(Updated 12/17/2011)
Hey Guys!
Check out this link to our final project! It’s centered around the continually changing nature of YouTube fame and its real-life consequences. This project is meant to explore ‘heap paradoxes’ like those we discussed in class and the inapplicability of binaries we used to describe fame before the Internet.
We tried to choose videos for our project that show something non-existent in traditional media and therefore unique to online video. Dramatic vlogs, ridiculous online-series, independent musicians and unintentional home videos number among the examples we selected. These videos show that online fame, notoriety, obscurity or any mix of the above is much different than anything we’ve encountered before.
Beyond the changing nature of fame we also wanted to investigate the perspectives that YouTube viewers hold of the content they are watching . We especially wanted to probe into the importance of reality and authenticity to viewers. Our perceptions of authenticity and in-authenticity have become skewed to the point that we pay homage to actors presenting a personality and yet we often ignore the real life consequences that online attacks have on real people. We seem to entertain the notion that much of what we see on YouTube is real, but oftentimes success seems to be either strongly tied to well-performed personas (inauthentic) or correlated with attacks on real-life individuals who end up as victims in the end. Of course there are counter examples, but we think this is a strong trend in viral video.
Anyways, we hope you all enjoy the video!
Make sure to share this with all your family and friends 😉
Happy Holidays!
YouTube’s 15 Minutes of Fame
Josh Eisenstat
Ted Papalexopoulos
Colby Brown
David Meierfrankenfeld
Yale Law Tech 