Online Forms of Communication - Essay Example

Do online forms of communication such as YouTube involve a new kind of mediated authenti absent from broadcast media? By of Instructor] [University] [Name of Course] [Date] Do online forms of communication such as YouTube involve a new kind of mediated authenticity absent from broadcast media? Introduction The element of authenticity has become a primary concern in the analysis of modern mass media. The technological transformation from recording to live performance has emphasised the significance of constructing authenticity in the relationship between performers and their fans. The modern audience and critics are keen to judge the quality of mediated performances. In the recent past, the broadcast media adapted to conversational talk to keep the audience interested, but failed to meet the intended benefits as the talk was governed by institutional protocols. Since the emergence of online forms of communication such as YouTube, there has been a battle fought between YouTube and the broadcast media with the intention of winning, engaging, and retaining the audience. Although broadcast media such as TV are viewed as the winner of this battle for the time being, expert media professionals opine that YouTube would eventually dominate broadcast media in the near future. It is obvious that the way the world lives has changed significantly over the last decade, and in this dynamic digital world, consumers have switched their demand from TV to YouTube for meeting a significant percent of their video content needs. YouTube videos provide the audience with an extensive exposure in order to serve their information and entertainment needs and to connect with like-minded individuals. Another benefit of online forms of communication like YouTube is that people can respond to the video contents and actively interact with others. However many people still hold the view that YouTube is not an authentic medium as anyone is free to post videos on YouTube. This paper will evaluate whether or not online forms of communication such as YouTube involve a new kind of mediated authenticity absent from broadcast media. Modern Forms of Communication The recently developed online forms of communication such as YouTube are fast gaining wider audience coverage mainly because of their user-centred features. YouTube has invested heavily in improving and popularising their product/service offerings in an effort to obtain a clear dominance over the broadcast media. For this, YouTube tries to form close relationship production companies and other businesses and to enhance its pay-per-view films package. Recently, it has launched projects like YouTube Comedy Week to promote the interests of consumers across the globe. Experts suggest that YouTube’s ambition to grow up can be achieved sooner than what traditional broadcasters expect. While considering the aspect of authenticity, it is relevant to say that YouTube allows communicative practices with intent to establish new forms of mediated participatory culture. The case of Lauren Luke, a 27 year-old single mother from Tyneside is a good example of the integrity and effectiveness of communicative practices on YouTube. Luke was an expert in delivering home-produced make-up tutorial on YouTube, and she was followed by a huge group of young women. In order to make better use of her popularity, a famous New York based cosmetics company hired Luke as the front person for the company’s products (p.277). According to reports, Luke’s unaffected amateurism together with integrity of unedited video clips assisted Luke to enhance the popularity of her videos in the category of user-generated content (Penny, June 2013). Since the text facility allows viewers to post comments on YouTube videos, they obtain a great platform to interact with each other and to discuss video contents. Today the ‘grown up version’ of YouTube is capable of satisfying people’s growing desire to self-select the content that appeal to them. Hence, it makes a remarkable shift in the practice of traditional broadcasters deciding what and how audience should watch. Evidently a programme broadcasted by traditional media will only feel like a media programme. According to The Guardian article, “there is a desire to make sure something is a ‘hit’ which means tried and tested ideas are consistently rolled out, leaving little space for creativity and even less for diversity” (Penny, June 2013). In contrast, YouTube is entirely a different power dynamic allowing both audiences and traditional creators to deliver limitless programmes. Undoubtedly, this feature provides YouTube with a massive advantage over traditional broadcast channels. In addition, YouTube has a flexible model that gives the audience more opportunities to create and interact with content; and, therefore arguably this modern communication channel is more authentic and engaging (p.279). A major disadvantage of traditional broadcast media on the ground of authenticity is that they cannot compete with YouTube on unique content provision. It is obvious that internet is a place where people can be really creative and interactive without the restrictions of what a broadcaster would demand in terms of structure and content. Presentation, Interactivity, and Expertise While communicating a programme or video to viewers, its effectiveness is evaluated on the basis of three key dimensions including presentation, interactivity, and expertise. Undoubtedly presentation is a crucial factor influencing the audience and thereby determining the success of a programme. To illustrate, a video entitled ‘My New Make Up Line’ and posted on YouTube by Lauren Luke is a great example for understanding the importance of presentation. In this video, Luke displays various cosmetic products, its packaging, and also different colours on the back of her hand. A striking feature of this video presentation is that Luke repeatedly shows the products and her hand directly to the camera obscuring her face partially. This visual effect can influence the viewers more than the posed appearance of a model in a conventional cosmetics advertisement (p.280). Similarly, the interactivity with viewers is another important point to note when communicating an advertisement/idea to the audience. There are two perspectives of interactivity. In the case of a YouTube video, one is creator perspective and the other is based on the responses posted by viewers. Evidently the scope of audience interaction is very limited in a broadcast media setting, because those traditional media presentations are one-sided and hence the audience can be only listeners/viewers. In contrast, YouTube allows its viewers to respond to videos with their own videos and text comments and hence the level of interactivity is high in online forms of communication such as YouTube. Finally, expertise is also a key dimension that greatly distinguishes YouTube from the broadcast media. Today people rely on YouTube videos not only for entertainment purposes but also as an alternative source of instruction. It is interesting to see that young people reproduce great traditional speeches associated with expertise in modern colloquial forms and post them on YouTube (p.282). While analysing the current media approaches, it is certain that broadcast media are not oblivious to taking efforts to match technology and changing audience demands. Indisputably 4oD, ITV, and iPlayer are well popular. However there is a blurring line between online content and traditional broadcasting that that seriously impinges upon the competence of broadcast media. Although traditional broadcasters have been attempting to deliver their content online, their efforts have not been paid yet. With the development of YouTube, many TV production companies upload their video contents on this online social network so as to take advantages of a key factor called mediated authenticity. Broadcast media officials admit that YouTube is gradually taking business from them. It is observed that today companies greatly rely on YouTube as part of their branding efforts because they believe that YouTube contents could be more reliable and authentic than contents delivered via broadcasting media. It is a great idea to upload videos providing product usage instructions on YouTube as users have free access to these videos whenever needed. Effective use of graphic or pictorial representation of data and information can add value to the authenticity of YouTube contents. Modern consumers try to gather maximum product information before they actually purchase one, and they seemingly demand more and more video contents. Since YouTube is a popular video sharing website, most of the people search advertisement videos on YouTube. All the leading companies maintain YouTube accounts to promote their brands and it adds to the authenticity of this website. YouTube is a single network that connects professionals, celebrities, and ordinary people. Although the YouTube home page gives some suggestions to people on its featured videos and displays pre-selection links, finally it is the user who chooses the content he/she wants to watch. In contrast, the broadcast media culture promotes a single-sided communication approach. In other words, people are forced to watch what broadcasters offer when they watch broadcast media. It is good to see that Google is always committed to promoting the reliability and authenticity of YouTube contents. Google does not consider YouTube as just a place for uploading and sharing videos but an extensive platform enabling meaningful human interactions. Since features such as views, likes, comments, or video responses for YouTube contents express the way the creators connect with their audience, Google consider the accuracy of these interactions very seriously. As Google team points out, when some people use unfair techniques to inflate view counts, they are not only misleading the site visitors but also hurting the most important and one of the unique qualities of the YouTube. In order to prevent inappropriate practices and to keep YouTube contents authentic, the Google team has begun to review the number of views for a video periodically (Sparkes, Feb 5, 2014). Undoubtedly, this practice would assist YouTube to enhance meaningful interactions and to gain the trust of fans and creators. YouTube asks its users to be extremely careful while relying on third-party marketing firms because they are likely to sell fake views. Since there is no scope of two-way communication or meaningful interactions in a media broadcasting system, broadcasters are not likely to give such an increased emphasis to the fairness and authenticity of the viewer engagement. For instance, a television channel would be really concerned about their rating, and therefore they may use every possible strategy to inflate their channel views. On the contrary, YouTube lacks the element of authenticity when it is evaluated from another viewpoint. In a social interaction, the individuals involved trust that all the other parties are honest to a certain extent and they have no intentions to deceive each other (Wesch, May 22, 2007). The value of a great deal of interactions that occurs on YouTube is based on their authenticity because the interactions are always tied to this social contract. Since every user is able to break this contract, the community of YouTube is not exempted from misleading presentations or other fraudulent practices. The lonelygirl 15 scandal is a good example reflecting YouTube’s inability to identify fictitious user Ids. Heffernan and Zeller (September 13, 2006) report that throughout the summer of 2006, Bree – a sixteen year old girl – posted countless videos on YouTube updating her fans about her family background, religious practices, and relationship with a boy named Daniel. She talked more about some common issues in the teenage and soon she established a strong relationship with the YouTube blog community. Bree’s everyday stories were powerful enough to keep viewer interests in her video blog and she always left some secrecy surrounding her life so as to maintain a loyal group of fans and followers. However, later it was revealed that lonelygirl 15 was a character developed for an art project launched by a commercial media company (Ibid). Here the creators of lonelygirl 15 succeeded in presenting it as an authentic video blog to viewers and thereby building a loyal fan base. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that YouTube based communication involve a new kind of mediated authenticity absent from broadcast media in spite of the misleading presentations such as lonelygirl 15 on this video sharing website. YouTube visitors are free to choose the content they like to watch whereas viewers are forced to watch what broadcasters offer in case of media broadcasting. The Google team is committed to ensuring the authenticity of interactions on YouTube by reviewing the number of views for videos periodically. The number of views displayed by YouTube gives the site visitors understanding of the popularity of a particular video. Considering the authentic nature of YouTube contents, modern consumers search video advertisements on YouTube to gather maximum product information. Unlike in the case of broadcasting media, YouTube has a huge database to store videos, and hence viewers can easily watch a video whenever they want. Furthermore, YouTube allows effective interactions between the creator and viewers and this adds to the authenticity of its contents. References Given book Heffernan V & Zeller T (September 13, 2006) The Lonelygirl That Really Wasn’t. The New York Times. Penny A (June 2013) ‘Why the battle between YouTube and TV matters to brands’. The Guardian [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jun/28/youtube-tv-brands [accessed 7 August 2014]. Sparkes M (Feb 5, 2014) ‘YouTube clamps down on fake video views’. The Telegraph. Wesch (May 22, 2007) YouTube and Authenticity. Digital Ethnography. [online] available at: http://mediatedcultures.net/youtube/youtube-and-authenticity/ [accessed 7 August 2014]. Read More