User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC), sometimes also referred to as user-created content (UCC), is a generic term that encompasses a wide range of media and creative content types that were created or at least substantially cocreated by “users”—that is, by contributors working outside of conventional professional environments. Although UGC in digital formats is as old as computing technology itself, and UGC in nondigital formats has an even longer history, the term emerged to widespread recognition especially with the participative turn inWeb design and practices that took place in the early years of the new millennium and is often referred to as the emergence of “Web 2.0.