Youtube: Easy And Participatory
Over the last decade and a half, the landscape of entertainment has shifted drastically. YouTube has been rapidly growing to replace traditional forms of media on TV. This is partially due to ease of access, but one of the biggest factors is likely due to YouTube being an interactive medium. The rise of video game culture, and internet culture in general have contributed as well. Also more people are also beginning to abandon TV completely, due to online video providers. Due to YouTube and the wider internet, media has shifted away from non participatory formats of the past to a seemingly more interactive online format. There are a few very important factors that differentiate YouTube from traditional forms of media, mainly television. First is ease of access. To watch traditional TV, you need a TV screen or a monitor and an antenna, but there are limited options for channels. Or, you can get a breadth of options from a cable or satellite provider, but have to pay expensive fees. Additionally, you will also have to pay in time via commercials, unless you only watch public television. However, with YouTube, you only need a device with internet connectivity to begin watching videos. Commercials can also be circumvented, either through YouTube’s paid service, YouTube Red, or a third party ad blocker.
The second factor that differentiates YouTube is its interactiveness. YouTube not only acts as a streaming service, but also has a secondary, or perhaps primary, function as a social media platform. Any person with an account can begin posting their own video content. With enough popularity, they can also begin making money off of this process. Another important form of interactivity is the comment section, which allows users with accounts to post whatever thoughts they have on a video. Finally, users can like or dislike content, as well as subscribe to channels to tailor the type of videos that are recommended for them. YouTube has been replacing some of the niche’s previously filled by traditional TV. One of these niches that YouTube has recently been filling is children’s entertainment, specifically entertainment for young children. This entire subgenre of YouTube was started by Vinoth Chandar, founder of the YouTube channel ChuChu TV. The videos produced by ChuChu TV consist of traditional nursery rhymes sung, and put over flashy and colorful 2D animations. ChuChuTV has currently achieved 19 million subscribers on YouTube, putting it among the top 25 most subscribed YouTube channels. Comparing ChuChuTV’s online presence to that of a traditional TV competitor, Sesame Street, is startling. The iconic TV series only has 5 million subscribers on its YouTube channel. ChuChu TV is far from the only channel on YouTube that appeals to the young child audience. Due to its popularity, ChuChu TV has spawned countless imitators with similar styles. YouTube’s algorithms will often promote similar videos, not just ones by ChuChu TV, which makes child content on YouTube practically endless compared to traditional television, as any person can upload videos to the website.
YouTube’s success may also be due to it being more than just an entertainment platform. YouTube is also set up to be a pseudo-social media platform. This is very apparent when you consider the large teenaged user base. In 2009, teenagers accounted for 17% of YouTube’s market. In that year, 17 percent of teenage accounts not only watched and consumed content, but also uploaded videos to their channel. Another feature that allowed YouTube to feel more like a community or social media platform is the comment section, which allowed users to leave any thoughts they had about a specific video for anyone to view. At the time users could rate videos from 1-5, currently, that feature has been replaced with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down system. A few years ago, one of the most popular types of videos on YouTube was the 'letsplay'. A 'letsplay' is a YouTube video in which a commentator plays through a video game, and gives their thoughts and impressions on the game. These videos often feature little editing, and they often focus on the commentator’s personality, rather than their skill at the specific game. Often times the focus was on their lack of skill. These videos would often provide free advertisement to the game and its creators, due to the wide audience of the YouTuber, and the exposure provided. For example, the video game Five Nights at Freddy’s, also abbreviated as FNAF, would produce 13 million results when searched on YouTube in 2018.
Another important factor in YouTube’s success is one that affects the larger internet as a whole. This factor is that of internet Meme culture. In 2016, one study looked into the popularity and meme content related to the viral music video, “Gangnam Style,” by the music artist Psy. The study was able to relate this topic to the network theories of source, authority, and hub (Xu 109). In this case, the source was the original video uploaded by Psy, the authority being media outlets that promote it, which YouTube is one of, and the hub is the users who both watch the relevant content, but create mematic versions of it. The source-authority-hub model is an example of the importance of interaction to YouTube as a platform, as the hub consists of everyday users of the website. There were 5 different categories of videos relating to the Psy trend. Official was anything produced by Psy, original would be live concerts or coverage by official media outlets, remixes are background music, or lyrics, participation is dances, parodies, or covers, and finally reviews and reactions are people’s opinions and impressions on the song. On average, dance videos were the most frequent type of video created, but reactions had the highest audience involvement, barring official content.
YouTube and streaming services as a whole are often attributed with causing the decline of traditional forms of media, such as television. This is in part due to convenience and accessibility, one of the biggest strengths of YouTube and other streaming services. The decline of traditional media has been discussed for some time, an example being an article written by Todd Ganos for Forbes. The article’s name is “The Death of Television”, and it was written in 2011. Ganos cites the examples of television being on death’s door such as HGTV uploading reruns to their website, and news channels having all of their headlines available on the internet. This is very similar to the situation of ChuChu TV, in which a traditional media service is being outdone by a digital media service. However, there are some very relevant difference. Where ChuChu TV is outperforming an unrelated service such as Sesame Street, the HGTV channel is challenged by the HGTV’s own website. It seems that the success of YouTube and the internet as a whole has influenced traditional media services to migrate into a digital landscape, whether it be for convenience or to avoid obsolescence. YouTube’s success is in large part due to it being the most accessible video content provider for some time. The internet has become an integral part of our society over the last few years. Many analog functions have met obsolescence due to the convenience the internet provides. If someone wants to find a specific clip, tutorial, or niche content, they are likely to resort to YouTube, as the site has over 6.3 billion views all the way back in 2009 . Given its seemingly endless stream of content, the pseudo social media environment, and it being one of the main proprietors of non TV content, such as videos on video games make YouTube a modern media juggernaut, challenged only by streaming services in dominance.
In conclusion, YouTube has changed the media landscape in many ways. It has shifted the paradigm away from scheduled and limited content, due to YouTube’s accessibility and convenience. It has promoted participatory content by serving as both a video streaming service and a social media platform. It has given a platform to niche subjects that wouldn’t have one through traditional media, and has allowed its users to influence the site by creating and contributing their own content. Finally, it has forced traditional media services to move towards digital services.
Works Cited
- Chau, Clements. 'YouTube as a participatory culture.' New Directions for Youth Development., vol. 2010, no. 128, 2010, pp. 65-74. Academic Search Premier, doi:10.1002/yd.376, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.marshall.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=87a778a8-f4c8-479c-b10c-a7104699cd25%40sessionmgr4007
- Ganos, Todd. 'The Death of Television.' Forbes, Forbes, 13 July 2011, www.forbes.com/sites/toddganos/2011/07/13/the-death-of-television/#33358d4819f2.
- Madrigal, Alexis C. 'Raised By YouTube.' The Atlantic, Nov. 2018, pp. 72-80. Academic Search Premier, web.a.ebscohost.com.marshall.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=6c0a0190-51cd-4a70-99b1-71493be67fc3%40sessionmgr4006.
- May, Jamie. 'YouTube Gamers and Think-Aloud Protocols: Introducing Usability Testing.' IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, vol. 62, no. 1, 26 Oct. 2018, pp. 94-103. Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.1109/TPC.2018.2867130. https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.marshall.idm.oclc.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8510872
- Xu, Weiai W., et al. 'Networked Cultural Diffusion and Creation on YouTube: An Analysis of YouTube Memes.' Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 60, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 104-22. Academic Search Premier, doi:10.1080/08838151.2015.1127241.
- http://web.a.ebscohost.com.marshall.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=7e0cc7b7-33b3-40ce-9f4c-f317bc21c68f%40sdc-v-sessmgr03
