Tuesday 7 October 2008

An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube

0:00 Introduction, Youtubes Big numbers.

At the beginning Stephen Weismasser ABC, quoted "you arent going to turn passive consumers into active trollers on the internet". In 1948 ABC started broadcasting and they became the thrid network to do so. They have been broadcasting for 60 years now and as there is 3 networks, if they broadcasted 24 hours a day everyday for the past 60 years they would show over 1.5million hours of programming. However, Youtube produced more in the last 6 months without producers and just included normal people. on Youtube there is over 9000 hours uploaded everyday which is equivilent to nearly 400 ongoing channels, but it is 200,000 3 minute video clips. It is not mass media! Also, 88% of the content that is coming through is new and original.

2:00 Numa Numa and celebration of Webcams.

Numa Numa was a video that was created and became a big hit in 2003, some people say it was viewed over 600,000 million times. The video was broadcasted all over the globe. The video was created in Febuary 2005 and at this time Youtube was being created aswell. On April 23rd 2005 was when the first videos were posted by the 3 men and before it use to be difficult to post videos onto the internet but now everyones doing it there has been over 58,000 views made on the Numa Numa video. People used webcams to communicate with others all around the world and it was a new way for millions to connect with each other.

5:53 The machine is Us/ing us and the new mediascape.

Micheal Wesch who created his own video thought about what it meant to move from text on paper to digital text, its not only about information but about linking people in ways we have never been linked before because now is changing and now every 6months theres a new tool to connect people in.

It went onto digg.com, more people can watch it. It also went on del.icio.us people started tagging the videos which bookmarks it. This is called "User generated Organization". He also became number one and it was translated into different languages within a short period of time.

12:16 Intorducing our Research team.

In the last 2 years 10 students every spring get together. They watch videos and write about them this is then reported onto the data base stystem.

12:56 Who is on Youtube?

  • 25% of the people are 35 and over.
  • 25% of the people are 12-17 year olds.
  • 12% are children
  • 18-24 and 25-30 are the strongest (who have posted videos)
  • 18-25 are in over 50% of the videos.

13:25 Whats on Youtube? Charlie bit my finger, Soulja Boy etc.

Most videos on You Tube are home videos and 15% are remixes/remakes. When souljah boy posted his video and dance on youtube, it generated the same kind of publicity the Numa-Numa video did. It was remade, remixed and replayed over and over again until he got signed with a record deal.

17:04 5% of vids are personal Vlogs addressed to the Youtube community, Why?

Almost 10,000 videos are addressed to Youtube "Community" every day.
People so this because they would like the Youtube users to know what is happening around us in the world.


17.30 Youtube to context. The loss of community and networked individualism (Wellman)

The loss of community may be responsible for the boom of social networking sites. People have regained their sense of community in the virtual realm.

18.41 Cultural inversion; individualism and community.

Value;

Community.. Relationships.. Authenticity

Youtube comes in this, what we see in youtuve is shaped by this. Robert Putnom commented in 1995 "My hunck is that meeting in an electronic forum is not the equivalent of meeting in a bowling alley.

25.00 The webcam: Everybody is watching nobody is ("Content Collapse")

Many people say that when talking into the webcam it is as if everybody is watchin ut where nobody is. The most private place your bedroom can soon be the most public place due to youtube. We know ourselves through our understanding of how others understand us.


27.58 The anonymusly of watching youtubes: haters and lovers.

When we watch youtube we are generally anoynous as people cannot see us watching it. There are lots of bad and rude language that people post on videos.

34.02 Youtube Drama; Striving for popularity.

The only way to be seen is to make a video that people will want to watch. to get more veiws and to be placed best rated and most viewed.

36.55 Youtubes Anthenticity crisis: the story of lonelygirl15

Lonelygirl15 started Vlogging in june 2006, in a matter of weeks she was youtubes second most subscribed, however soon people started questionning her and realised she was fake. There was much debate going on about the issue.

39.50 Reflection on authenticity

People no longer know what is real or fake on youtube and they dont know whether they trust the site anymore or not.

51.15 Conclusion by bnessell973

Many people upload videos on youtube for many of their own reasons. Many people do it because they enjoy it, and also gives them something to do. Most people believe videos uploaded on youtube should be creative and made to change the world but people upload them to live in.

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