Digital Media is Becoming more User Generated through Facebook and Twitter

The way that news stories are being shared has been changing for years, but recently it seems that media is moving towards becoming more consumer produced. Social media is a growing franchise that people cannot seem to get enough of. From pictures to statuses to links, anyone can share anything they want to whenever they want to. Now days if you want to stay up to date on the latest gossip or news reports you have to log onto Facebook or Twitter. When on Facebook you can see which of your friends have just changed their relationship status and how everyone of their friends feels about it. On Twitter you can keep up with not only hundreds of your "closest friends," but also all of your favorite celebrities. Anytime you want, you can log onto Twitter and see what Justin Bieber had for lunch, when Lady Gaga's new album is being released, and what new music Katy Perry has been listening to.

User-generated media has been growing for years and will continue growing for many years in the future. 

User-generated media is content that has been created by the general public for distribution by the digital media. When someone posts a video of themselves singing an original song on YouTube, they have posted user-generated content. Macy Maloy is a girl who has posted many videos of her singing covers of popular songs and some original songs, and while she is not famous, she has plenty of viewers and is a wonderful example of user-generated content.  Peer to peer media distribution is when a user has the ability to store, send, and accept communications from other users. In Facebook chat, users can talk to their friends on Facebook digitally. Viral marketing is the spreading of news and information through word of mouth. Every time someone posts a status on Facebook or tweets something on Twitter they are spreading media to all of their friends who can then share it with theirs and so on.

Changes to digital media are positive for the creators of the media, but not for the consumers.

Blog readers, Twitter followers, and Facebook friends either have to believe everything they read or they have to research and fact check everything that is posted to make sure it is true. This is a hassle, not only for those just surfing the web and reading what sounds interesting, but to those who are searching for information. When researching on the web you have to be careful with user generated material because they tend to have strong biases towards the story, especially since the creator is not a professional and does not have to hold back their opinion. Also, you should always fact check things that you read on the web to verify that it is correct and they are not just reading a story that somebody made up or heard through the grapevine and got some facts wrong.

The future of digital media is unknown, but the increased use of  blogs and social media is definitely leading towards a more open, diversified, and democratic media, whether this is a good or a bad thing is yet to be seen.