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An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube

TitleAn Anthropological Introduction to Youtube
Publication TypeFilm
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsWesch M
PublisherYouTube
Keywordsanthropology, community, ethnography, YouTube
Abstract

presented at the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008. This was tons of fun to present. I decided to forgo the {PowerPoint} and instead worked with students to prepare over 40 minutes of video for the 55 minute presentation. This is the result. more info: http://mediatedcultures.net

URLhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU&feature=youtube_gdata
Full Text
  • 0:00 Introduction, YouTube's Big Numbers
  • 2:00 Numa Numa and the Celebration of Webcams
  • 5:53 The Machine is Us/ing Us and the New Mediascape
  • 12:16 Introducing our Research Team
  • 12:56 Who is on YouTube?
  • 13:25 What's on Youtube? Charlie Bit My Finger, Soulja Boy, etc.
  • 17:04 5% of vids are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community, Why?
  • 17:30 YouTube in context. The loss of community and "networked individualism" (Wellman)
  • 18:41 Cultural Inversion: individualism and community
  • 19:15 Understanding new forms of community through Participant Observation
  • 21:18 YouTube as a medium for community
  • 23:00 Our first vlogs
  • 25:00 The webcam: Everybody is watching where nobody is ("context collapse")
  • 26:05 Re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness (McLuhan)
  • 27:58 The Anonymity of Watching YouTube: Haters and Lovers
  • 29:53 Aesthetic Arrest
  • 30:25 Connection without Constraint
  • 32:35 Free Hugs: A hero for our mediated culture
  • 34:02 YouTube Drama: Striving for popularity
  • 34:55 An early star: emokid21ohio
  • 36:55 YouTube's Anthenticity Crisis: the story of LonelyGirl
  • 15 39:50 Reflections on Authenticity
  • 41:54 Gaming the system / Exposing the System
  • 43:37 Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture (featuring Us by blimvisible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxHKgQyGx0
  • 47:32 Networked Production: The Collab. MadV's "The Message" and the message of YouTube
  • 49:29 Poem: The Little Glass Dot, The Eyes of the World
  • 51:15 Conclusion by bnessel1973
  • 52:50 Dedication and Credits (Our Numa Numa dance) The Numa Numa quote is from Douglas Wolk (not Gary Wolk as I mistakenly said in the talk).