Building Communities Through Youtube

The topic of this blog is the ability for Youtube to create communities through its use of ranking tactics, which promote the more popular videos in circulation. Firstly, in order to discuss such an idea, the term ‘community’ should be narrowed down, as it is such a general term. Jose van Dijck argues that the term has a strong connotation with belonging to a rea-life group, however, he believes that when it comes to the online community, it can be defined as “groups with a communal preference in music, movies, or books, (a so called ‘taste-community’)”, he then argues that “building taste is an activity that necessarily ties in individuals with social groups” (van Dijck, 45).

Now that the definition for ‘community’ has been outlined, a closer look of how Youtube operates, shall be discussed in greater detail. When an individual is signed into Youtube, the first page they are greeted with presents many attempts, by Youtube, to place them in certain categories. One of the first things on the page is a section with the heading ‘we’ve found some channels that you might like’, below this, are many ‘recommended videos’ which have been picked by the site’s system through wading through the individual’s video search history (youtube.com, 2011) . All of these sections are tools for Youtube to create the personality of the individual, and thus, place them in certain categories. Ranking systems further allow for this to occur, because, when a person is watching a video, they are given options of other similar videos which have been well-received by viewers. These systems and sections have all been introduced by Youtube, in order to categorise viewers into subsections of taste; because if people are watching videos they like, they are more willing to increase its popularity or comment on the videos, which will give the website a feeling of community.

These ranking tactics which have been employed by Youtube are yet another example of the power of produsage being harnessed. Everything about the system requires the user to generate value into the product being presented, and this is the epitome of ‘produsage’ (Bruns, 2008) . Not only are videos created by the users of the website, people who comment on videos, like them, or even watch them, for that matter, are contributing on marginal value onto the product. Popularity on site such as Youtube are based on public perception; and most of the time, the number of likes, comments and views a video receives, all contribute and determine how good a video actually is, and not the actual content.

This blog has tried to present the idea that Youtube’s effective ranking tactic has been able to give people the sense of community, and belonging to a group, through their use of user histories, in order to be able to present individual users with more content which will strengthen their position in that community, through liking and commenting on videos. And finally, the idea of produsage was applied to this case, as a tool for creation of value within videos.

References

Axel Bruns, The Future is User-Led: The Path Towards Widespread Produsage, Fibreculture Journal, Date Published: 2008, Date Accessed, 31 May 2011

Jose van Dijck, ‘Users like you? Theorising agency in user-generated content’, Media, Culture & Society, 31 (2009): 31-58.

Youtube, Youtube.com, Date Published: 2011, Date Accessed: 31 May 2011 <www.youtube.com>

Self-Management Through Blogs

In this week’s readings, blogs were discussed in detail. In the readings, Geert Lovink stated that bloggers are creative nihilists “who celebrate the death of centralized meaning structures and ignore the accusation that they would only produce noise” (Lovink, 2007: 22), as well as saying that “No matter how much talk there is of community and mobs, the fact remains that blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self” (Lovink, 2007: 28). Both statements hold quite great weight in the description of blogs and bloggers alike, however, this post will be discussing the latter in greater detail.

Firstly, the idea of managing the self should be identified. Kathleen McGowan, of Psychology Today, states that managing the self is the way in which people present themselves in, and to, the world (McGowan, 2005). The difficulty in managing the self differs between individuals as some choose to over-ride their natural responses more than others. Using this definition, blogs are ideal tools of self management as bloggers can appear to be however they prefer to be viewed as, but because they are doing so behind a screen, one need not totally over-ride natural responses.

Perezhilton.com is the epitome of the use of blogs as a tool for self-management. The main aim of the blog is quite evident upon taking a quick glance at it: attention. And attention is just what this blog has achieved. At present, Perez Hilton, has made quite a name for himself in the Hollywood tabloids, which he used to only comment on. Through the blog, Hilton is able to present himself to be an entertaining character, be it positively or negatively so, which has landed him in fame. Only through this presentation of himself as an outspoken entertainment commentator was Hilton ever going to be noticed in Hollywood.

Lovink also argue that self management is the “PR and promotion of the I” (Lovink, 2007: 28). In terms of self promotion, Perez Hilton is, again, an obvious example. Along with gossip and celebrity news, scattered throughout his blog are both subtle, and not so subtle tools of self-promotion. Firstly, the self-titled  blog indicates a need for him to want to have his name out for the world to see. Secondly, at the top of the blog, Perez has a section devoted to informing people on how else they are able to follow his blogs and rants; with links to his Facebook, and Twitter page, as well as a link to sign up to the PerezHilton Posse newsletter. In addition to these, he has also scattered his photos throughout his blog, in what can be seen as an attempt to make, not only a name for himself, but a face as well (Hilton, 2011). It could be quite easily argued that one of the main motives of this blog, is self-promotion, and narcissism.

References

Geert Lovink, ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse’, in Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp. 1-38

Kathleen McGowan, Managing the Self, Psychology Today, Date Published: 1 July 2005, Date Accessed: 4 May 2011 <http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200509/managing-the-self&gt;

Perez Hilton, Welcome to PerezHilton.com, PerezHilton.com, Date Published: 1 May 2011, Date Accessed: 2 May 2011 <http://perezhilton.com/&gt;