In what ways does YouTube, or other video sharing platforms, operate as a productive social network? Critically analyse specific forms of user generated video content (rather than commercial productions) and the kinds of user interactions they enable, to explore the cultural uses of video sharing sites.
With the introduction of Web 2.0, there are a mass of new services and possibilities as well which has been enabled on the Internet. In specific, one of the new possibilities is that users have the ability to easily create and upload their online content as well as interact with others users worldwide. This notion has resulted in the development of user-generated content in which YouTube has been seen as the largest user-generated content video system. Besides that, YouTube also has been viewed as a social networking site in the ways that users are able to not only view videos but also comment on the videos and even create their own videos on their YouTube page. Through a case of YouTube, this essay will argue that Youtube is not only an online plartform for sharing and broastcasting content, but also operates as a social networking site through the ways people comment on the videos and users' interactions as well. Besides that, the essay also analysis the concept of user generated video content through the genre of music videos to explore the participatory culture among users of YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the Internet.
First of all, it is essential to have some background on YouTube. YouTube was first established in 2005, and has become the most popular video sharing site on the internet with comprising 10% of all internet traffic (Cheng, Dale, & Liu 2007). In spite of other video sharing services being available such as Vimeo.com, or Hulu.com, the prominence of YouTube remains incomparable with accounting for more than 72% of the videos watch online (cited by Rotman & Preece 2010). In addition, with the purchase of YouTube by...