Day 13 of 'Mastering YouTube in Fifteen Days' by Jessica Kellgren-Hayes

Mastering YouTube in Fifteen Days

Jessica Kellgren-Hayes
University of Brighton
Film and Screen Studies, Year 2
HD2111; Screen History 1985-Present

'Discuss the way in which YouTube has been adopted by the public, and assess whether 'user generated content' offers any viable alternatives to corporate and commercial filmmaking.'



The way we perceive a video will always be subjective. Much as what is amusing to one person will not be to another, what is considered appropriate for different developmental stages will also be highly personal.

If we take the comments underneath a video as a representation of the viewing public's feelings then most people watching 'Arianna Dancing to Beyonce' will find it 'cute'. A small section are also concerned about the possible sexual interpretations of others. The smallest group (but the longest posts) will express their 'concern' for the child through vile language and sexual terms. In explicit messages, framed as coming from the moral highground, they detail sexual situations involving the child.

YouTube as a site does not tell us how to think or conduct ourselves, or even seem to mind the appalling deficiency of manners. It's easy to demonise the people who make these comments but I'm sure we've all at some point shared something via the internet- a flirty comment, catty gossip or even a photograph- that we would be too embarrassed to in person.

In 2002 a Canadian teenager, Ghyslain Razaa, filmed himself fighting using an imaginary double-sided light saber. He recorded himself on a cassette tape in a studio at his high school. Three of his classmates found the video and posted online. It is estimated that the original, unmodified Star Wars Kid video has accumulated over one billion views. Due to the mockery and humiliation Razaa faced on a daily basis his family filed a lawsuit stating that he "had to endure, and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates and the public at large" and "will be under psychiatric care for an indefinite amount of time."

As Jack Bratich in 'Affective Convergence in reality television: a case study in divergence culture' argues, it is the Media that "...augment[s] bullying relationships by conferring wildfire mini-celebrity status to the attackers. We are in the midst of a media-fueled popularization of bullies, a convergence of micro-violences perhaps compromising a cultural will-to-humiliation." (66)

The 'video blog response' is, according Burgess and Green; "Central to this mode of engagement... particularly engaged YouTubers directly address negative comments and 'hating' through their vlogs, many seeing this as an inherent part of the form itself. It is this conversational character that distinguishes the mode of engagement in the categories dominated by user-created content from those dominated by traditional media." (54)

YouTube offers no protection to those using it. Similarly to Facebook, users must be 13 or over to have an account. It differs from the social networking site in that anyone can have access to the content.



My Boyfriend's Back
starmagichailey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN8HZIIJl3w

Arianna dancing to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (Picture-In-Picture)
Fasterpie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CU2JhYM8tY&feature=player_embedded#at=69

Burgess, Jean and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge and Malden; Polity Press, 2009

The Gregory Mantell Show -- The Cult of the Amateur
Mantellg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5vTaUZvi4&feature=fvst

Andrew Keen. The Cult of the Amateur; How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture. London, Boston; Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2008.

Star Wars Kid
raze7ds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU

Survive your inevitable online humiliation
By Helen A.S. Popkin, updated 9/6/2007
msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20611439/

boxer destroys 2 park bullies (with slowmo replay)
citlalicue79
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJe3XpWmuVY

Jack Bratich in 'Affective Convergence in reality television: a case study in divergence culture' in 'Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence' ed. By Michale Kackmen, et all. New York and London: Routledge, 2011

Depresstival - "Hoorah For Extended Metaphor! Hoorah For An Adolescent Fixation On Sylvia Plath!"
lightsatsparkwood21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6-eth021sk

GINGERS DO HAVE SOULS!!
CopperCab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY39fkmqKBM

'Kick A Ginger Day' leads to student assaults
Gene Gleeson
ABC Local news, November 23, 2009
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7134228

YOU KNOW WHAT!!
CopperCab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu0CRiBUpTc&feature=channel_video_title

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Jessica Kellgren-Hayes
• University of Brighton
• HD2111
• Film
• Screen
• Studies
• Captions
• Britain's Missing Top Model
• Missing Model
• Deaf
• video log
• Blog
• Computers
• How to
• Help
• Discussion
• YouTube
• BBC
• TV
• Tutorials
• CaptionTube
• iMovie
• Kellgren
• British
• MissJessicaKH
• Arianna
• Beyonce
• Bullying
• Cyberbullying
• CopperCab
• Ginger
• Depresstival
• Happyslapping
• humiliation
• Andrew
• Keen
• Gregory
• Mantell

[QRRW92]

You sure look like Bree Van de Kamp from 'Desperate Housewives'!

[MissJessicaKH]

@QRRW92

Thank you, I shall take that as quite the compliment!

[psychodelicious85]

These dancing kids is a disturbing view, from a psychological perspective. I am not saying you need to play Chopin and Tschaikovsky to your kids (even though it would increase their creativity e.g.), but that sort of 'behavioral fashions' contribute to an extremely simplistic interpretations of the surrounding world.

[MissJessicaKH]

@psychodelicious85

Well put.

[ElendilARK]

Naw Jess - tis good to know that even now, some years on, you still can't abide a swear word. =D

There are utterly mad people about on youtube - I've seen bitter arguments going on over everything from the existance of God to 'Family Guy' vs 'American Dad'.

GO YELLOW-BLACK JACKET MAN! GO! Ehem...sorry...carried away... XD

- B x

[MissJessicaKH]

@ElendilARK

The arguments are really intriguing to me, the way they spiral out of control...

[MissJessicaKH]

@jinitron

You're right, of course, I am a little biased... but gingers do have souls! Honest x

[jinitron]

MissJessica, I do believe I detect some media bias in your take on whether "Gingers Have Souls" Coppercab events, mmm?

;b

I kid. Nicely done series so far.