Eric Heiden
ENGL 2123
October 5, 2007
Ever since the first link in the evolutionary chain of man we have been communicating, or at least trying to do so whether by simple body language, smoke signals, or verbally in a certain language. “Language is not only an instrument of communication or even of knowledge, but also an instrument of power” said Pierre Bourdieu, an acclaimed French sociologist. This has been proven by Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone in 1876 and by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 with the invention of the radio. At the 1900 world’s fair in Paris the world’s first “television” was unveiled. After the invention of these new marvels it was probably hard to imagine just how much easier communicating would become. But in the mid 90’s the world was connected on a big web; the world-wide-web in fact.
After the introduction of the internet people from all around the earth could talk to each other with literally a click of a button. With this new phenomenon came an entirely new sub-culture of people who would communicate and surf on the internet daily inventing new means of communication. These people introduced more websites for conveying their message, a new language, and new technologies that would improve our means of communication infinitely. One of the hottest and most frequently used websites in the entire internet is known as YouTube. YouTube was founded in 2005 and since May of that year people have been able to broadcast themselves on the internet, through the use of a web-cam hooked up to their computer, for the entire world to see.
People that were once insignificant on the world scale are now able to express their opinions and are able to become famous throughout the internet community for whatever it is they post. On September tenth Chris Crocker, an obvious Britney Spears fan, recorded a video of himself on his web-cam and posted it on YouTube expressing his opinions on why Ms. Spears should not be criticized by the public for her actions, mainly her performance at the 2007 video music awards. Previous to this the entertainment community was in an uproar over Ms. Spears’ performance and obvious lip syncing and her bad parenting skills (bad parenting referring to the occasion in which Spears appeared to almost drop her child while carrying it in public and to other actions in public and accusations made towards her parenting choices). The video was directed towards the people who were making fun of Spears and making fun of her and her actions on stage and off. (Crocker, 2007)
ENGL 2123
October 5, 2007
Ever since the first link in the evolutionary chain of man we have been communicating, or at least trying to do so whether by simple body language, smoke signals, or verbally in a certain language. “Language is not only an instrument of communication or even of knowledge, but also an instrument of power” said Pierre Bourdieu, an acclaimed French sociologist. This has been proven by Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone in 1876 and by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 with the invention of the radio. At the 1900 world’s fair in Paris the world’s first “television” was unveiled. After the invention of these new marvels it was probably hard to imagine just how much easier communicating would become. But in the mid 90’s the world was connected on a big web; the world-wide-web in fact.
After the introduction of the internet people from all around the earth could talk to each other with literally a click of a button. With this new phenomenon came an entirely new sub-culture of people who would communicate and surf on the internet daily inventing new means of communication. These people introduced more websites for conveying their message, a new language, and new technologies that would improve our means of communication infinitely. One of the hottest and most frequently used websites in the entire internet is known as YouTube. YouTube was founded in 2005 and since May of that year people have been able to broadcast themselves on the internet, through the use of a web-cam hooked up to their computer, for the entire world to see.
People that were once insignificant on the world scale are now able to express their opinions and are able to become famous throughout the internet community for whatever it is they post. On September tenth Chris Crocker, an obvious Britney Spears fan, recorded a video of himself on his web-cam and posted it on YouTube expressing his opinions on why Ms. Spears should not be criticized by the public for her actions, mainly her performance at the 2007 video music awards. Previous to this the entertainment community was in an uproar over Ms. Spears’ performance and obvious lip syncing and her bad parenting skills (bad parenting referring to the occasion in which Spears appeared to almost drop her child while carrying it in public and to other actions in public and accusations made towards her parenting choices). The video was directed towards the people who were making fun of Spears and making fun of her and her actions on stage and off. (Crocker, 2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
Crocker became famous almost overnight. People were now talking about the “crazy guy crying about Britney Spears on YouTube.” Through the use of his web-cam and YouTube, his video post on the internet became almost as famous a Britney Spears herself. The audience that this video produced even warranted an invitation to Crocker to appear via computer on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Readers of the book Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (2003) can see a parallel between today’s YouTube and a program that the main character of the story, Cayce Pollard, uses called FFF (Fetish Footage Forum). In Pattern Recognition Cayce Pollard, a professional “cool hunter”, is hired to find the makers of a series of clips that have been posted on FFF because of the mass following that these series of clips had produced. Likewise YouTube provides a median through which up and coming directors and producers can be discovered, even fanatic Britney Spears fans.
YouTube hosts more than 100 million clips and these draw a greater following than most cable television stations. The website is even able to act like an entire cable network in itself because it also hosts many series of clips that are released and updated on a regular basis that rival some television shows.
Crocker became famous almost overnight. People were now talking about the “crazy guy crying about Britney Spears on YouTube.” Through the use of his web-cam and YouTube, his video post on the internet became almost as famous a Britney Spears herself. The audience that this video produced even warranted an invitation to Crocker to appear via computer on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Readers of the book Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (2003) can see a parallel between today’s YouTube and a program that the main character of the story, Cayce Pollard, uses called FFF (Fetish Footage Forum). In Pattern Recognition Cayce Pollard, a professional “cool hunter”, is hired to find the makers of a series of clips that have been posted on FFF because of the mass following that these series of clips had produced. Likewise YouTube provides a median through which up and coming directors and producers can be discovered, even fanatic Britney Spears fans.
YouTube hosts more than 100 million clips and these draw a greater following than most cable television stations. The website is even able to act like an entire cable network in itself because it also hosts many series of clips that are released and updated on a regular basis that rival some television shows.
“We're in the middle of a shift in digital media entertainment," said Chad Hurley, YouTube’s CEO. "Users are now in control of what they want to watch and when they want to watch it. They decide what rises to the top, what's entertaining.” (Lee, 2006)
The world proved this true through the titanic uproar that the Crocker video has made throughout the internet community. Before, television was controlled by the media and by the government as to what was able to be shown and broadcast around the country. It was only a select number of people who were able to speak their mind and to convey their individual beliefs to the television community. But now a single man is able to go onto the internet through the use of his web-cam and be able to broadcast himself over the entire internet, and to the entire world, and speak his mind. We were always able to choose what is entertaining. But now we are becoming more and more empowered to truly choose what is entertaining to us, what we want to watch and to be watched.
“Broadcast Yourself” is YouTube’s slogan. And through the combined uses of the internet, YouTube and web-cams that is exactly what a person is able to do. A single person can now share their own personal beliefs and talents with the global community making us able to communicate with each other as a single world-wide community. It is astonishing to me to think that about twenty years after the invention of the telephone we were able to communicate without wires between us through a radio. Then five years after that we were able to send pictures of ourselves over wires and that televisions were common place about fifty years after that. Finally forty years after the television the entire world was literally brought to our fingertips. Just imagine what the next decade will bring and who or what we will be able to communicate with.
“Broadcast Yourself” is YouTube’s slogan. And through the combined uses of the internet, YouTube and web-cams that is exactly what a person is able to do. A single person can now share their own personal beliefs and talents with the global community making us able to communicate with each other as a single world-wide community. It is astonishing to me to think that about twenty years after the invention of the telephone we were able to communicate without wires between us through a radio. Then five years after that we were able to send pictures of ourselves over wires and that televisions were common place about fifty years after that. Finally forty years after the television the entire world was literally brought to our fingertips. Just imagine what the next decade will bring and who or what we will be able to communicate with.
Bibliography
Crocker, C. (Director/Actor). (2007). Leave Britney Alone. USA: YouTube.
Lee, E. (2006, October 10). Retrieved September 25, 20072, from sfgate.com: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/10/MNG54LLVSO1.DTL
No comments:
Post a Comment