Project description

User-generated content” (UGC) is a collective term for a wide range of online digital practices spanning all forms of art and media. Mashups, memes and fan fiction are well-known examples of UGC. Common to all forms of UGC is that it begins with the transformation of work created by others. UGC covers adaptations for a range of purposes such as parody, homage, continuation, comment. Most UGC is published online via social media.

One distinctive feature of UGC is its combination of creativity with attempts to communicate in a way that promotes cultural, social and political participation. Another characteristic is that UGC practices are shaped by non-professional actors who do not seek financial gain through their activities. In this way, UGC is both an aspect of everyday culture and also one of the dominant forms for expressing active online participation.

The interdisciplinary DiCHOT team was set up in response to an initiative by German legislator as part of 2021 reforms to copyright law. Under the initiative, UGC would be considered a form of contemporary and original digital cultural heritage and therefore exempt from copyright regulations under free-use provisions (see “pastiche” in § 51a of UrhG - Act on Copyright and Related Rights).

The DiCHOT project team will investigate the potential consequences for copyright law if UGC is considered part of our contemporary digital cultural heritage.

The project aims to develop digital teaching materials on the topic for secondary schools. Designed to encourage young people to engage with this new perspective on internet culture as an example of cultural heritage, the materials will also prompt young people to reflect on what cultural heritage means and how ideas about it change. In addition to this, the DiCHOT project will create a new network for schools and educational institutions. The network will also include the German National Library and other memory institutions committed to archiving the Internet and preserving digital cultural heritage. Drawing on the example of “UGC as youth culture”, the project will explore ways of adequately preserving volatile and changeable digital social media practices. The team will also investigate the potential for direct stakeholder dialogue (in this case, dialogue with young people about youth culture) as a productive means of collecting UGC.

As a case study, DiCHOT will investigate auditory, visual, textual and audiovisual UGC related to music which has been created and shared on social media in the context of political awareness and activism which has emerged among young people.

By showing how the digital transformation is, above all, a cultural transformation, the DiCHOT project will contribute to the perception of the digital transformation in terms of a transformative process across the whole of society. The way in which Internet users employ UGC as a form of active, playful, creatively adaptive and often polarised online communication is a prime example of this transformation.

Project framework

Funding body

Volkswagen Foundation funding line „Change! Fellowships“ (Press release on approval, 14 January 2025, 2024 call for applications)

Partners

Prof. Dr. Mario Dunkel, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Institut für Musik (Press release on approval 8 January 2025)

Duration

1 June 2025 to 31 May 2030

Contact

PD Dr. Dr. Frédéric Döhl (Co-Projektleiter): f.doehl@dnb.de