the youtube analysis

7/27/2019 The YouTube Analysis

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GEK 1046:

The YouTubeAnalysis

Bay Wan Qin Cherie A0114942J [email protected]

Joy Wong Shu Yee A0114410A

Lim Sze Kee Vanessa A0101512E [email protected]

Ng Wei Lin A0101066X [email protected]

Ong Yang Qin Bren A0096565N [email protected]

Rie Chong A0115151X [email protected]
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Introduction

YouTube, the most visited video-sharing website, is undoubtedly a significant part

of today's online media. According to YouTube Statistics, more than one billion

unique users or one seventh of the world's population visits YouTube each month.

The fact that such a large proportion of the global population visits YouTube shows

the significance and impact it has on the world today. With multiple purposes and

genres of videos, ranging from educational and political to entertainment and

music, it is not surprising that YouTube has become so pervasive in many peoples'

lives. To most, the idea of clicking on a video link on Facebook or other social media

and getting directed to a YouTube video is probably not foreign. What is foreign,

though, is stopping after that one video. One video always seems to link to another,

and then another. How does YouTube draw us and manage to make us stay on it? Is

it an involuntary knee-jerk reaction, or does the space of YouTube force and

manipulate us to stay on it? In this essay, we aim to explore these questions and

critically analyse whether YouTube is truly a platform for freedom to view and

share or if it is actually doing the converse by controlling and dictating how we live

our lives.

YouTube is a virtual space which combines media production and distribution with

social networking features, making it an ideal place to create, connect, collaborate,

and circulate media. An average YouTube user visits the site 14 times a month and

spends an average of 25 minutes on the site each time they visit (Monica, 2012).

These statistics raise a pertinent question: why do viewers continuously stay

within the YouTube space?

Structure of YouTube

The interface of YouTube is key to keeping users glued to YouTube, thereby

maintaining and growing its high viewership. The structure of YouTube is carefully

engineered to keep users engaged and dwell on it for hours (Silva & Dix, 2007). It

has the ability to dictate the videos each user should watch through various

"distractions". What strikes us first when we enter YouTube is the What ToWatch tab. Other columns titled Most viewed, and Most discussed are also

placed strategically on the main page to facilitate quick access to popular videos.

These links are visual cues which prompt and aid users in the selection of videos.

The Recommended Channels sidebar relates to videos which the user had

browsed in past sessions. This allures the viewers into the realm of YouTube fromthe very beginning of the video browsing experience.

For example, a user who searches for a particular video on YouTube ("How to cook

fried rice?") will be bombarded with numerous recommended videos on the main

page (Figure 1) even before the search begins. On that note, thumbnails of Avril

Lavigne and other attention grabbing titles will distract him. A fried rice tutorial

could potentially become an Avril Lavigne video instead.


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Figure 1

The end of the video brings an appearance of related recommended videos that will

pique his curiosity and lead to a cascade of videos (Figure 2). Supporting this

function, the Recommendations section on the right promotes videos which arerelevant to his interests to keep him engaged on the site. The layout of YouTube is

devised in a way that controls the whole video surfing process from before, during

and after watching a video.

Figure 2


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This creates a cycle that together with the elements of curiosity and surprise,

creates a remarkable engagement which keeps users locked within the YouTube

space. Ironically, the video links are a signifier of the various places one can go. Itseems as though by clicking and selecting a video, we are transported into another

world, though in reality, we remain where we were. YouTube ostensibly provides

us with a myriad of outlets to choose from and the freedom to enter the lives of

many others. In actuality, YouTube confines users to the very space that was

entered. Creating more opportunities for users to move from one video to another

allows users to explore different experiences yet incarcerates them in the YouTube

space.

The prepotency of YouTube is also attributed to its ease of accessibility (Lancet,

2013). In fact, users are already living within the space of YouTube. The advent of

smartphones and tablets opens up countless of entry-points into the space of

YouTube. It is pre-installed on every electronic device running on the Android

operating system and can be shared on various social networking platforms such as

Facebook and Twitter. Users are exposed to YouTube as long as they share theirvideos on the other platforms. The ubiquity of YouTube in every device and social

platform allows users to enter and get sucked into the space of YouTube.

The fundamental structure of YouTube influences users to be confined within the

demarcation of YouTube. Consequently, this dominance of YouTube further

imposes its ideologies into users lives.

Popularity

The system YouTube has constructed to dictate our behaviour becomes pervasive

in society as it controls and imposes ideologies on users. Antonio Gramsci posits

that hegemony is the process of ideological domination, in which the dominant

group gains consent from the dominated through the thought, the common sense,

the life-ways and everyday assumptions (Gitlin, 1973). Hegemony can hence beperpetuated through mythologies, by working on the routine level of thought and

life. This can be seen in the YouTube community. Many times we watch videos and

seem to derive enjoyment and entertainment. What is it that accounts for the large

number of views for this person Sittin On Tha Toilet or Nyan Cat, a video of a

cartoon cat with a pop-tart body flying through space? (Figure 3 and 4)


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Figure 3

Figure 4

YouTube categorises videos according to number of views and indicates how many

people have viewed and liked the video. Although this seems to be a minor part ofthe entire set up of the page, it inadvertently shapes the way we perceive each

video. A large number of views on a video undoubtedly intrigue users to play it. The

number on the bottom of each video is a signifier of the popularity of the video.

This connotes that the majority of the YouTube community is in absolute favor of

the video, alluding to the users that the video is popular. The viewer would be more


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inclined to see the video in a biased way due to the influence by the number of

views. The sheer popularity implied by the number of views defines what weview as popular and shapes the way we seem to enjoy the videos, dictating the

way we personally feel about the video. Hence, the enjoyment of the viewer

becomes questionable. Do we truly enjoy the videos we consume? Or are we merely

part of the production in the entire YouTube community to 'like' what other people

in the YouTube community 'like' and to keep up with the hype? The idea of

popularity is constructed on YouTube, which acts as a medium. Users allow this

idea of popularity to govern how the videos are viewed and this infiltrates how we

view the world. What users perceive as cool and fun are shaped by what we canrelate to in the videos. For instance, covers on YouTube feature mostly instruments

and good vocals in high-definition (Figure 5 and 6). Various YouTube artists all

have such elements in their videos, which once again feature a great number of

views.

Figure 5


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Figure 6

What is interesting is that through time, due to the influence of such videos, we

relate this to our real lives. We view aesthetic talent or those dressed in a manner

that emulates the YouTubers as a benchmark of cool, young and trendy. Hence,we can conclusively point out at someone and think hey, thats cool. Therefore,

YouTube constructs our perceptions and shapes them into "common sense", as in

hegemony.

It is obvious that YouTube mixes the virtual world with the real world. In fact,YouTube is not only a video sharing platform but also a place for social networking.

Users communicate through profiles, which are supposed to encapsulate theirpersonality, through YouTube's interface (Kinder, 2012). This can be done in twoways. It could either be in the form of a video or in the form of a comment. In this

manner, YouTube becomes a platform for group interaction and socialisation.

People voluntarily join and take part in the YouTube community by interacting

with other users, some of whom they have never met or spoken to in real life. Tothem, they are in a social interaction similar to that of the real experience of social

interaction. Likewise, users each bring their experiences in the virtual world to the

real world, or vice versa. In terms of Baudrillards simulacrum, when there is nolonger any distinction between reality and its interpretation, the YouTube profile is

a users interpretation of who he believes he is presented within the confines ofYouTubes own parameters. The image that the individual has of himself is

virtualised. This image in real life is strikingly different from the image on screen

(Baudrillard, 1996). Users of YouTube can manipulate how their videos are

perceived and what appears within the confines of that tiny box. Therefore, the

channels that a user subscribes to appear to represent his personality and vlogs

may be seen as personal recounts of one's daily life. However, in actuality users

only see an edited version of someones life. Yet, the connection established in the

virtual community can have very strong ties to the interest of the real social world.How people view specific users in real life are implicated from the personas they

have demonstrated on the YouTube platform. In their exposure to the virtual

world, their identities are transformed as well and such transformations are


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brought back to the real world. In this way, the hyperreality of YouTube influences

the user in both the virtual world and the real world, illustrating the control

YouTube has over the lives of its users.

YouTube not only has the power to dictate users outlook on others but is self-

reflexive as well. Vlogging commonly involves interacting with a webcam on the

top of the computer. It is asynchronous so you dont know when viewers are

watching. Every time you talk on a webcam, you are talking to some place that isunknown, you actually dont know who is going to be talking back to you and there

is an invisible audience phenomenon, talking as if to an audience, but in truth toyourself (Wesch, 2008). This thus provides an avenue for people to form new

identities for themselves, by knowing ourselves by understanding how people

understand us. The users image of self is produced by the viewers and theircomments, and these may not correspond to who one truly is as a person in reality,

away from the webcam. In this way, the webcam, the video, and the viewers are the

ones that have dominance and control over the person. Hence, users conform to theideals of the YouTube community and fit their personalities to external

expectations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, though YouTube appears to bring viewers the freedom of

experiencing new adventures on the platform, it actually does the reverse by

dictating users way of life and controlling their perceptions. This is possiblebecause the accessibility and structure of the space of YouTube manipulates

viewers and detains them within the boundaries. In addition, number of views

creates and perpetuates hegemony in what is perceived to be popular and what is

not. The use of YouTube as a platform for social interaction with others via a

representation of oneself also creates a hyperreal. Thus, as mere chess pieces to be

manipulated in this social control mechanism, viewers conform to YouTube's norm

unquestioningly. YouTube restricts rather than frees its users.

2000 words


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Appendix

Baudrillard, J. (1996, March 6) Baudrillard on the New Technologies: An Interview

with Claude Thibaut, Translated by Suzanne Falcon (Interviewer: Thibaut, C.)

[Interview Transcript]Retrieved fromhttp://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-

baudrillard/articles/baudrillard-on-the-new-technologies-an-interview-with-

claude-thibaut/

Kinder, J (2012) The Spectres of Simulacra Hyperreality Consumption as Ideology

and the Impossible Future of Radical PoliticsRetrieved 2013, November 11 from

http://www.academia.edu/1595967/The_Spectres_of_Simulacra_Hyperreality_Con

sumption_as_Ideology_and_the_Im_Possible_Future_of_Radical_Politics

Lancet, L. (2013, February 22) 6 Ways to Watch YouTube Without Going to YouTubeRetrieved 2013, November 9 fromhttp://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-

watch-youtube-without-going-to-youtube/

Monica R. (2012, December 12) Is Video a Part of Your School Admissions

Marketing? Retrieved 2013, November 9 from

http://www.imrcorp.com/innovative-marketing-blog/bid/61825/Is-Video-a-Part-

of-Your-School-Admissions-Marketing

Silva, P. A. & Dix, A. (2007, November 25) Usability And YouTube - What Makes

YouTube so Successful in spite of its Bad Usability? Retrieved 2013, November 9

from

http://www.masternewmedia.org/interface_design_and_navigation/usability/You

tube-usability-and-user-experience-evaluation-key-success-factors-

20071125.htm#ixzz2kaxBHoD1

Wesch, M. (2008, June 23)An Anthropological Guide to YouTube[video file]

Retrieved 2013, November 13 from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_EOquQtZg
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