“Nine propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube”
I love Jenkin’s definition of Youtube as “a space where commercial, amateur, nonprofit, governmental, educational, and activist content co-exists and interacts in ever more complex ways.” That is the beauty of Youtube, it can be used by so many people for such different purposes. It gives everyone an equal opportunity to get there message across. I love Youtube!
I think it is interesting that Jenkins thinks that the most powerful members of Youtube are the “specific communities of practice.” I had to think about what this meant for a while. I think what Jenkin’s is saying is that subcultures or communities within Youtube are actually the most powerful. I don’t totally agree with this. For example, there are many music artists with no particular community backing them who are extremely successful on Youtube. Hotforwords is another great example of an extremely successful person on Youtube that has no community or cultural affiliation backing her. I don’t think that communities nessacarily make Youtube participants successful.
I think that when people or organizations try to suppress new media because they feel threatened they are actually hurting themselves more. I think that embracing and trying to grow new media is the best path to take. For example Steve Jobs created iTunes, instead of concentrating on trying to suppress Napster.
It scares me a little that our spectacles are becoming more and more public. On Facebook and Youtube people’s lives are displayed to the general public. I think this could make us very vulnerable to judgment.
I think it is extremely important that Jenkin’s emphasized that many minorities are underrepresented in online participatory communities. I have a Hispanic friend who could not afford a computer until this year, and he is 19. Yet even though he now has a computer he still can’t get on the internet without going somewhere where it’s free. He work’s a lot and so in reality he does not really use his computer and cannot participate like so many other Americans can’t.
1 comment:
When you look at YouTube and the most subscribed channels, Jenkins *might* be talking about the fact that the most subscribed channels might have a lot of asians or gay people, so he might be referring to those "communities", but the other most subscribed are comedians, singers, etc.. so I would agree with you that it ISN'T mostly people part of communities. I think it's probably one of the most democratic societies, and that allows a Russian girl to go on there and teach English word origins and end up with one of the most watched channels on all of YouTube.
Good article.
Marina
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