eng 450 youtube design final (2)

8/2/2019 ENG 450 Youtube Design Final (2)

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Altho

By James Riner


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Although it only launched in

2005, [YouTube] quickly came

to dominate online videos.

ouTube is a commonpart of our culture.People of all ages viewit, and it is used in

schools and news media outlets.

It even invades our speech. DavidGauntlett, Professor of Media andCommunications at the Universityof Westminster, points out in hisbook Making is Connectingthat YouTube has followed the samepattern Google did in that peopletoday commonly use its name as averb. If someone wants to find adesired video, one merely needsto YouTube it (5). YouTube isso ingrained in our society that itshard to believe the media site is

only seven years old.Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and

Jawed Karim, all three formerPayPal employees, createdYouTube in the summer of 2005.They wanted an easier and fasterway of posting videos and sharingthem with others online. Theylaunched their first video, Me atthe Zoo, in June of that year, andsince then there have beenbillions of videos posted

(Hopkins). After its creation,posting videos and sharing themwith others online. They launchedtheir first video, Me at the Zoo, in June of that year, and since thenthere have been billions of videosposted (Hopkins). After itscreation, posting videos andsharing them with others online. They launched their first video,Me at the Zoo, in June of that year,and since then there have been

billions of videos posted

(Hopkins). After its creation,YouTube reached web popularityin a very short amount of time.Gauntlett says, Although it onlylaunched in 2005, [YouTube]

quickly came to dominate online videos, with its straightforwardinterface and simple tools forsharing and embedding material(83). Within a year of its launch,Google bought out YouTube for$1.65 billion. Unfortunately,though, according to MichaelStrangelove, adjunct professor inthe Department ofCommunication at the Universityof Ottawa, this purchase of YouTube has yet to fully benefitGoogle: Critics claim thatGoogle grossly overpaid for YouTube and the site will nevermake a reasonable profit (6). YouTube makes its moneythrough advertisements, but thishas not turned the kind of profitGoogle has been looking for.Despite profit problems,however, YouTube wont begoing away any time soon.

Its profits might not be

growing fast enough, but itspopularity with audiences isthrough the roof.Over the years, YouTubesaudience base has grown andexpanded quickly. Starting withyoung amateurs and hopeful stars,the YouTube community hasgrown to include a diverseaudience of people who post and watch videos. Gauntlett says,Whilst early contributions to the

site seemed to be mostly youthful


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YouTube is . . . a

home forpoets,

engineers, medics,

teachers, and a

vast multitude of

others.

skateboard stunts and amateurmusic videos, the range soonblossomed, and YouTube is now,of course, a home for poets,engineers, medics, teachers, and avast multitude of others, and thecontent is now an incredible arrayof material in diverse styles, on anenormous range of topics (89).One can now turn to YouTubefor educational advice, new movie

trailers, how-to videos, politicalads, new movie releases, amateurdocumentaries, and much more.

It is this collection of amateur videos that defines whatYouTube is. Guantlett points outthat YouTubes tagline,Broadcast Yourself, points tothe outward-facing, and possiblyautobiographical, nature of theanticipated videos (93).However, Gauntlett argues that

YouTube is not just a one-wayconversation about self-centeredpeople on high egos, saying,YouTubes functionalityencourages much more than mereindividualized look at me self-exhibition. It actively encouragesusers to make comments, tosubscribe, to give star ratings, toadd friends, and send messages,and to make videos responding toother videos. Gauntlett sums it

up by saying YouTube is morethan avideo, its a community(93).

Strangelove views YouTubein a similar way. He believesYouTube is not merely anarchive of moving images. It ismuch more than a fast-growingcollection of millions of home-made videos. It is an intenseemotional experience. YouTube is

a social space. This virtualcommunity reflects the culturalpolitics of the present times andthus is rife with both cooperationand conflict (4). YouTube is aplace where issues can be argued,causes can be supported, andmessages can be shared.Politicians, churches, businesses,schools, and individuals have allutilized this powerful aspect ofYouTube.

What makes YouTube uniquewhen compared to other amateurvideo platforms is its combinationof amateur and professional videomedia. Strangelove explains thisrelationship: The attraction ofYouTube is that it contains bothcommercial content what wesee on television and at thetheatreas well as non-commercial content. YouTuberepresents a deepening

interrelationship between user-generated content such asamateur video and commerciallyproduced content (7). This is what makes YouTube sorevolutionary. During thetwentieth century, almost all

videos were professionally done.Commercials, television shows,and movies were filmed andproduced by directors and

production companies. Therewere personal video cameras andhome movies, but there was nomainstream way of sharing these videos with the world. But anyamateur today can now film a video, post it on YouTube, andreceive just as many (if not more) views as a professionally-produced product.

So express yourself, world.YouTube gives you the chance to

publish something pastgenerations never got the chanceto share: the real you. Not theyou professionals want toshare, but the daily you filmedthrough everyday people. And aslong as you keep posting, viewing,liking, commenting, and sharing, YouTube will continue to growand succeed.


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YouTube is more

than a video, its a

community.

Works Cited

Gauntlett, David. Making is

Connecting: the social meaning of

creativity, from DIY and knitting to

YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge:

Polity Press, 2011. Print.

Hopkins, Jim. Surprise! Theres a

third YouTube cofounder. USA

Today, 11 Oct. 2006. Web. 10

March 2012.

Strangelove, Michael. Watching

YouTube: extraordinary videos by

ordinary people. Toronto, University

of Toronto Press Inc., 2010.

Print.

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