DIY Media: Bringing Your World to Youtube

So this is my third and final blog post for KCB110: Introduction to Mass Communication. This one looks at DIY Media and in particular Youtube personality Natalie Tran.

Enjoy.

It would be hard to find anyone under the age of twenty who hasn’t uploaded at least one video to the social media site Youtube. I have at least 10 videos online myself including one of two friends and I miming along to a popular 90s song. No, I will not share this rather embarrassing video with you. There are copious amounts of videos online ranging from music to movie re-enactments and comedy to cute children and has been a platform for finding fame. The TED Talks Youtube video (2009) states that technology is a form of social capital and “innovation can happen anywhere”. Teen singing sensation Justin Bieber and the “Will it blend?” guy, most notable for blending an iPhone, are just two examples of Clay Shirky’s philosophy.

 

Answer: yes it will.

Natalie Tran, now 24, became an online vlogging (video blogging) personality after she found fame through a debate with an American on Australia’s much loved spread, Vegemite. As stated on The Age Blog, this caught the attention of A Current Affair and was featured on a segment called the “Vegemite Wars”. From this, viewers flocked to her Youtube page to view her tri-weekly comedy filled videos and from then on, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Sternberg (2011) believes that a negative of do-it-yourself (DIY) media is that “most generated content is not especially creative or sophisticated”. In the case of Natalie Tran, this is definitely not true. While some may call it procrastination, I prefer to think of my time spent watching her witty and talented videos as research. When it comes to positives of DIY media, Sternberg (2011) states that this requires media organisations to “rethink old assumptions about what it means to consume media”. After building up quite a following, one organisation heeded Natalie’s online fame and realised the potential they had to promote their products.

 

Youtube sensation: Natalie Tran

Lonely Planet (2011a) was started by two adventurous globetrotters with a passion for travel over 30 years ago. Within a week of starting up the company, 1500 books were sold and now they have everything from a vast array of travel books, both hard and electronic copies to a reputable website filled with everything found in there books and so much more. So, what does Natalie Tran have to do with Lonely Planet? To quote the vlogger herself, “Lonely Planet thought it would be a good idea to get me out of the house to see the world now that I've finished university” (2011b), and she has done exactly that. For four months she traveled nearly every continent on the globe and posted weekly videos and blogs on the Lonely Planet website in true Natalie Tran style. In Paris she discussed their weird curbside parking habits, she made breakfast using an iron and a coffee maker in San Francisco and in New York City she consumed an unhealthy amount of hotdogs from various hotdog stands. I think it’s safe to say that Natalie Tran is living the life that many social media graduates would envy. I know I do.

Swimming with the locals

Natalie Tran is a perfect example of how web 2.0 is empowering media users as it “blurs the lines between media audiences and creators” (Sternberg, 2011) or as Bruns (2007) calls them, produsers. It also shows how the relationship between media users and the media industry are changing; in a sense, they’re becoming co-creators and allowing polylogical communication to take place (Harrington, 2011). As Sternberg (2011) explains, audiences and media organisations “collectively contribute to the social, cultural and economic value of media products”. Here we have Lonely Planet, a reputable and well-known travel company, utilising the skills of Natalie Tran, a social media graduate and together creating something entertaining for audiences of both Lonely Planet and Natalie Tran’s Youtube channel.

That shirt couldn't be further from the truth

Now, cast your mind back to our first lecture of this unit for the semester, if you can remember that far back. The first thing we learnt about was Turow’s model of communication and how it was a very straightforward and one-sided means of communicating. Now erase that image because that clearly isn’t the case in today’s world of media and communication. As Olivia King states in her blog post, Are You Calling Cancer? “Advances in technology over the last 50 years have resulted in an exponential change in the way the media is used and delivered.” However, changes in technology are not just seen in the way the media is used and delivered, rather they have allowed for new models and means of communication to take place. Many are honing in on this and a new generation of creative minds is shaping our world.

Instant abs: you'll be a personal trainer in no time

Whether it’s creating a dangerous fad on Facebook or showing the world just how funny you are on Youtube, technological advances have given us a new platform in which to channel this creativity and Natalie Tran is just one out of a handful of people leading the way in how user-generated content is creating opportunities for future media professionals.

Yarr! Walk the plank!

So this is my second blog post I've written for my assignment. This one looks at audience research and the recent Facebook trend - planking.

Enjoy :)

Every few weeks or so a new fad seems to emerge from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In the past couple of months I’ve fallen victim to the onslaught of “the awkward moment when...” (2011) and “Kate’s Party” (2011) groups amongst others. However, the last week or so saw a new trend emerge from Facebook, one that was thrust into the media spotlight and has resulted in the death of a Brisbane local with another in a coma.

Some people just say it like it is

Planking started out as nothing more than innocent fun involving participants having photos taken of them “planking”, lying horizontally on a surface with your arms beside you, and uploading them to various planking group pages such as the Planking Australia Facebook page (2011). In the past week, this trend has been foreground by the media after an event leading to the death of a Brisbane man, another ending up in hospital and in a coma and the termination of employment for six Woolworths employees. Planking can see people lying flat across an array of objects, from the safe – surfaces, shelves, tables and chairs to the insanely moronic – balconies, between two cars and even across train tracks. This stupidity is what has labelled planking as a moral panic.

Caught between two poles and a hard surface

Sternberg (2011) states that a moral panic is when “a condition, episode or group of people become defined by the media as a threat to societal values and interests”. Planking wasn’t seen as a moral panic until those doing the planking started being more risky and dangerous with this trend and caught the attention of the Queensland Police Force. The force issued a press release stating their concerns for the safety of citizens, which was criticized by the public for bringing this popular trend to light and giving it the attention, it did not need. Just three days after the release, a 20 year old local man from Kangaroo Point plummeted to his death from his seventh story apartment after a drunken act of planking. This began a media frenzy and it seemed planking wasn’t off limits to anyone with both Karl Stefanovic and Kerri-Anne Kennerley demonstrating the move to viewers of their shows (Calligeros 2011).

Karl Stefanovic demonstrates to the viewers of Today how to plank

As Sternberg (2011) states, a moral panic only “occurs when events are represented by the media out of proportion to the actual threat posed”. Planking began as nothing more than a bit of harmless entertainment for youth and had the Queensland Police not drawn attention to planking then this would not have been seen as a moral panic nor would it have become a headline in the nightly news all over the world (BBC News Magazine, 2011). How did planking become the phenomenon it is today? Is it a case of history repeating itself?

Ahh, the trifecta of planking

Jackass started in 1999 and was the brainchild of now-actor Johnny Knoxville as stated by one of the TV shows webpage (2008). The show centres on Johnny and a few friends performing what most sane people would deem unsafe and highly stupid stunts often resulting in physical pain. Although the aim of planking does not result in pain, the parallel to Jackass can be drawn from the simple fact that some people are mimicking the level of stupidness by planking in highly unsafe locations – rooftops, train tracks and balcony rails to name a few. This act of literally trying to reach new heights is what has drawn such attention from the media and has illustrated planking to be a dangerous and unsafe trend when in the beginning, it was simply for a bit of fun and a laugh.

Jackass 2 Best Moments

As Olivia King discussed in her blog post, Are you numbed by video games?, “people are motivated to expose themselves voluntarily to messages they agree with (or enjoy) and avoid messages they disagree (or don’t enjoy) with. People are therefore selecting their exposure…” Although she discusses this concept in terms of video games, it can also be applied to planking. Like most things these days, people have the choice of whether or not to participate. While I take much amusement in seeing fellow gen-Y’ers plank themselves between or over objects, I personally choose not to partake whereas those who clearly enjoy the activity have chosen otherwise. I’ll be the first to admit that some have clearly taken it too far and are being dangerous in their planking, however I take my hat off to the creative person who started the trend. Harrington (2011) states that in the modern age of the web there’s been “massive increased opportunities for vernacular, convivial, ‘everyday’ creativity”. This has resulted in what Harrington has dubbed participatory media and a ‘making-and-doing’ culture which has drawn in a huge amount of audience engagement. Planking is proof of this.

Most common form of planking - sleep

While planking has been embraced by a large percentage of the younger Facebook community, I can’t help but wonder at what point does the craze and the need to be creative become a threat to society? Is Facebook creating the next generation of Jackass’?

Message: Acceptance

This is blog numbero une I had to write for an assignment. This one is about media representation and I used Glee as an example. Enjoy. Please give me some feedback.

Update: I received a high distinction for this! Made my day :)

Overachiever; star quarter back; ‘Queen bee’, ‘ditzy blonde’ and ‘straight-up bitch’ cheerleaders; geeky boy in a wheelchair; Goth Asian; dancing Asian; ‘Aretha Franklin wannabe’ diva; resident bad boy and flamboyant gay. What I just described to you isn’t the audition line up for the next season of Australia’s Got Talent rather the diverse range of stereotypes represented on the highly successful television series Glee.

 

Okay I admit it; I’m a “Gleek” (UrbanDictionary.com, 2011). I have been a fan of the musical comedy ever since it started in 2009 and continue to watch every week as McKinley High’s Glee Club learns yet another lesson from their “Boy Band” teacher Mr. Schuester as stated by the show’s website with Fox (2011). As each season develops I am amazed at the depth and complexity of the storylines that Ryan Murphy and the rest of the writing staff give each character. However, in the most recent season, one plot and character have stood out above the rest.

The gay community is represented by the media in as many ways as the number of colours on the gay pride flag and Glee is no exception. During the first season Kurt Hummel was the only gay character on the show but during the second season two new gay characters were introduced; Blaine, a rival show choir singer from Dalton Academy (Derschowitz, 2010) and Dave Karofsky, a closeted gay who is also the head bully and on the football team at McKinley High (Nguyen, 2010).

 

With any good show there always comes a point in the story writing process where some material ends up on the writers floor. Steinberg (2011) explains, “Creating media texts involves making choices…what images to show or not to show”. Glee is often criticized by religious and family organisations for both the story lines in the show and what they decide to show on the screen. However, during the latest season the writer’s of the show have pushed the limits of the censorship board and of organizations, showing a kiss between both Kurt and Karofsky and Kurt and Blaine.

Later in the season the characters of Kurt and Blaine start a relationship, a move that fans of the show had long awaited and was praised by Gay and Lesbian groups around the world. For me, this raised the question of how many gays and lesbians are represented on Australian television. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of any. However, I could think of an array of examples from American shows including Cameron and Mitchell from Modern Family, Will and Jack from Will and Grace and Waylon Smithers from The Simpsons.

According to Hartley (2002), “a stereotype is a mixed impression…used to describe how fixed qualities or traits may be attributed to groups in the way they are represented in various media”. As Steinberg (2011) explains, “stereotypes operate as a form of shorthand for media professionals and as such, media professionals have enormous social and political power to reinforce and challenge stereotypes”.  Through the characters of Kurt and Karofsky we see how the writer’s of Glee both challenge and reinforce the gay stereotype. Kurt reinforces the stereotype as he sings show tunes, dances, has a flamboyant albeit theatrical fashion sense and he doesn’t hide his sexuality. Whereas with Dave Karofsky they challenge the stereotype as he is a jock but also bullies the kids at the school, a storyline involving Karofsky bullying Kurt was written in to the second season as discussed on the Zap To It Blog on November 11, 2010, and unlike Kurt he hides the fact that he is gay.

As a loyal follower of the show, I have noticed that using the characters and storylines in Glee, Ryan Murphy is promoting to the audience his ideal world. One where everyone, not just gay people are accepted for who they are no matter what race, religion or sexual preference. The most recent episode is evident of this, aptly named “Born This Way” – a recent hit by the Queen of Self-acceptance herself, Lady Gaga. As stated on the episodes IMDb webpage (2011), the episode focuses on the Glee Club and their inability to accept the things that make them who they are, what they may think is their worst flaw is what makes them unique, this in turn becomes Mr. Schuester’s lesson.

To view the episode go to http://www.megavideo.com/?v=MJATRXNR

After each episode without fail some organization will criticize Glee for something they have done, whether it’s a kiss between two guys or a teenage pregnancy plot with the head cheerleader and star quarter back. Despite all of this, the writer’s continue to stretch the abilities of the actors and test the loyalty of the fans. At the end of the day, the message is clear:

Whether life’s disabilities

Left you outcast, bullied, or teased

Rejoice and love yourself today

‘Cause baby you were born this way.