Hi, I'm Joe Strandberg, an AEM major (and probably Comm minor) who is interested in the intersection of media, business, and technology. I am also interested in producing, directing, editing, and acting in digital movies. I also have over 40,000 views for my digital video shorts on YouTube and other user-generated content web sites.
I am especially interested in the changing landscape of "mass" or "new" media and why people post amateur videos at a rate of 60,000-plus per day on YouTube. One question I have explored is how YouTube is changing the face of media interaction. Through the "long tail" of videos on YouTube, one may argue that the "long tail" of an almost unlimited selection of YouTube videos has allowed many niche cultures to flourish while at the same time catering to mass media (usually in the form of parody/mixing existing mass media symbols with self-generated content). Since users are mixing copyrighted content with self-created content, the line between entertainment and promotion is blurring. Many networks are now allowing and even encouraging parodies, since they realize that these parodies serve as free promotion for their content. Another element of user-generated content is sharing. YouTube enables almost instant publication of one's creative works for the world to see. This sharing culture has fed YouTube's community and has created a network effect, where more members are enticed to contribute as they interact with other users through text comments and video responses.
Another interesting production-side feature of YouTube content is how the content is altered as the producers keep their audience in mind. Users must essentially "act" differently in these videos than they would normally act in real life to maintain the audience's shrinking attention spans.
I would classify this pattern of discussion as asynchronous, since the Video Posting/Response system on YouTube is not too formalized, as opposed to synchronous communication through live chat rooms. However, YouTube is now moving into the synchronous communication space, allowing users watching any given video to chat with others who are currently watching the same video. YouTube cannot be classified into any one category of the Internet, since it is so well-integrated with many aspects of the Internet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hey Joe,
Nice Post.
Over the summer I had the pleasure of meeting the creative director of a subdivision of the advertising giant, Ogilvy. One of the projects he discussed was the Dove self esteem series, which he set off on YouTube where they spread like wildfire. The videos were put through specific conditioning to make them as viral as possible on the web (e.g. taking pace into account). I find it astonishing that if an advertisement is good enough, it can make its way onto the “short tail” and simultaneously create marketed interest for no cost. I am actually reading "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson right now, and I was drawn to your post by your use of the term, “long tail.”
Wow - thats a lot of videos. I find youtube to be fascinating as well. In particular, i enjoy how much copyrighted material winds up on youtube. You would think after Google acquired the company the first step would be to eradicate all Family Guy and Daria episodes located on the program. But apparently not. I also find interesting the fact that streaming video between two users has not taken off (and likely wont ever, its creepy) but youtube has. I think the fundamental difference between the two is that you can leave a message on youtube, while streaming video requires you to "watch" in real time. Its strange. I think in the future you will be seeing more and more of this “homemade video” media, but also with the addition of ads (how else can you make money off the program?).
Post a Comment