Thursday, October 26, 2006
ITube, YouTube, WeAllTube
A couple of weeks ago I posted a short piece on my Interactive Media blog about the purchase of YouTube by Google. YouTube is one of this year's rags-to-riches stories...or at least for its founders. However, the rise of YouTube has led to speculation about the future of internet video and the demise of traditional television program delivery. Some have questioned the future of Consumer Generated Media, such as YouTube, because of concern about Digital Rights Management and current abuses of copyrighted material. Others have expressed concern over a possible shift from authentically consumer-generated videos to corporate messages, network promos, and even political ads (e.g., this one by Michael J. Fox). One question is whether consumers will continue to "tune in" if and when the content appears to be manipulated by commercial or political interest groups. Would you believe that some colleges and universities are using YouTube to promote themselves? (e.g., this clip). Hah, bet you weren't expecting that were you? :-) But did you listen to the first couple of sentences of the video? That script was written a couple of years ago, and yet it remains amazingly accurate in terms of the changes that we're currently experiencing. You gotta love this business...never a boring moment!
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6 comments:
The entertainment value of Youtube would definitely suffer if posts and users were predominantly corporate, religious or political. I personally watch Youtube...religiously and there's always a great surfing video, hilariously entertaining clips or a good fight on.
Commercialization of Youtube is inevitable. Once the company realizes the potential for streaming advertisements preceding each video segment we will all have to suffer the 10 or 30 seconds of ads.
Sponsorship aside, Youtube as a base for companies and groups to promote themselves is solely going to be for those who choose to watch them. The best part of Youtube is the (seemingly) infinite amount of space their server has. That in mind, the Youtube community, i feel, won't suffer much. A disclaimer from Youtube on "personal viewpoints solely that of the poster" would be good start.
Dane K.
Whether it's online advertising, promotional messages, or the creation of databases, online users of social networking sites like YouTube and Myspace have to know that major corporate and government organizations are diligently working to create strategies to exploit consumer-generated content for their own goals.
Many organizations interested in targeting their goods and services are gathering their database on demographic and psychographic characteristics from what the users of myspace communicate.
It is already happening, it will continue to happen, unless some social networking sites somehow work to reduce it. We know they won't, of course, because ultimately it will mean profit for them.
Do users really believe that YouTube and Myspace were created just so folks could talk to each other? With no other motives?
I'll start off by saying this- I LOVE UTUBE!
Where else can you see anonymous people doing ridiculous things and then get clips of your favorite celebrities making bloopers all in the same place?
One major thing I see that will challenge YouTube in the future is their deinite "abuses of copyrighted material." There will be rules on that eventually.
What makes Youtube unique is the fact that it was built for the little guy. Any one has the ability to post videos and/or comments. I'm sure in the very near future it will be extremely corporate and over-run with advertising. This is no surprise with all of the hits the site gets, it would be stupid for companies not to try and take full advantage. Will this affect its popularity? I don't think so, if people want to watch something bad enough they will put up with the ads.
Travis Bliss
You-tube is an up and coming power just like Myspace. You-tube is a great place to find old videos from a long time ago that are hard to find. Their is a strong possibility that not only colleges are promoting themselves on you-tube, but other things as well considering that you-tube is probably watched by over a thousand people a day. So even though Youtube will continue to be a powerful force, it still will not take anything from other media outlets as well.
Consumer generated content is the future of news, and advertising. When you want the facts and the core of the story before it hits a news desk, all you have to do is go to the internet. I believe that YouTube is inevitable. As a free way of getting a message heard by millions of viewers, advertisers will eventually catch on. And because there is unlimited space to post videos, YouTube can turn into a big giant advertising mess.
Bedsides the point of advertising, a video we watched in class pertaining to kids learning how to make bombs took it a step too far. I believe that the site makes it far too easy to get harmful information from. And with anyone being able to post a video and the same for everyone being able to watch, it’s bound to have its flaws.
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