An anthropological introduction to YouTube

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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:

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 LonelyGirl15
39:50 Reflections on Authenticity
41:54 Gaming the system / Exposing the System
43:37 Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture (featuring Us by blimvisible:
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).

Channel: Education
Uploaded: July 26, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Author: mwesch

Length: 00:55:34
Rating: 4.87
Views: 700206

Tags: YouTube anthropology presentation ethnography digital ksudigg

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numbing numbered numerous Comments:
socoolbob (December 1, 2008 at 7:07 pm)
Did I miss something or did the embed permissions just change ... and then change again ....

I'm glad you're back.
YouTube Gold
wonkytrolley (December 1, 2008 at 7:02 pm)
watching this for 55 mins plus has made me feel spaced out, not used to such long vids on here. was entertaining, thanks.
EnelyaOronar (December 1, 2008 at 10:01 am)
This is fabulous! I knew that picking YouTube as a focus for my dissertation research was a going to be fun!
SZF123456 (November 30, 2008 at 8:16 am)
let's think about this though; what about the double videos people upload, as in the videos that are on youtube twice because people just feel like posting them again for whatever reason? that's not exactly new content.
hauwerine83 (November 29, 2008 at 10:33 am)
This was absolutely fantastic! I'm an virtual anthropologist myself from Finland and this video gave me lots of inspiration!
shukero (November 28, 2008 at 8:46 pm)
Very nice. I never thought of this community in that way. It's very interesting to see it through your eyes as well as other peoples eyes. well done.
GuzmanTierno (November 28, 2008 at 2:42 pm)
Fantastic work !
Navaja1221 (November 28, 2008 at 1:47 am)
This analysis spoke volumes to me. It reinforced my belief behind every video, every scandal, every phenomenon, and even every comment, there's a person longing to be heard.

I should really show this to more people. :O
socoolbob (November 28, 2008 at 6:40 pm)
True, True ô¿~
reciever23 (November 27, 2008 at 8:25 pm)
haaaaaaaah r u don taking