This is an Accepted Manuscript of a chapter published in Me- dia Convergence Handbook Vol. 1. Journalism, Broadcasting, and Social Media Aspects of Convergence To cite this article: Villi, Mikko, Matikainen, Janne and Khaldarova, Irina (2015) Recommend, Tweet, Share: User-Distributed Content (UDC) and the Convergence of News Media and Social Networks. In Media Convergence Handbook Vol. 1. Journalism, Broadcast- ing, and Social Media Aspects of Convergence, edited by Ar- tur Lugmayr and Cinzia Dal Zotto. Heidelberg: Springer, 289- 306. 2 Recommend, Tweet, Share: User- Distributed Content (UDC) and the Convergence of News Media and Social Networks Mikko Villi
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[email protected] Abstract The paper explores how the participatory audience dis- seminates the online content produced by news media. Here, user- distributed content (UDC) acts as a conceptual framework. The con- cept of UDC refers to the process by which the mass media con- verge with the online social networks through the intentional use of social media features and platforms in order to expand the number of content delivery channels and maximize visibility online. The focus of the paper is both on the news media’s internal use (social plugins) and external use (Facebook pages, Twitter accounts) of social media tools and platforms in content distribution. The study draws on the examination of fifteen news media in seven countries. The data con- sists of almost 50,000 news items and the communicative activity surrounding them. The three main findings of the study are: (1) the audience shares online news content actively by using social plugins, (2) the activity of the news media in social media (especial- ly on Facebook and Twitter) impacts the activity of the audience, and (3) the news media are more active on Twitter than on Face- 3 book, despite the fact that the audience is often more active on Face- book.