Henry Jenkins is an avid reader, writer and researcher. He has a passion for popular culture and science fiction. He has written and edited over a dozen books and he is currently the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Previously he was the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. In 2007 Jenkins wrote a blog on the Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube, in his post he proposes nine ways that YouTube will influence society. He projects conflict between opposing groups, visible and widespread marketing, increased awareness of politics, the shift in the cultural economy, and development of skills will all be present with the rise of YouTube.
The Proposition I found most relevant to movement and growth amongst society was proposition number 8, which states:
In the age of YouTube, social networking emerges as one of the important social skillsand cultural competencies that young people need to acquire if they are going to become meaningful participants in the culture around them. We need to be concerned with the participation gap as much as we are concerned with the digital divide. The digital divide has to do with access to technology; the participation gap has to do with access to cultural experiences and the skills that people acquire through their participation within ongoing online communities and social networks.
It is important to recognize the value that YouTube provides to those who have access to it. It contains a plethora of information, ranging from funny videos to politics to education and skills. Not only is YouTube a valuable asset to learn from, it is also a key component to being successful in the economic world. People without access to YouTube are at a disadvantage because they cannot simply look up “how to…cook lasagna”. Instead they must use more timely methods to discover the recipe such as find a cook book and read the steps, or call a friend who might know how. YouTube reduces the amount of time spent on tasks and the same information is easily distributed amongst a group of people. For example if a company wanted to promote a new product, they could create a YouTube video on the product and send it to the employees. This way, all employees are gaining the same information, and the cost of promoting the product is reduced because the video can be replayed multiple times and sent to many people. Whereas in person communication takes much more time and must allot time for questions and clarification.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YLPL0KOWE[/youtube]
It is often forgotten that the internet is not available to all people, and because of that, a specific demographic is being left in the dust when it comes to advancing in cultural competency. In addition, some people have access to technology but their culture resides mainly offline. Therefore, skills that could be learned and communities that could be developed online fail to thrive and people are left to make up the difference.
I agree: Youtube can be used as a skill base for companies, tutoring, and creates a vast array of learning opportunities and market opportunity for both individuals and companies. I particularly enjoyed your image on the digital divide access where the haves are the ones who are considered ‘interacting’. It’s interesting that many of these ‘futures’ were predicted in 2007.
I thought your blog post was very well thought out and insightful. While I find your arguments compelling, I thought your statement that youtube was better for the economic world was slightly confusing. You also state that youtube allows people to simply look up recipes rather than look for a recipe or call a friend. While youtube does save you time and make tasks more efficient, I think there can also be a lot of knowledge lost when everything is so readily available for us. I think the “search” for a piece of knowledge teaches us just as much the actual knowledge you are seeking out.