Increased consumer expectations and diverse consumer needs have led to consumers turning to the internet as a communication medium to share their positive and negative experiences, feelings, and level of satisfaction with others. The primary objective of this study was to explore the nature of user-generated content, in terms of consumer complaint and compliment behaviour related to the seven OEM brands in South Africa. The study focused on the South African automotive industry, and the consumer behaviour associated with post-purchase responses on an online consumer advocacy platform, called Hellopeter.com. A qualitative research design, making use of a content analysis, was employed. In total, 185 user-generated content items were collected from Hellopeter.com for the data-collection period, and 176 complaints and 9 compliments were analysed. The results of this study indicated that the nature of user-generated content related to the seven OEM brands in South Africa could be categorised according to eight broad themes: seven themes were specifically related to consumer complaint behaviour, while one theme was associated with consumer compliment behaviour. The top consumer complaints and compliments related to the OEM brands on Hellopeter.com were also determined. The nature of the user-generated content showed various similarities to that of the general services industry but proved to be unique to the automotive industry. Specific recommendations were made and included that open communication channels and proper feedback systems should be put in place to satisfy consumer needs, and that the findings of the study should be used as a benchmark to monitor and improve consumer complaint and compliment behaviour, as a means to create loyal consumers / Business Management / M. Com (Business Management)

Den ökade närvaron på digitala plattformar har gett konsumenter möjligheten till ökat inflytande och påverkan längs hela värdekedjan. Genom att konsumera, bidra och skapa innehåll på digitala plattformar är User Generated Content (UGC) ett verktyg för användare att vara delaktiga i värdeskapandeprocessen. Genom teorier som den tjänstedominanta logiken med samskapande av värde som central del, upplevt värde, konsumtion, bidragande och skapande har tre hypoteser utformats. Utformningen gjordes för att mäta och undersöka hur upplevt värde vid konsumtion av UGC i form av funktionellt, socialt och emotionellt värde, påverkar användares tendenser att ytterligare konsumera, bidra och skapa UGC. Hypoteserna undersöktes genom korrelations- och regressionsanalyser med data från en enkätundersökning bestående av 95 respondenter. Resultatet av studien tyder på positiva samband mellan upplevt värde av UGC och ytterligare konsumtion, bidragande och skapande av UGC med undantag från upplevt funktionellt värde i relation till bidragande och skapande. / The increased presence on digital platforms has given consumers the opportunity for more significant influence and impact along the entire value chain. By consuming, contributing, and creating content on digital platforms, User Generated Content (UGC) is a tool for users to be involved in the value-creation process. Through theories such as the service-dominant logic with co-creation of value as a central element, perceived value, consumption, contribution, and creation, three hypotheses have been formulated. The design was made to measure and investigate how perceived value when consuming UGC in terms of functional, social, and emotional value, influences users' tendencies to further consume, contribute and create UGC. The hypotheses were investigated through correlation and regression analyses using data from a survey of 95 respondents. The results of the study suggest positive correlations between the perceived value of UGC and further consumption, contribution, and creation of UGC with the exception of perceived functional value in relation to contribution and creation.

Problem: What are the motives behind positively charged user-generated content on Instagram? Purpose: The study aims to identify and analyze existing and potential users' motives for creating and distributing positively charged content on Instagram from a user perspective. Method: The study was conducted based on a qualitative method and applied the hermeneutical - phenomenological approach. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with female users of Instagram aged between 21-30 years. Theory: The study builds on previous research on user-generated content, electronicword-of-mouth, selective attention, Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow of communication model, Uses & Gratification, motivation and Katz’ functional theory, and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Empirics and analysis: The empirical data consists of the eleven completed in-depth interviews that were analyzed based on the selected theories. Conclusion: The study has concluded that the underlying motives behind creating positively charged user-generated content on Instagram are: (1) social interaction, (2) entertainment and (3) the need to be seen.

Web2.0締造了許多創業神話與熱潮，但是往往能夠迅速火紅的網站鳳毛麟角，因此本研究以網際網路史以來使用者擴散最快的網站- YouTube做為核心個案，共12個研究個案，研究兩個問題： 1. YouTube使用者能迅速擴散、人氣起飛的原因為何？ 2. 類似的概念許多影音分享網站比YouTube先做、有的和YouTube同時做，為何是YouTube第一個吃下市場，而非所謂有先進者優勢的創新公司？網路是服務複製十分快速的產業，面對後起者的大企業挾金彈攻擊模仿，YouTube為何仍能屹立不搖？ 早在1997年，在頻寬成本都還很高的時候，ifilm就已經開始了線上影片上傳的服務，後續也推出免費上傳影片。Break(1998) 也以主打男性幽默，累積了很高的影片數量，然而當時相關環境卻還不成熟，部落格和線上相簿分享都不普遍。。在2003~ 2005年間，同時有Metacafe(2003)、Grouper(2004)、Sharkle(2004)、Vimeo (2004)、Veoh (2005)、Revver (2005)等影音分享網站各自以精緻影評、P2P、藝術取性、利潤共享等概念切入市場。從YouTube(2005.2)的成長可看到一段不斷嘗試錯誤的過程，從一開始主打美女影片概念、「你的數位儲藏庫」、「上傳、標籤並與世界分享你的影片」、最後出現富有Web2.0精神、彰顯自我的「Broadcast your self」，Slogan改了四次，使用者介面設計也有大幅的改變，程式上也對處理遽增的流量做了大量調整。 資源豐富的大公司Yahoo! 在面對YouTube的成長無所知覺，堅守影片搜尋，錯失先機；而Google雖然比YouTube早推出，但卻仍從搜尋出發，並且對使用者上傳有嚴格的限制，歷經轉型線上影片商店失敗，最後以16.5億美金收購YouTube收場(2006.11)。YouTube發展出「嵌入影片」的功能 (2005.6)，使用者以病毒式擴散，MySpace成為其流量的主要來源 (超過20%)，引發MySpace自家推出MySpace video (2006)，誓言複製一個YouTube。但YouTube腳步並未因為複製而停下，隨著創意影片越來越多，持續針對使用者需求開發新功能，不斷快速設計、測試與修改，YouTube是與使用者共同開發、一同成長，成為YouTube魅力所在。 本研究發現：（一）在嶄新的產業或原創的領域中，學習對象並非專家或權威，而是市場。對於願景的堅持，不斷的針對市場修改，才是持續成長的原因。（二）連結比產能重要，應同時啟動網絡效應與間接網路效應：找到巨人的肩膀，有效利用外部資源，專注自己的核心（三）網路產業複製迅速，先進者難有優勢。優勢來自於企業能夠快速跟上環境脈動的反應力和市場觀察力。並且從利基市場出發，與使用者共同演化完整商品（四）草根策略：大量試驗以聆聽使用者的聲音，速度比正確重要，追求「夠好」而非「最好」，培養能讓創新不斷生長出來的土壤。（五）如果不能有效的輸入知識，核心能力=核心僵固。 / “Web2.0” creates lots of entrepreneur legends and becomes a new trend. But only few of the Web 2.0 websites can grow and become very popular. Therefore, this study picks “YouTube”, the fastest growing website in the Internet history as its core case, and it includes 12 study subjects in total. The two research questions are listed below. 1. Why did YouTube grow so fast? 2. The concept of video sharing which YouTube provided appeared frequently. Some of the websites started their service first; some of them did similar things at the same time. Why not the other competitors who had first mover advantage could win, but YouTube won? One of the characteristics of Internet Industry is “easy to copy”. When facing the competition of big companies which duplicate their idea and attacked with abundant resources, why did YouTube still survive? Ifilm (1997) started its online video sharing business when the cost of bandwidth was still very high. And it served online videos for free afterwards. Break (1998) featured male’s humor, attracted a large number of videos. However, the related environment was not ready. Blog and online photo sharing were not popular at that time. In 2003 to 2005, lots of similar competitors such as Metacafe (2003), Grouper(2004), Sharkle(2004), Vimeo (2004), Veoh (2005), and Revver (2005) established. Some of them used P2P technology; some of them had great editor reviews, and the others provided revenue sharing model. On the other hand, YouTube’s growth came from continuous try-and-error. It failed to be a hotties video sharing website in the begining, and then tried to be “Your Digital Repository”, “Upload, Tag and Share Your Video Worldwide”, and now positions itself as a website for “broadcast yourself” which represents the spirit of Web 2.0. The slogan of YouTube has changed for four times, and the user interface has also changed dramatically. When facing increasing users and videos, YouTube tuned their program very often as well. Yahoo! lost the timing of catching up. Because it stayed in its core capability- search. Although Google video got online a little bit earlier than YouTube, it still started from video search. Moreover, the upload policy is too strict. Google ended up with acquiring YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars after the failure of operating an online video store (2006.11). YouTube developed “Embed” feature and caused a viral spread. MySpace became its main upstream (over 20%). That made myspace build its own “MySpace video” service and vowed to duplicate a similar service as YouTube. Neverthless, YouTube was not stopped by MySpace’s reaction. As creative videos became more and more, YouTube continued developing new features to fit users’ needs. It rapidly went through the cycle of “build-design-test”. Because YouTube grew with its users, co-development with the users became its charisma. The findings are as following. (1) In a developing industry or a new field, the gurus are not experts or authorities, but are the market audience. The insistency of vision and the will to change with the market are the reasons why YouTube continues to grow. (2) Both network effect and indirect network effect should start and be used simultaneous. Linkage is more important than productivity. Take advantage of external resourses efficiently; especially take advantages of those giants in the other industry. Concentrate on company’s own core capability. (3) Because duplication happens often in the Internet industry, the first mover advantage seldom exits. The real advantage is from the ability of quick reaction and deep consumer observation. (4) Grass strategy: using a large scale testing to hear the voices of consumers. The changing speed is more important then accuracy. Pursue “good enough” solution, not “the best” one. The formation of enterprise strategy is like growing grass. The point is keeping the soil fertile and keeping it free to grow. (5) Core capability will be core rigidity if one company can not input knowledge into its organization.

In this thesis, we present a review of the current practices of user involvement. Different methods and tools have proliferated for user-involvement, however, to comprehend the explicit features of a small and medium-sized web-based platform service companies, we contrast our findings with previous experiences and research of user involvement in big companies. In the basis of the aforementioned, we identify methods and contexts that may be appropriate in the context of small and medium-sized web-based platform service companies. Mainly, we reviewed the research field of: user-involvement and new service development.   The central purpose of this study is to determine how do small and medium-sized web-based platform service companies utilize the process of the user involvement across the stages of new service development. Building on previous researches, we suggested that there are different methods to consider under the service development stage (i.e. ideation, development and testing). These methods are grouped under the following terms user-involvement ecosystem, user-involvement interactions, user-involvement platform and user-involvement personnel. The aforementioned methods are suggested to help web-based platform service companies utilize user involvement across the new service development stages. This study is of qualitative nature with a deductive approach. We conducted eight semi-structured interviews in order to get insights from high-level managers responsible of the user-involvement process. All the small and medium-sized companies operated in the service sector and provided a web-based platform. The theoretical framework was utilized in order to analyze the empirical data gathered. We used thematic analysis for our deductive study approach, to interpret the gathered material in order to conclude the results and answer the research question.   Our results revealed that in the ideation and development stages the following is vital: involving lead-users or those who are tech-savvy and tolerant to ambiguity, educating users to familiarize them with the company’s system, moderate rules and structure, mixing focus groups, encouraging user-to-user communication, small number of participants, multi-media approach and online tools, and encouraging idea hunting culture among company’s staff. However, in testing the following is recommended: involving average-users or those who are open-minded and tolerant to risk and innovation, unifying goals and common view by tangibilizing the service, setting rules and regulations for testing the service, having permanent interactions with users, and large number of participants. Finally, it is important to ensure a close relationship, transparency, motivation, face-to-face interactions, and to have an entrepreneurial leader to oversee the whole process across all the former three stages of NSD. To improve on this study, we would recommend the investigation on the user perspective to gain insights on their views of the process of user-involvement across the NSD, as they are directly involved in the development of a new service. Hence, a more extensive research on the user-involvement in web-based platform service companies on both, internal and external facets instantaneously would be of great significance.

This Master degree thesis deals with content quality regulation and motivation to participate in the Scuk.cz project - web server dedicated to reviews of restaurants and other culinary venues. The server represents a specific case of user-generated content (UGC) whose content comes from closed community of reviewers chosen among non-professional food lovers by the server's founder. Aim of this thesis is to describe this filtration and regulation process as well as the qualitative criteria applied to reviewers and reviews, both from the point of view of administrators and community members. It uses the theory of reputation systems as well as Carpentier's more dynamic concept of quality as the ever-changing result of democratic negotiations (in the context of community media, as Scuk.cz can be to a certain extent). Motivations for participation are explained with Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital and their later derivations. Empirical part of the study is based on qualitative interviews with administrators and 11 community members and following thematical analysis. Interview data are completed with analysis of texts - Scuk guidelines, reviews and other community communication. We found out that the first access filter plays a key role in content regulation, creating like- minded...

數位時代社群媒體的應用，大大改寫媒體生態，21世紀初接連發生在北非、中東的抗議活動，Facebook、Twitter等社群媒體更發揮重要傳播作用，甚至成為政治運動的催化劑，國內外各大新聞組織也開始將這些被社交媒體平台大量分享、轉發的用戶生成內容 (UGC, User-generated content)重製後進行傳播，尤其是發生抗爭等社會運動、人為或意外現場等事件，因為時效性的關係，記者不能第一時間趕到，目擊者手機拍攝的影片或現場監視錄影器的畫面，往往成為重要新聞素材。 　　對於國內外新聞組織尤其是電視台來說，動態影片更同時具有吸引力與新聞說服力，新聞機構如何使用UGC資源，及其日漸普及的趨勢，則同時引發正反兩方意見，除了樂見其協助社會問題發聲，擴展公民參與，甚至打破新聞編輯室權威，讓媒體更加民主化之外；另方面卻也擔心降低新聞標準，尤其截稿時間，更增加電視台新聞記者判斷影片真偽的求證壓力，過度使用也可能造成媒體過度依賴社群媒體資源，瑣碎化的UGC甚至戕害新聞公共領域的發展。 　　本研究試圖剖析電視新聞使用來自目擊者或網友的第三方影音素材(TPV, third party video)的頻率與原因，研究分成兩步驟，首先選舉一家地面電視台一個月的prime time新聞，作為研究樣本，進行內容分析，以量化研究分析電視新聞如何應用TPV素材，研究樣本數共1825則；同時以質化研究中的深度訪談，訪問該電視台的文字、攝影記者，以及新聞室負責調度的大編輯台主管與編輯共九人，透過量化與質化的研究方法，來探究電視台採用TPV素材的動機、意願、標準與目的。 / The media ecology has been rewritten to a great extent by the application of social media in the digital age. In the 21st century, social media has even become a catalyst of social movements as Facebook and Twitter play an important role in disseminating the news on protests which commonly take place in North Africa and the Middle East. In fact, large news organizations at home and abroad have begun to reproduce and broadcast User-generated contents (UGC) that are greatly shared and forwarded on the social media. This applies especially to incidents such as social movements, including protests, and accidents. The video taken by an eye-witness’ mobile phone or the recording of an on-site surveillance camera has often become important news material due to timeliness of the news and the fact that reporters cannot arrive at the scene on time. According to foreign and domestic news agencies, especially TV stations, video is both appealing and persuasive as news materials. The growing popularity of UGC and the approach to make use of such resources have led the emergence of positive and negative viewpoints. It would be delightful to see the voicing-out of social problems through UGC since it could increase citizen participation. UGC could even lead to a breakthrough from pressroom authority, thus creating a more democratic media. However, UGC could also lower the news standard especially when there’s a deadline to meet. Furthermore, it could pile pressure on news reporters as they try to determine the authenticity of the video. The excessive use of UGC could lead to the media’s over-reliance on social media resources. The fragmentary nature of UGC could also be harmful to the development of news media at the public domain. The study attempted to analyze the purpose behind a TV station’s adoption of eyewitness/netizen-provided third-party video (TPV), as well as its frequency of use. The study was divided into two steps. First, research samples for content analysis were collected through a selection of one month’s worth of news reports that were broadcasted by a terrestrial station at prime time. A total of 1825 samples were studied through quantitative research and analysis with regard to the application of TPV by TV news. At the same time, in order to explore a TV station’s motivation, willingness, standard and the purpose in applying TPV, qualitative research was conducted through an in-depth interview with nine representatives from the TV station. This group included journalists, cameramen, editors and seniors who were responsible for ordering daily news in the Newsrooms.

Tendo em vista um cenário em que os dispositivos de registro do real adquirem onipresença na vida cotidiana, o jornalismo se encontra em um período de readequação de suas estratégias narrativas e de seu modus operandi. A presente tese procura investigar as reconfigurações no telejornalismo em razão da ubiquidade de câmeras, que capturam registros produzidos tanto pelas mídias quanto por instâncias externas a elas, e que oferecem aos veículos jornalísticos um material inesgotável e irrecusável, visto estar cercado de uma expectativa de autenticidade. Propõe-se então uma categorização às câmeras, sistematizadas como câmeras oniscientes e onipresentes, de modo a nos aproximarmos à especificidade do fenômeno. Em comum, todas as câmeras apontam à busca de uma estética realista, baseada no reconhecimento de uma baixa interferência midiática. Desse modo, o que se observa é o emprego de estratégias narrativas e estéticas para que o telejornalismo possa se apropriar destes conteúdos gerados por estas máquinas de visibilidade, que trazem às mídias algo que ficaria anteriormente restrito aos bastidores, operando também com sintoma da desfronteirização entre o público e o privado. A partir deste percurso metodológico, intenta-se por fim compreender de que forma estes dispositivos são utilizados para a concretização de novos efeitos de realismo ao jornalismo. / Considering a scenario where the technologic devices that visually register the world acquire omnipresence in everyday life, journalism is in a period of readjustment of its narrative strategies and its modus operandi. This research intents to investigate the changes in TV journalism because of the ubiquity of cameras, which capture images produced both by the media and by external institutions, since they offer to the journalistic enterprises an inexhaustible and irresistible material, because it is surrounded by an expectation of authenticity. We propose then a categorization of these machines, which are systematized as omniscient and omnipresent cameras, for the purpose of understanding the specificity of the phenomenon. In common, all of these cameras point to the search for a realistic aesthetics, based on the recognition of a low media interference. Thus, it is observed that the TV stations use some strategies to adapt these contents in their narratives, which bring to the media something that would previously be restrict to the backstage area. In a sense, they operate as a symptom o the erosion of the boundaries between public and private. With this methodological course, we finally attempt to understand how these technologic devices are used to achieve effects of realism to journalism.

With the gradual rise of Web-2.0 based platforms, Internet users were given the possibility to interact with each other in virtual communities. Originating from this development was the concept of user-generated content (UGC), which implies that people were able to enrich each other’s user-experiences by sharing creative efforts and communicating openly (O’Reilly, 2007).   As Web 2.0 features continued to grow, marketers became aware of the opportunities this new development online created and how they could use it to their advantage (De Chernatony & Christodoulides, 2004). The development online however also faces companies with challenges, as consumers now are able to create and share opinions and thoughts about brands, which to an extent is uncontrollable by companies (Christodoulides et al., 2012). Just as marketer-controlled communication can create new brand associations in the minds of consumers, for better or worse - so can also externally-generated communication, such as brand-related UGC, do.   Knowing that consumers generally trust what other consumers say about products more than marketing communication (Cheong & Morrison, 2008; Song & Yoo, 2016), and that there does not exist much research on how consumers perceive brand-related UGC, this is a considerably important topic to study. A classic way of studying communication effectiveness is through credibility, which is argued to be a major determinant of whether consumers accept and adopt what is communicated (e.g. Hovland et al., 1953). Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how consumers assess credibility of brand-related UGC and furthermore, what their consequent responses are.   A qualitative approach was taken as the purpose is to gain insight rather than proving a point. The interviews were semi-structured and formed around three Instagram posts relating to a specific brand, which were deliberately chosen based on the content of the theoretical framework developed. Through using these example cases, interviewees’ first reactions could be captured and their reasoning around credibility could be followed and discussed.   The results from this study indicate that there exists a certain level of irritation as well as a scepticism towards brand-related UGC. This seem to stem from a suspicion that most content that promotes products and brands is part of sponsored collaborations, into which consumers put noticeably much distrust. Beyond questioning sponsorship, it was also found that the source played a particularly important role when assessing credibility. When a source is familiar, it is easier to determine credibility of brand-related UGC, and credibility furthermore increases with perceived expertise, attractiveness and trustworthiness. The channel through which a message is communicated also matters, as it is more difficult to be ingenuine through a video than an image or a text, which implicated that consumers may find videos more credible than other media formats. The message itself was also deemed to influence the credibility assessment, as the message was questioned both based upon common sense but also on knowledge and previous experience.   As for practical implications, this study indicates that encouraging or generating positive brand-related UGC through paid collaborations, is a balancing act, into which much consideration needs to be put. With the evident irritation that consumers feel when it comes to brand-related UGC, marketers should be careful to push too much positive brand communication onto the consumer, or it will turn negative. To come across as genuine, the “who”, ”what” and ”how” of communication should be carefully considered.

Context: There are two ways that digital media may influence alcohol use. The first is commercial alcohol marketing. The second is user-created alcohol promotion, defined as content distributed through new media that promotes consumption, but independent of commercial marketing. This thesis explores how both types of content promote alcohol, what association there is between exposure and alcohol-related attitudes and behaviour, and the differences between marketing and user-created promotion. Method: A mixed method design was employed, divided into two studies. The first was a content analysis of the design features, topical references, and messages suggested about alcohol in digital marketing and user-created promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The second was a cross-sectional survey with young adults (n = 405). This measured awareness of, and participation with, digital marketing and user-created promotion, and the association with consumption, higher-risk drinking, brand recall, expectancies, and drinking motives. Results: The content analysis found that digital marketing had personalised designs which contained subtle and positive messages about consumption, whereas user-created promotion had simpler designs, displayed little ethical practice, and contained overt messages about higher-risk drinking. The cross-sectional survey found that young adults were aware of, and participating with, both digital marketing and user-created promotion, with exposure greater for the latter. Exposure to both types of content was positively associated with alcohol use, higher-risk consumption, and drinking intentions. User-created promotion had a stronger association with all outcomes than marketing. The association between exposure and consumption, for both types of content, was mediated through drinking motives and expectancies. Conclusion: Young adults are aware of, and participating with, a range of digital marketing and user-created promotion. That such exposure is associated with alcohol-related attitudes and behaviour highlights the potential of new media to influence alcohol consumption. Further research is required to better understand young people’s experience with digital media and the challenges of addressing online health risk messages.