Is it an OPINION or is it a COMMERCIAL???  

If you’ve been reading my blog you’ll see I talk about the past and how ever- advancing technology affects more and more people as it… well, as it advances.     So how do we know the difference between information from UGC (user generated content) and PAID FOR content (commercials!) that are obviously biased?

What’s    TRUE?            What’s   REAL?   

      What’s RIGHT?             What’s WRONG?

Seems the FTC  (Federal Trade Commission) has some pretty strong rules and regulations about that.  In a recent (Apr 3, 2014) online article, footnoted below, the FTC wrote a letter to shoe retailer Cole Haan about their Pinterest contest, saying they wanted viewers to know contestants were participating due to prize money….   In other words, participants submissions were “tainted” by the $1,000 contest purse so their postings weren’t  “pure” opinion.  The FTC wants added disclosure requirements but gave no guidelines.  Tsk, tsk.   

OMG!  This happened to me in 1986 as I worked for the creator of a new national cable TV show, “What’s New” and before we could even air the FTC jumped down our throats saying this “pay-for-play” TV was misleading the public and Entertainment Tonight helped slam us on national TV.  

What this meant was if you aired a product or service on your TV show that bought their way on you must disclose that… which we did, and (btw) ET was also doing.

What happened next?   Soon to come was the INFOMERICAL which no one had yet heard of….  And we were trailblazers.

“Believe only half of what you see and nothing of what you hear” is an old adage, but who said it?   I couldn’t remember but a Google search gave credit to both Edgar Allan Poe and Benjamin Franklin!  So, what’s true?  Who cares, I say.  It’s a good adage and for me, means ‘buyer beware, user beware, reader beware, viewer beware’.  

So how do I look at UGC?  How do I know what’s true?  I question authority, do my own research, asks lots of questions, verify sources, and use my gut instincts.    Everything I watch or read or hear came from someone… pauper or President, and some of the best, life-changing info I’ve found recently has come from chat rooms.

Larry Lessing’s TED Talk illustration about the common sense legal use of airspace by airplanes flying over chickens on the ground is an excellent over-all example of how all of our realities (and, thus laws and regulations) are changed by advancing technologies.

Ask questions.  Use common sense.  Everything is UGC and I love it!

http://www.adlawbyrequest.com/2014/04/articles/regulators/ftc-has-user-generated-content-on-the-run/