CASESTUDY 9. VLOGS - YOUTUBE

YOU TUBE – LONELYGIRL15

YouTube is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated, and the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published.
The wide variety of site content includes movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos.

The site is praised as one the most user friendly sites on the Internet. Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site while registered users have the ability to upload an unlimited number of videos. Related videos, determined by the title and tags, appear to the right of the video. In the second year, the site gave users the ability to post responses and subscribe to any registered user.

SOCIAL IMPACT OF YOUTUBE

Internet celebrities
YouTube's popularity has led to the creation of many YouTube Internet celebrities, popular individuals who have attracted significant publicity in their home countries from their videos.

Band and music promotion
YouTube has also become a means of promoting bands and their music. One such example is OK Go which got a huge radio hit and an MTV Video Music Awards performance out of the treadmill video for Here It Goes Again.



LONELYGIRL15

lonelygirl15 is an interactive web-based video serial centering around the life of a fictional teenage girl named Bree, whose YouTube username is "lonelygirl15".

The series is presented through short, regularly-updated video blogs posted by the fictional characters, as well as through an optional alternate reality game.

Lonelygirl15 debuted on YouTube as a "real" 16-year-old video blogger. In her earliest videos, she posted video replies to and name-dropped popular YouTubers, which attracted the attention of their fans. Her video blogs eventually became popular in their own right, and attracted a massive following. To further the initial illusion that Bree was a real girl, a MySpace page was set up for her and she began meaningfully corresponding with many of her fans, but it was eventually outed by suspicious viewers as a hoax featuring a fictive character played by an actress named Jessica Rose.

‘HOUSE ARREST’


HOW DOES IT RELATE TO AUDIENCES?
- Appeals to a wide audience as anyone can watch/upload videos
- Any type of software can be used to create a vlog -no need for high-tech expensive equipment
- Has many uses and gives the audience an opportunity to showcase their work –can show off talents/create personal blog/ present short films/ plays
- It is made up of user-created content
- The audience is creating the media and consuming it at the same time


HOW DOES IT RELATE TO INSTITUTIONS?
- Youtube acts as a search engine and archive for vlogs posted worldwide
- Users create the content by having the ability to up-load, share and view clips
- Youtube is successful for its user-friendly approach and by the idea that it's audience play a key part in running and contributing to the site


KEY CONCEPTS OF THEORY:
Interaction - audiences can communicate with each other by commenting on the video clips, giving them a rating, reviewing, subscribing to a vlog or sending video replies

Reach/democratisation - anyone can post a vlog and all have the potential to be exhibited on a large scale across the web