For my website analysis i have chosen to look at http://www.youtube.co.uk/ .
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To analyse this website i will look at the areas; Community, Produsage and Interactivity, Openess, Trust and Technology in Society.
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When you come onto the home page of youtube there is in fact a community tab at the top of the page along with the main tabs for the website. And once clicked on there is a list of why it is a good idea to become part of this online community and one of the reasons is, " This is the place where YouTube Guides can announce new YouTube features, important community concerns and reminders and other information." http://www.youtube.com/community . A website firstly designed for viewing and producing videos has become an online community, that between the dates of October '05 and August '06, had 23.7 million users in the U.S alone! (http://blog.compete.com/2006/10/05/youtube-googlevideo-site-lonelygirl15-traffic-growth-2006/). These users/produsers can communicate to each other by commenting on videos, maybe inviting a response from other youtubians.
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The website obviously has the word 'you' in it, which promotes that the user has to become a produser, a certain responsibility, so that the website can sustain itself. When looking at the area of produsage, it was clear that there is a real sense of interactivity that the produser has with the website. They can create profiles and sign upto the website, i have a youtube account but have not posted any videos, so I am a lurker of youtube culture! But where i fall short others will pick up the slack, showing that youtube has strength within its community.
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Their is a realm of trust surrounding youtube. With the creators trusting their produsers to upload material that is not to offensive, however there are some rude things on the site! This trust has created a structure of heirarchy, with the administrators controlling the produsers and the content that they upload, and the produsers creating or posting the material that is for the lurkers (like me). And this circle of trust has created an open community. However, how can you trust the people that you meet online? they could of lied to you about their identity, in the form of the videos they upload. When face-to-face and not screen-to-screen you can confirm someones identity and can do such things as read their body language when they are in front o you which helps you determine the trust you have for this person! (Week 6 Lecture).
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Youtube has become apart of the overwhelming technology that is in our society. People that are armed with camera phones, digital cameras and handy cams etc. can upload material onto youtube. Up and coming musicians can post videos, or if you think it will be watched or of interest to people. For example, the most viewed video on youtube is "The Evolution of dance" which has had 114, 815, 836! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg&feature=PlayList&p=C9257EC78BA69D64&index=0 . Another example of produsage, i have discovered the video and have produced it for you to use. All working towards the technology that is in our society.
This is good - particularly the way you have related the website to the different theoretical positions. I hadn't thought of Youtube as a community, but maybe there is a half way stage where there is a choice of belonging to the community or not? Is Youtubians a recognised term? I like it. Very good work.
ReplyDeleteI think you're a bit behind on this blog - couple of weeks work to catch up.
ReplyDeleteyeah will be doing week 7 and 8 tomorrow or friday because i have some other matters to attend to. but thankyou for your comments, very incouraging
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