Henry Jenkins, the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at USC, explores the formation of YouTube culture in his blog article, “Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube.” In his second proposition, he argues that Youtube has become a meeting point, a place where participatory cultures can come together, practice, and learn from each other. Although this article was written when YouTube was relatively new, Jenkins’ propositions are quite accurate even today. YouTube is definitely culturally collaborative.
One of the points I would like to focus on in the second proposition is the fact that YouTube users learn techniques from each other. When I first read this, my mind automatically went to what some of my friends do. In this day and age, if you don’t know how to do something, whether it be braiding hair or drawing a cartoon character, you go straight to YouTube to find a tutorial. Makeup and skincare tutorials are really common, as I have seen many of my friends flocking towards these videos. The producers of these videos have a big fan base as well. Here is a video by Makeup Geek, who is probably one of the best well known makeup tutors on YouTube. And, here is another one by Tiffany D, another well-known YouTube makeup artist. It is really interesting to notice that although both are different makeup artists, they exhibit the same style of talking and showing products to their viewers. And some of their viewers, such as a few of my friends, will actually go in front of a mirror or even videotape themselves mimicking the style and videos of the makeup artists. They are doing exactly what Jenkins is proposing: they watch someone on YouTube, learn his or her techniques, and make a video of their own in a similar manner. This is exactly how participatory culture evolves, where even the common user can learn and participate.
I found it interesting how you compared make up geek to Tiffany D and noiced how they both follow very similar formats when filming their videos. Do you think that this has any implications about participatory culture? I for one cant understand how two entirely different people could follow such a similar format for their videos. Do you think this says soemthing about our culture and what we deem as acceptable?
I agree, I think many people use YouTube as a primary source of information when they want to learn how to do something.
I agree with you, I think many people use YouTube as their primary source of information when they want to learn how to do something.