MS 135 Midterm

My midterm "paper" in youtube format for the Pitzer College course Media Studies 135: Learning from Youtube.

The content of the "paper" can be found in the comments.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• MS
• 135
• Learning
• from
• youtube

[rmcfakerson]

Corporations routinely post their own television commercials on YouTube, and many users will upload their personal favorite commercials onto the site. The internet is becoming an increasingly important form of media, and corporations are taking advantage of this.

[rmcfakerson]

Individuals are using the internet as a form of self-promotion very successfully. The aforementioned Chris Crocker recently began talks with MTV about hosting his own reality show. Esmee Denters, a singer who uploaded video of her singing on YouTube was recently signed to Justin Timberlake's record label. Just as corporations have begun to use YouTube as a promotional tool, individuals have begun to capitalize as well, using sites like YouTube or Myspace as a form of self-promotion.

[rmcfakerson]

The everyday accessibility of internet media is another boon to corporate and individual promotion. While user created videos spoofing Smirnoff's Tea Partay or Apples Mac vs. PC ad campaigns might lampoon the original campaigns, the simple act of creating a spoof advertisement and publicizing it generates more publicity for the original product.

[rmcfakerson]

The internet and, by extension YouTube, offers up a whole new realm in terms of advertisement and promotion. Corporations are given free rein in the composition and creativity of their commercials, as they no longer need to be constructed to fit a 30 second television or radio spot. Individuals are able to promote themselves to an extremely wide audience with relative ease, as anyone with internet access and a computer can watch the likes of an Esmee Denters.

[rmcfakerson]

In many ways, YouTube has become the ultimate promotional tool, thanks to its accessibility and popularity. Couple a new product with a funny, offbeat YouTube video and provided enough people view the video, internet gold has been struck.

[rmcfakerson]

YouTube is intended as a platform for entertainment. However, the technology savvy, be they the marketing division for an international conglomerate or a talented musician, has found ways to manipulate the ultimate source of YouTube's popularity to generate publicity and, eventually, money.

[MediaPraxisme]

I do wonder why your comments don't show up here. I'd like you to try again, as your "paper" is a strong description of two of the functions of YouTube: entertainment and promotion.

[rmcfakerson]

YouTube's movement from a relatively unknown video website to the fourth most visited site on the net is exemplary of the rise of internet media, and the monetary value increasingly attached to it. Whether YouTube's shift from a user-based video sharing website to a commercially geared form of popular media is a negative or positive one is ultimately up to the user to decide.