Trolltown: YouTube as the new public sphere epicentre?

Most people seem to think of YouTube as simple a vehicle for online entertainment. Who doesn't want to watch videos of pranks gone horribly bad or baby sloths in a sanctuary? But the one thing that's allowed for the exchange of pretty much unregulated analysis, commentary and discussion is the ability to comment on a video. Keeping in mind the several thousand videos I've seen over my YouTube career, I'd have to say that YouTube's place as the leading entertainment video site on the net is slowly transitioning into that of a serious forum for online discourse.

For example, people can argue on a musician's page why a particular artist is their favourite, or skateboarders can decide which grip tape is best by scrolling through various video demonstrations. While some video uploader's choose to disable comments on a certain video, usually because of sensitive subject matter or the expectation of racist or sexist comments, a reply can also be made on a video in the form of a video response. This is done by referencing the topic in the video or in the video details section.

What prompted me to write about this is some of the shocking comment's I've read under some videos. Because of the anonymity that anyone can have online, the comment sectiosn on popular videos have turned into battling grounds for 'trolls', internet users with nothing constructive to contribute to a discussion. Trolls resort to profanity, personal attacks. Just look at the comments section for this Justin Bieber video (seems to bring out an opinion from everyone!)

It seems the only constructive dialogue is coming from the more 'niche' videos, such as discussions about a certain type of tennis string or relatively obscure musicians. This civility is immediately noticeable as soon as you scroll down. After going through several more YouTube videos, I've just noticed a relationship: the less views a video has, the more polite and civil the comments are.

What does this say about YouTube users? That 'trolls' just need a place to be noticed, being the type of people that will say something controversial purely to stir up opinion and response. So in order to avoid some of the stupidity that internet anonymity provides for, stay away from Justin Bieber videos. It's for your own good!

Googlezon

"EPIC 2015" is a mix of recent internet media history and speculation on the future. It was posted in 2007, so some of the speculation concerns the present. It is a fascinating look into where exactly media could be headed in our not so distant future. As the title mentions, the predictions are made for the year 2015. The original was titled “Epic 2014,” and due to the passing of time and developments in media it had quickly become outdated.

The movie speaks for itself, but there are some pertinent points that link to things we have been discussing in class. The notion of the public becoming their own reporters and broadcasting directly to other users via an IPod or mobile device is an interesting idea, but in actuality may be too “noisy” to really work. It would require some sort of labeling system to sort the posts, which would rely on the broadcaster to accurately tag their information. The potential for abuse and too great a focus on the individual seems like this promotion would be unlikely.

Another interesting point in the film is the idea of a merger between Google and Amazon. The search capabilities of Google mixed with Amazon’s suggestions would revolutionize the way we interact with the internet media. This complete personalization of our media consumption being chosen by third parties is a frightening concept, and one that is becoming more of a reality every day. While it seems unlikely that this would completely replace normal news outlets, it certainly is a potential future and one that we need to seriously think about before it’s upon us.