What can YouTube teach us?

[pablitofrancisco]

Do you honestly believe the comment section is limited to 500 characters do to cost?

[WillHeinke]

I found the comment introduced at the beginning of this video, that the content that we as a society create is largely shaped by forms and rules of the medium that we use to share this content, to be very interesting. I was a little disappointed, however, that the creator of this video barely explained how this shapes the content produced on YouTube, but instead focused on how Google has little financial incentive to improve the commenting function. We have all observed how limited the comment

[MediaPraxisme]

TOUR #5: User/Owner Dialectic. So begins our critical view of the celebrated power of the user on YouTube (and web 2.0). The forms and structures of YouTube, themselves controlled by the system of capitalism, shape the content on the site (rather than user's democratic impulses). The next two tour videos demonstrate his point by analyzing 1) the status-quo racism expressed by "free" users and 2) the structures which encumber philanthropy and activism, even as they are made "free," on the site.

[InTheSone]

Your last sentence, "learn about the needs that such a media can both satisfy and create for society," got me thinking about class conversations we've had about the role that YouTube plays in many lives: providing "mind-numbing" entertainment. Does this "need" that YouTube satiates simply reinforce itself? Does watching YouTube both satisfy and simultaneouly create a need for most "brain-dead" entertainment?