Which one of the following is more appropriate?
...offers scope for the theoretical integration of teaching, learning, and development with the culturally new user-generated and mediated contexts.
Or
... by an emphasis on information sharing, collaboration, community building, open data standards, and user-generated and -mediated content and applications.
Clearly, in such a situation, should dash be used for the second word?
Answer
You've got two different example, one with contexts and one with content, but it doesn't matter. The two compound adjectives mean different things. "User-generated and mediated" contexts means that the users make the contexts but the mediation is not necessarily performed by users. "User-generated and -mediated" context means the the contexts are user-generated and user-mediated.
For the latter, consult your manual of style, either the one you've adopted or the one thrust upon you. I use the Chicago Manual of Style, which is silent on the use of suspended hyphens preceding a word. Amy Einsohn's The Copyeditor's Handbook says this usage is "licit but likely to confuse." I think she's right; be kind to your reader: "user-genterated and user-mediated contexts."
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