Sunday, May 13, 2007
Growing popularity of youtube and its effects
The popular video website Youtube is one where you can not only view, but also upload, share, rate and comment on videos presented. It can be seen as a social networking web service and has quickly become one of the most popularly used websites at present. This social networking phenomenon can be seen through the ability of users being able to upload their own personally recorded video clips onto the site and therefore sharing their clips with an vast number of people throughout the globe. The ability of users being able to use this service directly from their home computers means that they do not need the assistance of other previously associated mediums to broadcast themselves, such as radio, television and advertising. Any group or individual with a computer and the internet can now present and promote themselves to the population, without having to include influences from other media related divisions. Along with this positive promotional view of individuals being able to express through youtube, this form of media can also be detrimental in other respects. Anyone is now free to upload and share what they would like to express as long as it is not disrespectful of copyright laws or deemed inappropriate such as drug use, sexually explicit etc, which could be potentially harmful to individuals. As a result of the growing popularity of youtube, individuals have more freedom to express themselves in this sense as they now have the means and ability to adopt a more “DIY” attitude in relation to their creative thoughts.
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I was just reading through the David Croteau article on 'self-produced media' and thinking about the way that Youtube has become one of the most popular forms of social networking available on the net at the moment. It seems that Youtube has as many positive effects as it does negative. On the one hand it provides a means for "new forms of media production and distribution"(Croteau), but on the other it can seriously infringe on copyright laws as well as as a plethora of other legalities.
Whilst I myself must admit that I have used Youtube to view all kinds of videos - some "self-produced" and others often "ripped" from the original source (TV, DVDs, Cd's etc) I must also admit that often there are times where I question how far is too far when it comes to being able to access many of these videos. For instance, I am an avid TV watcher and I used to live in Canada where Television programs are shown at the same time as the States. As a result I'm often 'ahead' in terms of already having seen many of the episodes already shown on TV here in NZ so I often like to go online and try to catch up with the programs as they are airing in 'real time' without having to download them or wait for them to air here.
It seems obvious that something like this directly infringes on copyright laws and it is often the case that some of those videos are removed because they have been 'found out' so to speak. Yet at the same time there is no real way to stop people from posting these kinds of things in the first place.
Obviously content is screened for whether or not it is inappropriate but a lot still slips through.
Furthermore, what happens when "self-produced media" is actually derived from pre-existing media forms? For example, when video clips from movies or TV programs are edited and mixed with a backing soundtrack of some popular song - whilst the video itself can be seen as belonging to the 'author' it is obvious that none of the material used is theirs in the first place.
I don't think that Youtube is completely negative though. It is clear that it has become a means by which emerging artists and media producers can get their products out there in order to make a name for themselves or create buzz - OK GO is the most obvious example of this. The "word of mouth" aspect has been a means for creating an environment for people to discover new artists that they may never of had the chance to do in the past.
In terms of the visual aspect of Youtube, it is a great environment for people to test out their skills as video producers, artists, graphic designers etc. Or even just for people to learn how do certain visual effects - e.g. many of Michel Gondry's visual tricks have been put on Youtube for people to try out at home. Having said that though, the majority of the content available on Youtube is, quite frankly, crap.
The "every man" aspect of the site makes it possible that anyone and everyone can put videos up - often they even include themselves on the videos. Often it is necessary to sift through the less desirable videos in order to find something of quality. I think this points to the fact that Youtube is still a work in progress and as Croteau says it is unlikely that it will last long. The Internet is constantly shifting and evolving so it is quite possible that in the future Youtube might have transformed into something completely different from what we now see. In any case it is clear that there are still a number of issues - both positive and negative - which need to be addressed when it comes to this type of "social networking" and method of "self-production".
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