New Media - YouTube

New media could mean a lot of things, especially in the current fast-moving world of today. With Internet gearing this world, it comes as no surprise that the possibility of creating a form of new media as a current trend is there. In regards to this, I would like to note a particular new media of my liking, and arguably, one of the biggest phenomenons out there.

From the bowels of the wondrous generation of Web 2.0 comes the Net’s most highly viewed video streaming site, YouTube.
YouTube kicked off in 2005 in California by three ex-member of the initial team that was behind PayPal, an online payment service (Caragea, 2006). It is a video streaming website and offers free sign ups and video uploads for its users. Since its launch, NielsenNet (Smith, 2006) stated that YouTube drew 19.6 million visitors, triple the amount of visitors since January. Note that this article was written in the year 2006, and YouTube only appeared in the 2005. One year, and it already drew 19.6 million visitors.

It is now the year 2008. Think about it.



The YouTube phenomenon helped raised its name to the top; but how could it be? Were there calculations involved? Were there strange and intricate forces working behind it? Dvorak (2006a) denies it all. While most people are concerned about the amount of money that can be made through YouTube (supposing it does charge for video uploads and sign ups), Dvorak was more concerned about its phenomenon.

One that was clearly understood is the ‘incredible desire people have to share video clips with each other' (Dvorak, 2006a). The next reason, which is also the biggest reason for Dvorak, would be YouTube’s simplicity to uploading video. And the best thing is this: they can pretty much upload videos in any format.

It is no wonder this trend could kick start so easily.

However, Dvorak (2006b) also notes that its free service may be the one thing that might bring its downfall.

But as of now, YouTube remains free for all.

In addition to that, here is a video from YouTube for your personal viewing. This video won YouTube’s Best Eyewitness Video with the viewer number of 10 million, and still counting (Johnson, 2007).




(Battle at Kruger by David Budzinski. Source: YouTube)







Reference:

Battle at Kruger, video streaming, YouTube.com, viewed 13 November, 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

Caragea, S., 2006, The YouTube Phenomenon, Softpedia, viewed 13 November, 2008 http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-YouTube-Phenomenon-23600.shtml

Dvorak, J.C., 2006, Missing the Point about YouTube, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, viewed 13 November, 2008
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid={29399E0D-DBFD-4DA3-BB53-1E09BAD7F66B}

Dvorak, J.C., 2006, The YouTube Phenomenon, PCMag.Com, viewed 13 November, 2008 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2010339,00.asp

Johnson, B., 2007, 10m viewers for YouTube phenomenon, guardian.co.uk, viewed 13 November, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/10/newmedia.news

Smith, T., 2006, YouTube Phenomenon Keeps Growing, CBS News, viewed 13 November, 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/04/earlyshow/contributors/tracysmith/main1864812.shtml