Cyberculture Report
Due: 5/3/11
YOUTube
YouTube is an extension of self on the web. It is a social networking website that allows people to connect through mutual or similar interests, and of course video, which is the service’s primary technological medium. Although YouTube is based on the process of uploading and watching videos, it has much more to offer than just video clips. Through this analysis, I would like to delve deeper into the specifics of YouTube to see what makes it successful, who its users are, what its meeting space entails, what its literacy requirements are, and what its general overall exigency is.
YouTube is a nearly ubiquitous phenomenon of the Internet. Most people in this day and age have experienced YouTube first hand, and the website has the statistics to support this assumption. According to the Website Monitoring Blog, the “average person spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube.” If “35 hours of video are uploaded every minute” (WMB) to the website, the previous statement seems accurate. The influence of YouTube is extremely vast, especially considering it was founded only a short time ago, in 2005. Three ex-PayPal employees launched YouTube: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim (Hurley), who obviously struck gold with their creation. Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for 1.65 million dollars and the value of YouTube continues to rise. To visualize this massive amount of traffic on the website in other terms, “More video [was] uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years” (WMB). YouTube is a defining aspect or turning point in our current cultural construction. The website has shown to be a model of how one technological advancement or creation can have such a major effect on our community as a whole as well as our individual lives.
According to the YouTube website, it has “hundreds of millions of users from around the world” (Hurley). The website is also localized in twenty-four countries and regions and is available in more than 43 languages (Hurley). So who are the users and members of YouTube? Well, apparently everybody or, more precisely, anybody with a connection to the Internet. The general demographic of the YouTube user is broad, with an average age range of members from fifteen to fifty-four years old (Hurley). Anyone can visit the website to browse, search through, and watch videos of all different types and genres without any sort of commitment or revealing of identity. The subscribing members of YouTube, though, must create usernames for themselves in order to upload any videos onto the website. Members who upload videos, or the avatars for these members in this virtual space, are mostly realistic projections of their "real life" selves, especially when they upload videos of themselves to be broadcast to the world. Other members, perhaps those who only subscribe to channels or upload other kinds of videos, can have any type of persona, starting from their creation of a username. Your username can be anything you want it to be; from a boring one that is just your name (like my username) or a creative one, like “HouseholdHacker” or “failblog.” It is possible to make a profile-like page and have people subscribe to your “channel,” so that others can follow your updates and video developments if you are an active user. You can also make money off of the site if you apply to be a “partner” through their partnership program, where companies can advertise on your channel if it becomes popular enough. With its broad and extensive user base, YouTube supports more online-only connections than preexisting offline relations, in comparison to other social networking sites like Facebook, but the site does not discourage preexisting relations by any means.
Many people have made household names for themselves through YouTube, some through a conscious effort, while others without really trying. For example, Pop/R&B singer Justin Bieber is an international super star because he posted videos of himself singing and playing the guitar onto YouTube, he received a lot of “hits” and positive feedback, and a talent agent in the music industry saw how popular he had become through the public site. “An Ontario native, Bieber placed second in a local singing competition in 2007 and began posting contest videos on YouTube. The videos caught the attention of [talent agent and former So So Def marketing executive, Scooter Braun], who helped Bieber gain an impromptu audition with R&B star Usher. Impressed by what he saw, Usher, along with Island Def Jam chairman L.A. Reid, quickly signed the 15-year-old Bieber to a recording contract” (Collar). Bieber is now a legitimate superstar and he collaborates with major celebrity performers like Usher, Kanye West, and Chris Brown. If Bieber had gone the traditional music industry route instead of posting his videos to YouTube, he may not have achieved the stardom he has today. Justin Bieber’s success shows how potent YouTube is as an online platform for ordinary people and how YouTube broadens people’s opportunities.
In a less conscious effort, “David After Dentist” is a video that a father, David DeVore, uploaded onto YouTube of his 9-year old son coming back from the dentist’s office. “The viral clip has been viewed almost 54 million times and gave rise to the catchphrase, ‘Is this real life?’ It was the second most-watched video of 2009, according to YouTube” (Horowitz). The video consists of “a woozy 7-year-old boy in the back seat of a car, struggling to understand the effects of anesthesia” (Horowitz). Devore’s intention seemed to have just been for fun and to make his relatives laugh. “[DeVore] first posted the video on Facebook, but not all his relatives were members of the social-networking site, so he uploaded it to YouTube during the last weekend in January last year, never thinking anyone beside friends and family would watch it. By the next Tuesday, it had been viewed 3 million times. The video has since spawned dozens of parodies, including ‘Chad After Dentist’ and ‘David After The Divorce’” (Horowitz). Despite the innocent intention, the video has been so successful and has gained so many followers that it led DeVore to become a YouTube “partner” and he started making money off of his video. He has a separate website from his YouTube page where you can buy t-shirts featuring the “D.A.D” logo and other things associated with the video. “The video's popularity may also help pay for David's college tuition. The family earns money from licensing use of the video and gets a cut of revenue from the ads placed around the clip on YouTube. They've also started a Web site where they sell T-shirts and other ‘David After Dentist’merchandise” (Horowitz). Apparently, DeVore is making in the low six-figures from everything associated with the video and it has become the family business to promote it. This video shows how YouTube is such a powerful tool for users that it can lead to immense financial success for some participants.
Other users participate on YouTube to make a statement to the public. Many corporations use YouTube to strengthen their support and fan base, and as another outlet to get their messages to the public. For example, the U.S. Marine Corps has its own YouTube page that serves as part of its recruiting efforts (screenshot below). On its YouTube channel, there is a huge, interactive advertisement for joining the U.S. Marines with the slogan, “Your journey into the Corps begins here”("OurMarines's Channel”).
Another organization, British Petroleum, uses YouTube for public relations purposes to improve its corporate image after the company was responsible for a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “BP has created this YouTube channel to engage the public in an informative conversation and dialogue about our efforts associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico” ("BPplc's Channel"). The BP channel has coverage of the oil spill disaster and videos about its recovery project in order to win back some of the credibility they had lost because of the disaster. The channel currently has almost 8,000 subscribers. The channel has a whole section on “Beaches and Cleanup” as well as other environmentally conscious sections. Currently, the majority of videos presented on the site are segments called, “Voices from the Gulf” where individuals, restaurant owners, businesses, and others in places affected by the oil spill are talking positively about BP and its recovery efforts (screenshot below).
So the users of YouTube span far and wide, whether they make money off of the site or not. The outrageous and unforgettable videos that incorporate humor or another element that may be out of the ordinary tend to become more successful on YouTube. The corporations with their own YouTube channels use it for support, advertising, and public relations purposes. YouTube is another effective way to get your message out there because of the video medium, but since there are so many users, your company has to be already well known or your video has to be outrageous to receive a substantial amount of following.
The meeting space of YouTube is basically set up as a collection of videos and a search bar. It is asynchronous because it is not possible to play two videos at once, yet there are suggested videos and advertisements on the left side, bottom, and top of the webpage where a user is watching a selected video. When you enter the homepage of YouTube, you can either log in with you user name, search for a video, or browse videos that are divided into a number of different categories. There are linked categories below the search bar and there are still video clips that can be played if you click them below the search bar as well. These video clips are organized into categories like “Most Viewed,” “Sports,” “Entertainment,” “HowTo & Style,” etc. Below is a screen shot of what the YouTube homepage looks like visually.
In order to fully participate on YouTube and engage in everything the site has to offer, one has to be video-literate. The literacy requirements of YouTube involve the ability to create videos, either from a live-streaming computer camera or phone, or the ability to upload videos to the site that have been filmed other ways. It is essential to have a username in order to upload videos, but once that process has been achieved, it is quite simple for any people to upload a video. The website provides tutorials and helpful links for people who struggle with the uploading process, but it is mostly self-explanatory. When entering the site, there are two links that a user can click to the top right by the search bar: “Browse” or “Upload.” If you click “Upload,” you are directed to a page where you can upload your video by a “drop-box” (just clicking your video file and dragging it into a specified area) or by creating a live-streaming video on your computer through the website (if your computer possesses a camera). There is also the option to add a short description of your video to accompany it. Below is a screenshot of how a person can upload a video onto the site.
The second part of YouTube’s literacy requirements is the comments section. The comment section of YouTube holds a wide range of styles. The most consistent similarity between the video comments is that they are brief. This characteristic is almost a requirement because the participants of YouTube go to the site to watch videos, not to read long commentary. The longer the comment, the less likely a user is to read it, or “like” it. The “like” and “dislike” feature that is available for videos is also available for comments, but with the addition of a “reply” feature. The “Top Comments” that have the most “likes” under a video are shown at the very top, and the rest are displayed below, ordered by date submitted. Other than brevity, not much else equalizes the comments included in this section. Some users comment with full, grammatically correct sentences, but that style is not the norm. Most users comment with improper grammar, word usage, misspellings, incomplete sentences, slang terms, etc. The vulgarity of some comments is also quite shocking. The YouTube team will intervene if a comment is too offensive for a majority of people by flagging a comment as spam and removing it, but cursing, slang, and vulgarity is by no means prohibited. It is in some instances even encouraged by the other members because of the many “likes” a comment can receive. For example, a horrible comment I have come across is featured as a “Top Comment” under a video of an overweight boy with a long stick, simulating a Star Wars-like fight by himself. It is a funny video, but the top comment by a user named ‘scraps8899’ reads, “did this guy kill himself?” Later on, ‘johnrey400’ comments, “this guy should kill himself due to embarrassment seriously this guy fail at life.” ‘TheChunkyMonki,’ who makes yet another disparaging comment, writes “I love it when he tripped at the end” and in response, ‘ss5william100’ says, “fatty got tired.” Although these comments do not represent the wide range of dialogue on the site, they are examples of how there is little to no accountability for saying inappropriate or hurtful things that these people would probably not say in person, offline. Overall, it is apparent that you do not need to be intelligent or educated to post a comment to YouTube and since most comments have a degree of anonymity because your username can be anything you choose, you can say whatever you want. And most people do. People say things they would probably not say offline because there is a slim chance of them experiencing consequences from what they post on YouTube, unless from other users who reply to them or “dislike” their comment.
Despite some negativity and vulgarity that occurs on the site, there are many positive technological media that are involved with YouTube. One of the most interesting things about YouTube is that its streaming video feature is embedded in an array of other external websites. Even big news and entertainment media corporations, like NBC and CBS, use YouTube when transferring clips of their movies, news, or television onto their Internet databases. YouTube is overwhelmingly used, known, and popular because it has become the main form of video application and featuring on the Web. YouTube features mobile compatibility and lists “social hub” under their list of characteristics. This “social hub” environment featured in YouTube encompasses a connection to many outside sources. YouTube provides links to Twitter and other social networking sites, as well as mobile applications, wikis, and blogs. As stated earlier, it also serves as a message board-type medium with its comment application.
I believe the exigency of YouTube is to provide a space for people to interact with each other using video as a form of expression and communication and to get one’s message out into the world, whatever that message may be. Chad Hurley, the Co-Founder and CEO of YouTube posted on the YouTube blog page, “Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small” (Hurley). YouTube is the website for the everyman. People from professional film creators to my ten-year old cousin can use and thrive on YouTube. People can get discovered and become international celebrities on YouTube, as in the case of pop-singer Justin Bieber. YouTube is a place to connect with people if you want to use their friend-finding capabilities or show your interests through the “like” feature and the process of naming your “favorites” (or favorite videos). YouTube is also a place where you can just watch anything you want to watch (assuming you’re old enough to watch everything offered because for some videos you have to enter in your birth date in order to have access to them) without identifying yourself or your tastes in any way. YouTube is also an economic powerhouse through its use of advertising in four different formats and its new “Store” feature, where a user can rent movies through the site. YouTube is so widely accepted and enjoyed because of the broad range of interests and freedom the site can offer a user through its standard composition and process.
Works Cited
"BPplc's Channel." YouTube. YouTube.com, 18 May 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.
Collar, Matt. "Justin Bieber Biography & Awards." Billboard.com. Rovi Corporation. Web. 2 Apr. 2011.
Horowitz, Etan. "Family Cashing in on 'David After Dentist'" CNNTech. CNN.com, 18 Mar. 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2011.
Hurley, Chad. "YouTube & the Online Video Revolution." YouTube Blog. YouTube.com, 14 Feb. 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2011.
"OurMarines's Channel." YouTube. United States Marine Corps, 4 Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Apr. 2011. .
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