V-log (YouTube video): Kitchen Diaries (beat box).

Technology involved:
Digital videos are uploaded by members of the ‘YouTube’ website onto the internet. It allows people to freely stream videos across the globe. This enables audiences to become producers and view clip of what they want when they want. If the video does not exist they can create a video to gratify their and others needs. This also allows everyday people to easily publicise their talents and views which could lead to the creation of a fan base with the individual become slightly famous on the secondary world that is the internet.

This can replace terrestrial and digital television as people may log onto YouTube to experience a more diverse or different standard of video or may even want a more personalised and realistic experience. The main thing is that the audience can instantly gratify their needs and form an online equal society.

More specifically YouTube can compete with individual TV shows whereby the audience send in their own videos in a hope for them to be broadcast. YouTube however, allows everybody that equal opportunity. Shows such as; ‘You’ve Been Framed’, ‘The planet’s Funniest Animals’, ‘Animal Planet’, etc.

Media content: YouTube website and the digital video:

The YouTube Website:
YouTube categorises each video into a ‘channel’, i.e. it is categorised into sub sections such as; All Comedians, Directors, Gurus, Musicians, Non-Profit, Partners, Politicians, Sponsors, You Choose 08. This allows the mass audience the opportunity to diversify into a niche group and experience. (DIVERSIFICATION) This also makes the process much easier and faster to navigate through the millions of videos and the audience’s needs are more instantly gratified. (IMMEDIACY) for example ‘Kitchen Diaries’ is in the channels ‘comedy’ and ‘entertainment’.

The sub section ‘community’ allows audience to participate/ be part of contests and groups. A task is set by a company and the audience try to complete the mission set in the form of an uploaded video. This is allows the audience to share videos of themselves yet the company does not have a clear commercial gain from this task. (Instead they are ‘below the line’ promoting with the aim of eventually increasing company sales) (HORIZONTAL NETWORKING)

The ‘search’ option, the channel toolbar, and the sheer number of videos that are on the website allow each viewer to obtain a very individual and personal experience. For example only a niche audience may watch a video as a pose to the more restricted television scheduling whereby millions may watch something. Also due to the internet, this has allowed much more private viewing within the home or workplace etc.

YouTube allows everyone to publicize their videos and gives everybody an equal opportunity to express their views, show off their talent and possibly even become famous. This challenges traditional media organizations and formats such as the TV shows (as already mentioned) who were able to control what the audience could view, how they viewed it and when! Therefore this is a perfect example of DEMOCRATISATION.

The digital video:

The diversity and standard and personalisation of the ‘Kitchen Diaries’ video means that it will appeal only to a specific audience and therefore this is an example of ‘narrowcasting’ the audience. In other words the; beat boxing, humorous action codes, dress codes and dialogue, will mean that the audience is narrowed. Also when viewing a video the YouTube webpage displays related videos and videos uploaded by the same users. This allows the website to become fragmented as these features cause narrowcasting, i.e. the audience may only want to access similar niche videos and if this happens on a larger scale the whole YouTube audience could fragment.

The digital video is accessible to all audiences that are connected to the internet. Although the content is regulated by the YouTube organisations and institution to maintain a safe and secure and enjoyable website created for the people. YouTube is a public and free video uploading website and relies also on the audience to regulate this content and report content to the institution via the ‘flagging’ feature. This is a feature whereby the audience can click and flag a video if they feel the content is of an inappropriate nature. From this YouTube are alerted and review the videos status on the website. This illustrates the concept of REGULATION however the sheer success of the website has meant that the speed for regulation is much slower than the speed at which videos are uploaded.

Regulation is also shown as YouTube ask members for their date of birth to make sure that content they try to watch is of a suitable rating. Audiences without a membership are also unable to watch content that is age restricted, i.e. Over 18.

The audience are given complete control over what media is consumed (although regulated), when and how. They are not restricted by the traditional TV scheduling and can watch the videos when most convenient. This is a great example of time-shift.

The text comments section and the video response section below the video allow the audience to voice their opinion about the uploaded video. This allows the audience and the users/producer to communicate with each other over the internet on a global scale with people that may never have met in real life. (INTERACTIVITY)

‘Statistics and data’ is also available regarding each individual video, such as how many times the video has been ‘viewed’, ‘rated’, ‘favorited’, etc. My chosen video, ‘KITCHEN DIARIES’ has been viewed 2,564,061 times and has been ‘favorited’ 19,713 times yet it was only uploaded 16months ago! This section gives the audience more information about each video (slight example of proliferation).

YouTube users upload videos for free and the audience can access the videos for free. This allows peer to peer sharing of media without any profit. The audience can also copy and paste the embedded code of the video and put it on their own website/webpage/blog etc. This means that the audience can share the videos across peer to peer yet at the same time the institution and video is non-commercially promoted. Therefore these are clear examples of HORIZONTAL NETWORKING.

Audiences
‘Kitchen Diaries’ appeals mainly to anybody with a taste in Beat boxing, no matter what age, race or gender. However the audience is narrowed by the humour of the video. Also the video is part of a competition and so would appeal directly to those young hopefuls who want to win the competition and see which acts they have to beat. The main reason an audience would watch this video this for entertainment yet their viewing and rating of this adds to the creators viewing statistics which can benefit the creator through fame and self satisfaction. The audience may also find inspiration from the video and upload a video of them to gain status and to publicise something they find entertaining. This follows YouTube’s concept of self generated content.

The actual video itself can appeal to a mass audience however this is narrowed by the technology used- internet and v-logs. The new internet technology and the v-log facility provided by the creation of YouTube in 2005, means that this audience is narrowed by factors such as; whether those people who are comfortable with using this technology and those that can afford this technology.

Institutions -Google own YouTube (cost $1.65 billion)

The main institution is YouTube who are owned by Google. On the website there is lots of self promotion of the brand ‘YouTube’ and there is some advertising which can provide income for the institution such as ‘Rolling Stones’. Also self advertising the institution on other media texts is evident, such as ‘iGoogle’ and logging in with a Google account which shows vertical integration.

The increasing use of the internet and the increasing habit of free online video streaming via YouTube has meant that the institutions’ level of distribution is increasing. The unlimited space on the internet and the diversity of videos uploaded due to a diversity of audience tastes has meant that the amount of exhibition is forever increasing.

Some institutions use YouTube as a way of marketing their own media. For example film companies will upload trailers as an attempt to distribute the trailer to a greater audience and from that increase the popularity and therefore increase the number of screenings of the film.

Key Concepts: Horizontal networking, regulation, democratisation, narrowcasting, fragmentation, immediacy.