Monday, November 3, 2008

Assignment 5-1


There are many huge websites that are beginning to define our culture – some examples include: social networking sites like myspace and facebook, discount travel websites like hotwire and travelocity, and search engines like google and yahoo. One other website that is beginning to shape contemporary culture is youtube.com.

Youtube is a website where users can upload all kinds of videos. As long as they are not pornographic or owned by someone else they can be uploaded to the website. Users can then search the site for what they want to see – i.e. political speeches, standup comedy, music videos, or homemade videos. There are millions of videos viewed each day on youtube.

There are many ordinary people that have created homemade videos for youtube. Some of these videos have even won some ordinary people their fifteen minutes of fame. There have been several musicians and comedians who have received much of their fan base from youtube watchers. There have also been several youtube videos that have sparked controversy. Several of them have included bullying and fighting and received a great deal of media attention because of it.

Youtube presents new issues to Internet users since it relies on its users to flag inappropriate usage. This policy has not been entirely thorough and has caused many problems with copyright and inappropriate use. Many offensive and copyrighted videos continue to slip through the cracks due to this policy.
Overall, I think youtube is an excellent example of a pop culture artifact because it is something that many people use in their everyday lives. It has made it extraordinarily convenient to access music, comedy, news, etc.

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