Introduction

I will be using the online phenomonom YouTube as a case study to show how media is in this online age, and how it is the largest and fastest growing aspect of media.

I will be investigating how and why people use YouTube. whether it be for entertainment, educational, informative, or for more personal use such as broadcasting yourself, which is YouTube's tagline. I will also be using other websites such as Vimeo.

Here are some examples of different types of films viewed on YouTube:

Simpsons movie/Inception mash up
This is an example of a "mash up" film where as two films are made to seem like one, this example shows the footage from the simpsons movie and the sound and credits from inception and edited in a way where the dialogue fits the footage. This has been done for many different types of films, often for entertainment purposes, however they challenge commercialism as they take a product or products and turn it into something else.

David after drugs copycat video
This is another example of things posted and viewed by people on YouTube, this is known as a copycat video, the hugely popular "david after drugs" video has been been copied or reconstructed, again this is for entertainment purposes, however this a hugely popular thing to do on YouTube as it has been done by many different videos before it.


Participation - "Where the hell is Matt"
This has been one of the most viewed videos in YouTube history with over 32 million views. Matt simply dances on camera but has done it all over the world whilst travelling which led to people joining him dancing. This became hugely popular as it was more than just dancing, this film touched a lot of people, another example of this is the "free hugs" video, where he gathers people to pass on free hugs to people, which was eventually banned, yet the creator of the video did not give up and had a petition with 10,000 signatures to remove the ruling.


Commercial media exploiting YouTube
Due to the popularity of YouTube, large companies have been using to their advantage, here is a video of the phone company "TalkTalk" doing just this, where as they use home videos of people performing a song, placing their graphics and advert over the top, which has became a massive hit, and also a competition, where people can request to be on the advert, film themselves and send it in, these adverts are official sponsors of the X factor competition, so it is vastly popular.

These are just some examples of ways people use YouTube, other examples include TV channels such as channel 4 having their on demand online service linked to YouTube. Also people can post videos of themselves to get themselves seen by the world, for example singers "Souljia Boy" and Justin Bieber who were both discovered on YouTube.

Chris Anderson Long Tail Theory

Chris Anderson's "long tail" theory refers to the distribution of products to a niche market which becomes the majority of sales for an online business, unlike traditional retailers which target the masses. Chris Anderson talks a lot about amazon.com, the online book store, and how the majority of their sales come from niche markets and obscure books which cannot be found in book stores. He also refers to the way technology has had an effect on creating millions of niche markets thanks to the "infinite - shelf - space - effect". This ultimately means that things, as previously mentioned, which cannot be found in the stores, can be found online, there are no limitations to what can be found on the internet.

In the graph, Amazon's book sales or Netflix's movie rentals would be represented along the vertical axis, while the book or movie ranks are along the horizontal axis. The total volume of low popularity items exceeds the volume of high popularity items.

Wikinomics - Tapscott and Williams

Wikinomics is based on the idea that the internet is more than just connectivity, the real value of the internet today lies in connecting people and organizations together through blogs, Wikis, chatrooms and social networks. Mass collaboration is encouraging consumers, employees, suppliers, partners and competitors to share information and ideas.
Tapscott and Williams refer to the emerging paradigm, “Wikinomics.”  The building blocks of Wikinomics are openness, peering, sharing and acting globally. Companies will find it increasingly necessary to open themselves up to ideas from outside their boundaries. Companies can now think more globally by connecting through the idea of  “Wikinomics.”

The authors examine seven different themes in the book:

• Peer pioneers – people coming together to work on projects.
• Ideagoras – tapping ideas from outside
• Prosumers – the blurring of distinction between producers & consumers
• New Alexandrians – initiatives to share knowledge for the benefit of the community.
• Platforms for participation – opening up platforms to allow the larger community to take part.
• The global plant floor – Involving people and entities across the world in the production process

The Wiki workplace – Breaking down of vertical hierarchies and increasing collaboration between people working in an organization.

Examples of business' like these are Amazon, itunes, e-bay, love film etc.

 

Comparing YouTube to Facebook

If you compare YouTube even to a phenomonom like facebook, seen as the biggest social website in the world. But is it? They are a lot of similarities between the two websites, how you can communicate people from accross the world, you can comment on things people say or do or post onto the site, they are a lot of communities within the website etc. But if you consider the differences, with facebook you are only able to view things and communicate with people you are friends with, this makes an enclosed community, where as YouTube there are no constraints, you can view anything from anyone and comment on what they have posted, this makes YouTube the biggest social website of all. With Facebook you can only speak with words, with YouTube you can communicate with vlogs, and other videos expressing your view on something whatever the reason. So in turn YouTube is the most worldwide social website as it doesnt have boundaries.

Michael Wesch "Cultural Inversion"

Michael Wesch is an anthropologist and has a theory about cultural inversion, and how the world is changing due to this online age we are in. And something like Youtube is mentioned heavily in his resarch, it is difficult to understand what this phenomonom is and who it is for, as it consists of both user generated content and commercial media content. it both challenges commercial media and is exploited by it.
Michael Wesch believes that it has resulted in a loss of community, however it has dveloped a virtual online community instead, where as people can express themselves through things such as a Vlog, in a way they would not in the real world, people have developed a networked individualism, although they are alone when creating these Vlogs, they are being watched by so many.