A Broadcast Revolution

An Evaluation of a Social Media Application

If ever you wanted to witness the true meaning of an overnight, international superstar...

If you ever you wanted to see what was playing in the theatres...

If you wanted to share your special day with your family across the world...

If you want to rally immediate attention to your cause...

Or if you just need a good laugh...

You can find it within the hundreds of millions of videos posted to one of the world's top social media outlets:

Whether its for entertainment purposes, a necessary distraction from homework, an attempt at instant fame or to learn what's going on in the world around us, we have all used YouTube. In looking at its main functions, origins, development and issues, its revolutionary influence on the world of social media is apparent. Now before you go and Broadcast Yourself...take a look.


What is YouTube?
YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Whether it's a home video or a popular music clip, each user is granted the opportunity to broadcast him or herself. YouTube empowers us to become the broadcasters of tomorrow. Before the launch of YouTube in 2005, there were very few  methods available for ordinary computer users to post videos online. With its user-friendly interface and multiple factors of usibilty, YouTube has made it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture and essential part of Public Relations.


Who invented it? YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal.
Was it a happily-ever-after sort of story?
According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of 2005, after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Jawed Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, and Chad Hurley commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible."

Where does its funding come from?
YouTube received its initial funding from Sequoia Capital in November 2005 and was officially launched one month later in December. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen proceeded to become the first members of the YouTube management team and currently serve as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer respectively. In November 2006, within a year of its launch, YouTube was purchased by Google Inc. in one of the most talked-about acquisitions to date. YouTube has struck numerous partnership deals with content providers such as CBS, BBC, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, NBA, The Sundance Channel and many more.

How is YouTube so successfully engaging?
The YouTube website is structured in a way so that it keeps its viewers logged in for more than a single viewing. It is achieved as follows:

First, when the users are accessing the main YouTube page, they are helped in the selection of videos by visual clues incdicating what is featured, most viewed, most dicussed, and what the top videos are. After having selected a video, watching it, and upon its completion, the service provides a set of information about the video such as other related clips, more from that particular user, and complete playlists. Also, you can read about the video, its rating, the number of views, comments and whether or not it has been favorited. These maintains users’ curiosity and encourages them to jump from one movie to another.

What kind of improvements have been made to YouTube since its development?
YouTube is not only accessible via internet. In recent developments, YouTube viewers are now able to view its videos on web pages outside the site. Each YouTube video is accompanied by a piece of HTML, which can be used to embed it on a page outside the YouTube website. This function is commonly used through the embedding of YouTube videos in blogs [like this one!] and social networking pages. Also, some mobile phones are now capable of accessing YouTube videos.  YouTube Mobile was launched in June 2007 and uses RTSP streaming for the video.

Since June 2007, YouTube's videos have been available for viewing on a range of Apple products as well. This required YouTube's content to be transcoded into Apple's preferred video standard, H.264, a process that took several months. [Please don't ask how!] YouTube videos can be viewed on devices including Apple TV and the iPhone. A TiVo service update in July 2008 allowed the system to search and play YouTube videos. In January 2009, YouTube launched "YouTube for TV", a version of the website developed especially for cable boxes and other TV-based media devices with web browsers. In June 2009, YouTube XL was introduced, which has a simplified interface designed for viewing on a standard television screen.

Also, in some cases, YouTube no longer restricts its videos to short clips. In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS which allows the companies to post full-length films and television shows on the site, accompanied by advertisements. The move is intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney.


What are the social implications of YouTube?

YouTube Celebrities-- Instant Fame

YouTube's immense popularity has led to the creation of many YouTube Internet celebrities. Individuals have garnered internation attention from their respective videos and as a result, find themselves in positions of international focus. The most subscribed YouTube member, as of September 2009, is Nigahiga with over 1.2 million subscribers. The most viewed musician as of Summer 2009, is Britney Spears with over 600 million official BritneyTV YouTube music video views. Her song Womanizer alone has 80 million views. In total adding reproductions, Spears has over 1 billion YouTube music video views, the most by any musician. Singer Damien Rice invited Amy Kuney to perform with him at two shows in Iceland after he saw her YouTube cover of his song The Blower's Daughter.
Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi, who currently have the #1 most subscribed to channel on YouTube, made a movie called Ryan and Sean's Not so Excellent Adventure, that also featured YouTube reporter Michael Buckley.

Rallying of Support-- both for or against

YouTube has changed the nature of politics, consumerism, and advertising. Instead of only being able to promote a product via television, a view can return to the same ad and watch it over and over again. Also, if a sports player [we're looking at you Serena Williams...] or politician [the worst thing to ever happen to George Bush] makes a mistake that would otherwise go unnoticed, a user can post it to YouTube for the world to see. This has also been particularly interesting lately with regards to countries that restrict media footage. A prime example of this comes from the political outroar that exploded out of Iran. Because of the cell phone footage that was posted to YouTube, Iran was exposed as tyrical and anti-Democratic. On the contrary, Iran's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been given a platform to share his anti-Semitic langauge with the world. He has garned support from others that share his views and in some sense, added "legitimacy" to his claims. This is the nature of YouTube's double-edged sword.


What are some controversial outcomes of YouTube?

Video Ranking Controversy

The viewing figures of some YouTube videos have been the subject of major controversy. There have been numerous claims that automated systems have been used to inflate the number of views received, which is forbidden by YouTube's terns of service.
In March 2008, an unofficial video of the song "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" by the Brazilian band Cansei De Ser Sexy briefly held the number one slot for the all-time most viewed video, with around 114 million views. It was temporarily removed from YouTube after allegations of automated viewing or hacking, before being deleted by the uploader.The viewing figures for the video outnumbered the "most favorited" rating by 20 000 to 1. YouTube's terms of service state:  
"You agree not to use or launch any automated system, including without limitation, "robots," "spiders," or "offline readers," that accesses the Website in a manner that sends more request messages to the YouTube servers in a given period of time than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional on-line web browser."
The YouTube video of the Avril Lavigne song "Girlfriend" was also accused of having an exaggerated number of views. Apparently, AvrilBandAids had a link that would automatically reload the YouTube video of Girlfriend every fifteen seconds.

Copyright Issues
YouTube has been criticized for failing to ensure that its videos respect the law of copyright. At the time of uploading a video, YouTube users are always shown a screen with the following message:

"Do not upload any TV shows, music videos, music concerts or commercials without permission unless they consist entirely of content you created yourself. The Copyright Tips page and the Community Guidelines can help you determine whether your video infringes someone else's copyright."

Despite this warning, there are still many unauthorized clips from television shows, films and music videos on YouTube. YouTube does not view videos before they are posted online, and it is left to copyright holders to issue a takedown notice under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Organizations including Viacom, Mediaset and the English Premier League have filed lawsuits against YouTube, claiming that it has done too little to prevent the uploading of copyrighted material. Viacom, demanding US$1 billion in damages, said that it had found more than 150,000 unauthorized clips of its material on YouTube that had been viewed "an astounding 1.5 billion times". YouTube responded by stating that it "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works".
Update: Since Viacom filed its lawsuit, YouTube has introduced a system called Video ID, which checks uploaded videos against a database of copyrighted content with the aim of reducing violations. In August 2008, a U.S. court ruled that copyright holders cannot order the removal of an online file without first determining whether the posting reflected fair use of the material.

Inappropriate Content
YouTube has also faced criticism over the offensive content in some of its videos. Although YouTube's terms of service forbid the uploading of material likely to be considered inappropriate, YouTube does not check every video before it goes online. Controversial areas for videos have included Holocaust denial and the Hillsborough Disaster, in which 96 football fans from Liverpool were crushed to death in 1989, conspiracy theories and religion. YouTube relies on its users to flag the content of videos as inappropriate, and a YouTube employee will view a flagged video to determine whether it violates the site's terms of service.

Top 10 Most Popular Videos on YouTube of All Time

 

1. Evolution of Dance

2. Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend

3. Charlie bit my finger - again !
4. My Hot Hot Sex
5. XXX Porn
6. Lezberado: Revenge Fantasies
7. Miley Cyrus - 7 Things - Official Music Video (HQ)
8. Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music
9. Chris Brown - With You
10. Panda Disculpa los Malos Pensamientos


A Brief Overview of YouTube's Success

The Future of YouTube is...

The future of YouTube is in our hands. As of now, it is the most popular, industry-leading technology to broadcast our messages.

While its undoubtedly effective, YouTube is lethally dangerous...

Choose carefully.

Resources:
http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube 
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-YouTube-Phenomenon-23600.shtml 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube