Exploring Consumer Motivations for Creating User-Generated Content

ABSTRACTThe advent of Web 2.0 technologies has enabled the efficient creation and distribution of user-generated content (UGC), resulting in vast changes in the online media landscape. For instance, the proliferation of UGC has made a strong impact on consumers, media suppliers, and marketing professionals while necessitating research in order to understand both the short and long-term implications of this media content. This exploratory study (n = 325) seeks to investigate consumer consumption and creation of UGC and the attitudinal factors that contribute to these actions. The data confirm the established relationship between attitude and behavior and indicate attitude serves as a mediating factor between the use and creation of UGC. With regard to the creation of UGC, the ego-defensive and social functions of attitude were found to have the most explanatory power. Additional informationABOUT THE AUTHORSTerry Daugherty (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising and Co-Director of the Media Research Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on understanding consumer psychology by investigating strategic, social, and technological issues involving the mass media with work appearing in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Interactive Advertising, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, among numerous other scholarly publications. Email: Terry.Daugherty@mail.utexas.edu.Matthew S. Eastin (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising and Co-Director of the Media Research Lab at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Eastin1s research focuses on investigating information processing as well as the social and psychological factors associated with new media behavior including game play involvement, media adoption, e-commerce, and e-health. Dr. Eastin1s work can be found in the Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, CyberPsychology & Behavior, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and Computers in Human Behavior, to name a few. Email: Matt.Eastin@mail.utexas.edu.Laura Bright (Ph.D. Candidate., University of Texas at Austin) is a doctoral student in the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests focus on interactive media, digital content management and understanding consumer consumption of media. Email: lbright@seedling.com.