated or ostracized by other people.

It has changed the way they behave and use various media including the internet. Though they are emphasizing the choice and value of individuals, they have a tendency to create, upload and consume contents on the web in order to communicate with others.

　Finally, most people have psychological needs to express freely their feelings and ideas about their experiences. They want to gratify their desire for expression by creating contents with their own ability. Therefore, they make and show their own UCC on the web. UCC is now expected to be one of the most ideal mediums for expressing one’s own ideas or communicating with others.

　As mentioned above, the characteristics of digital media, cultural trends like   collective individualism and psychological needs to express one’s own ideas have caused the huge popularity of UCC.
　

Conclusion

　The already-solid popularity of UCC on the internet is also bringing social problems and creating a serious debate on privacy and copyright. The reason is that UCC is not all good. We can easily find that many people copy others’ original content, slightly transform them into their own UCC and upload it on web-sites.

The advantage of UCC is that it is simple to produce new contents by compounding existing contents. In this way, new UCC is more and more increasing and shape the UCC market on the internet. As a result, UCC sometimes takes a bashing by being called ‘User Copied Contents’.

　In regard to this situation, Jin Young-seung, leader in the U-Video Platform Division of Video Service Team, Daum said, “Existing media have not currently satisfied the substantial needs of users interested in various fields. However, UCC can now offer us satisfaction so many users empathize with the contents and react interactively to them.

In this way, only services satisfying most people in diverse fields have power on the Internet. Of course, UCC may induce serious problems such as the infringement of copyright and privacy. In my opinion, this phenomenon will be a passing one. If users get used to UCC, they will produce more creative UCC.”

   It seems to be true that UCC reflects our society like a mirror of the times because we experience various UCC expressing present conditions, problems, trends and fashions of our society. Consequently, we understand our reality and life through UCC. Accordingly, we must focus not only on its usefulness and fun but also on trust and sincerity in its production.

<Interview with Prof. Yang Sung-un>

Q1. Have ever heard of any side effects of UCC?

A1. Recently, I have often heard about side effects of UCC. I know a group of students in South Korea fabricated a rape scene; many netizens were shocked to see the UCC as if the rape was genuine. Others used UCC to defame third-party institutions or high-profile figures.

Examples of this case include an anonymous individual who created contents to defame promising U.S. presidential candidates: depictions of Hillary Clinton as a sexual pervert and Barack Obama as a Muslim (and furthermore as a terrorist).

Q2. What causes the side effects?

A2. Users of UCC often misuse their Freedom of Speech and anonymity, while there has been to-date a lack of social or institutional filtering to control UCC.

Additionally, to gain as much keen attention from other peers while having stiff competition against other UCC contents, users of UCC have become more willing to seek out more deviant and sensational content than trust-worthy, fact-based stuff."

Q3. Then, what do you think about the popularity of UCC?

A3. If UCC becomes widespread for general consumers' rights to create media content, in a reciprocal manner, users of UCC ought to have public and social responsibility to protect people's right to receive "trustworthy" information.

I do not personally welcome any social or institutionalized filtering of media content in UCC. If so, my rationale is that we come to lose the essence of "user-created" content by such encroachment on people's right and freedom to create content for their own purposes. Then, that is no longer UCC. Thus, the ideal direction of UCC is to retain trust from fellow consumers by exercising self-regulatory integrity in creating any UCC content. 

<Introducing several popular and impressive UCC>

 We can easily enjoy many interesting video clips on the internet due to the advent of UCC. You probably have difficulties in making a choice among them. The following have been popular and impressive UCC in Korea since last year. - Ed.

For whom the balance