Creative Gallery

http://www.youtube.com/user/Aquah0lic24 Here is the link to my Creative Gallery. It is my YouTube Channel. In the comments section I described what it is. In a short version it is parodies of viral videos. Under each video it tells the viewer which viral video it is parodying and what made that video go viral!

Creative Project

I think I am going to make a video on YouTube that I am going to try make go viral. Or I am going to make a collaboration of viral videos and post it on YouTube. I have not decided yet. Either way I know for sure that I want to make a video of some sort that will be posted to YouTube. I rather the video not be scripted based on the research I have done on viral videos. I'm not sure but I would love feedback!

Viral Videos

Viral Video Effect on Modern Society

Technology is constantly becoming more advanced as time goes on and with these advancements new forms of communication and expression are created. One of these new forms of communication is the viral video, which is “a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing” (Wikipedia, 2011). The term “viral” came about because these popular videos spread around the internet in a virus fashion. But, how do you get your very own video to become “viral” and what impact do viral videos have in society?

            In 2005 a website by the name of YouTube first made its appearance on the internet. The website allowed internet users to create a free account and post videos up directly on the website for the internet world to see. YouTube was so popular that in 2006 just a year after it was launched onto the internet it was bought by one of the most popular websites in existence, Google (Wikipedia, 2011). Google saw the potential that YouTube had and immediately acted on it. If you have a Google mail account than you also have a YouTube user account which are both free and very useful. The two sites together are a real powerhouse on the internet. The videos themselves though are what make YouTube so popular and Google could not have made a better investment.

The very first video ever posted on YouTube was very short and basic; it was a man at a zoo talking about elephants in front of an elephant exhibit. There was nothing really exciting about it at all but something about YouTube made people interested in it. Today, YouTube is a huge part of the internet and has advanced drastically over the years. Instead of just being a website for videos it is a communication hub on the internet.

             The most popular video of all time is Charlie Bit My Finger which has a total view of 301,144,376 as of April 7, 2011. That is over 301 million views since it was posted on YouTube May 22, 2007 and as the time goes on that number is surely going to increase. But, what exactly does that mean? The video which depicts two brothers the older one about four years old and the younger one about one years old and the younger one bites the older one. The older one is indeed upset and the younger one could not help but laugh finding the situation hilarious (Fletcher). Though the video is definitely cute, what makes it so popular?

            There is a chain affect or “viral” affect that comes with these types of original and cute videos. The key to having a viral video is being authentic (CNN). All it takes is one viewer to think a video is cute and to send it to people they know. From there the video spreads like wildfire or like a virus. Unfortunately this does not happen to all videos. The more unique and funny they are the more likely they are to spread around the internet and it is hard to tell if your video is the next one to become viral. Some people post videos for years and will never get one single viral video out of it. Most of the videos that go viral the users who posted them are not looking for them to go viral but rather thought it was a good video that other people might enjoy.

Videos like Charlie Bit My Finger and the Evolution of Dance have done more than just go viral. The videos in some cases have made their users internet sensations or even the title of celebrity. There have been many huge stars that got their break from a YouTube video they posted an example of this would be a comedian named Bo Burnham. He started making his YouTube videos at the age of sixteen and now at the age of twenty he has his own comedy tour where he performs his comedic songs from YouTube. The profit that these internet celebrities are making off of their viral videos is incredible.

Online videos have also enabled internet users to create almost their own show or series. The website CollegeHumor.com has been making different online video series that have become extremely popular over the years. College Humor even got its own pilot show on MTV in 2008. Many of these online series have dedicated followers that are anxiously waiting for the next video to be posted just as if it was a favorite television series (College Humor).

Some of these web series are not scripted but instead are video blogs or better known as “vlogs”. YouTube has been the main site for internet users looking to make vlogs. Some of these vlogs have also gone viral like vlogger, Chris Crocker, who has gained the title of internet celebrity. He is the perfect example of a vlog that has gone viral. The only thing wrong with that is most of his viewers are making fun of him. The reason they watch his vlog is not because they believe what he is vlogging about but rather they find humor in the things he does or says. With saying that not all of his watchers are watching because of negative intentions some actually support his view which allows his video to reach out to an internet communities with similar interests.

Vlogs like this and other viral videos in general do something that most other things cannot, it brings people together from all over the world. It allows people to communicate face to face or rather video to video if they would like by having video replies and comments for these videos. These forms of commenting on videos are bringing people together. Yes, not all are positive but the internet users more specifically users of YouTube and other similar sites are being brought together for one common reason. They are watching these videos and relating to them, talking about them, and passing them along. The users are what make viral videos, viral.

Without the users and the easiness of uploading these videos to the internet there would be no social networking. Together Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are what make up social networking and multimedia communications. Society has left old communications like letters, phone calls, and even some initial internet communications and have moved on to social networking specifically with these three internet websites.

The days of American Online Instant Messenger have become almost completely obsolete in today’s society. People talk through comments whether it is underneath a video or on someone’s YouTube wall directly. People are speaking with people from different countries and the only thing they may have in common is seeing the same YouTube video. Viral videos have become part of daily life and modern society. Viral videos have been used as an ice breaker or the start of a friendship even in the non-internet world.

People relate to each other in ways never thought possible before viral videos. Almost everyone in America has seen Charlie Bit My Finger and if they have not they have probably heard of it even if they do not know exactly what it is about. Just basic knowledge of something brings people together. They can relate because most of the people watching these videos are sharing the same emotions. The spread of these videos not only allows people to become closer based on common interest but also has started an internet phenomenon known as video parodies.

If you go to YouTube’s home page and type into the search bar Charlie Bit My Finger not only will the original video pop up but there will be many others that will pop up. There is every kind of video from remixing it into music to people acting out the video on their own. It is amazing that one little video not even two minutes long has created this huge following of people so in awe of it that they find things to do with it.

Though for the most part viral videos have been a good thing for technology and communication they also have an evil side to them. Most viral videos like in Chris Cocker’s case become viral because people like to laugh at them or think they are interesting for whatever reason. With saying that humans are inherently curious and some of the videos that are posted onto the internet and website like YouTube should not be there at all let alone go viral.

A specific case of a viral video that almost went viral but was stopped in the courts was that of a Sea World trainer getting killed by one of the killer whales during a show. The parents of the trainer made sure that they made the proper arrangements through the courts so that the video of their daughter being killed was not plastered all over the internet. They claimed that it would be too traumatizing to have that video of their daughter dying available to the general public. The parents of the trainer won that case in court and thankfully the video can not be found on the internet or at least not on YouTube.

The fact that people like seeing disgusting things like that video is very disturbing to the general public. Humans are naturally interested but where should the line between interesting and disturbing be drawn? For many that line is almost non-existent because people do not care how disturbing it is to watch something that wants to watch it. In some cases the more gruesome or ridiculous a video was the more likely it was to go viral (AJC). And many people believe that is wrong and there needs to be some type of rules that are enforced when it comes to watching and posting online videos.

Besides that little flaw viral videos have made an incredible impact on society. It is going to be interesting where they are headed next. Are viral videos going to keep going the way they are headed now or is something else going to come along and completely make them useless? Right now it appears that viral videos and internet videos as a whole are becoming more popular at every waking second. They are changing the way people communicate and they are changing the way people watch programs in today’s society. Viral videos are so much more than popular online videos. They are just an example of an ever changing society whose technology is constantly becoming more advanced and changing a big portion of the world’s way of life. It will be interesting to see what will happen to viral videos in the next five years. Will there be some new form of communication that will make viral videos obsolete?

Works Cited

College Humor. http://www.collegehumor.com/ . Accessed: 22 Feb. 2011.

Fletcher, Dan. "YouTube's 50 Best Videos". Time. Published: 21 Mar.
2010. Accessed: 11 Feb. 2011.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1974961_1974925_1974954,00.html

Leopold, Todd. "What makes videos go viral? Hint: Be authentic". CNN.

Published: 8 Jan. 2010. Accessed: 1 Feb. 2011. 

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-08/tech/viral.videos_1_viralvideosyoutube-                                           uploadeds=PM:TECHyoutubeuploadeds=PM:TECHyoutubeuploadeds=PM:TECH

 

 

Murchison, Adrianne. "The Influence of Viral Videos". AJC. Published: 30

Mar. 2010. Accessed: 28 Feb. 2011.

http://www.ajc.com/lifestyle/the-influence-of-viral-418943.html

 
"Viral Marketing" Wikipedia.org. Last modified: 28 Feb. 2011. Accessed: 28
Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

       
"Viral Videos" Wikipedia.org. Last modified: 26 Feb. 2011. Accessed: 28
Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_video

        
"YouTube". The New York Times. Published: 11 Jan. 2011. Accessed: 28 Feb. 2011. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/youtube/index.html?s=oldest&

"YouTube". Wikipedia.org. Last modified: 1 Mar. 2011. Accessed: 28 Feb.
2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Skin

This site is so weird. I guess it is a form of art and it is interesting that people are actually participating in this project. I personally would never take part of this project but it is interesting to see the amount of participants that this woman is receiving. I think the idea of it is interesting.

Wikipedia

From grade school through high school, students are always told that Wikipedia is not an acceptable source. Even though, teachers always said that Wikipedia was still the website that I would always turn to for fast information. I find Wikipedia to be an extremely valuable starter website. It gives you what you need to know and fast then you can scroll to the bottom where it normally has referenced websites which are normally accredited websites. You can use those websites as sources after already getting the information from Wikipedia. So, personally I love Wikipedia and will continue to use it. I think as time goes on people including teachers will start to see that Wikipedia is not made up information but instead is a collaboration of information from accredited websites. Wikipedia is constantly updated with new information as things are constantly changing. I like to think of it as the perfect encyclopedia that is able to change with constant updates in history. It also has people monitoring the website so that false information is immediately taken down.

Viral Videos Re-Done

Not only are viral videos popular but they inspire people to copy them or remix them. There are several videos posted on YouTube that have people of all ages mimicking Charlie Bit My Finger. They are followed along with several videos that remix the video into something musical or even more comical. I want to know what makes people want to copy these videos. Do they copy these videos or remix these videos simply because they are popular? What makes the videos so cool that people would want to copy it? I think these questions bring me back to my main idea of what is a viral video and how do videos go viral? I hope by looking at this reproductions of Charlie Bit My Finger that I will get some insight into why these videos became viral in the first place. Does the reproduction such as a copy or remix of a "viral" video really what makes it viral, or is it simply considered a viral video based on the amount of views it receives?

Abstract

What is a viral video and how do they become viral? Viral videos are videos posted on the internet that are passed around until they are extremely popular. These videos are normally home-made and are made popular by word-of-mouth. They are called viral because they spread almost like an epidemic or disease. I will be looking at the definition of a viral video. When viral videos became known and took the name viral.   I will look at the all time most viral videos. I want to research the progression of some top viral videos. I want to see where viral videos are headed. Are the first viral videos more interesting than viral videos today? How to make a video that will go viral! Lastly, I will be looking at profits of viral videos and the owners of YouTube. I think that viral videos have a huge impact on society especially since with everyday technology advances and more people are becoming technologically savvy. As technological use increases things like viral videos become more and more popular due to increase usage of sites like YouTube. Overall, I want to see the progression of online videos to viral videos with the progression of the internet use and word-of-mouth. When did the internet and viral videos become so popular to the point there are shows on television (The Soup and Tosh.0) that are dedicated to viral videos.

EDIT: I need to look more into the start of YouTube and how it got started. The start of Youtube is really when people started posting videos online and that's when videos started going "viral". My favorite part so far is being able to see the videos and comments made by viewers. Some of the websites that I have found give a little background detail into the video and then almost an update on where the video maker is today. Most "viral" videos that are extremely popular have made some of the movie makers money too.

Key Questions and Lessig

1. The key questions that my project asks are "Is art collaboration legal?" and "How do videos become so popular while others get lost on the worldwide web?" The evidence I have for the first question is sites like creative commons and hitrecord, even YouTube to a point. They all allow videos to be broadcasted, creative commons and hitrecord encourage collaboration while YouTube not so much. There is still remixing on YouTube though, but my main focus for YouTube is why some of the videos posted have millions of views while others have not even ten views. I want to study some videos and see there rise to popularity or make a video and test different methods to make it popular.


2. Lessig says, "If the twentieth century made culture generally accessible, the twenty- first will make it universally accessible". I think this relates to my project because now that everything is accessible to everyone it makes people more likely to use each others material. Lessig's whole article is about people making copies of other peoples material whether it be a song or movie or whatever. My project is about talking what you now have access to and making it into something completely unique in itself. I also am asking how videos and things posted online become more popular than others and I think this kind of gives the idea that anything can be found if you are looking for it.


Lessig also says, "In the twenty- first century, television and movies will be bookified. Or again, our expectations about how we should be able to access video content will be the same as the expectations we have today about access to books. The idea that you would conform your schedule to a distributor’s will seem increasingly ridiculous. The idea that you would have to wait till “prime time” to watch prime television will seem just fascist. Freedom will mean freedom to choose to watch what you want when you want, just as freedom to read means the freedom to read what you want when you want. In both cases, not necessarily for free. But in both cases, according to your schedule, not the schedule of someone else". Here again, Lessig is talking about the idea that of accessing information when you want it. He thinks people will watch what they want when they want it. I think that this fit with youtube. You can type almost anything into youtube now a days and you can get instantly anything you typed into the search box. Whether it be a specific clip from the grammys or what have you. I think its interesting to see what people want to see. What can they not wait to watch?

Preview/Trailer

Redone, new editing and music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYBP8ev6UdI

Three Prompts

1. My title is "Art Collaboration and Popularity".

2. Is remixing legal? How do videos become "viral"?

3. I think he would support my idea because he believed in there is no more original thought like myself.

Trailer Idea

For my project I want to make a video collaboration on hitrecord.org. I am hoping to do it with numorous people on the site but for the trailer I think that I am just going to remix a few videos already posted on the site. In the trailer, I am going to present a view ideas I have about what type of video collaboration I am looking to do. I'm hoping it will come together nicely and act as almost a sneek peak of what my project is going to be like. With saying that I am also interested in what makes blogs and vlogs so popular so my goal after making my video is to post it up on youtube or whatever and see how many hits it gets on its own. Then I went to start sending it to people I know and see how far it gets by word of mouth.

Response to Lessig's Remix

Lessig's Remix had a very interesting intro. This article like the one we read in class is about plagiarism. This is more focused on plagiarism in the entertainment industry, particularly the music industry. In Chapter One, we follow the story of a woman named Stephanie Lenz. She recorded a video of her toddler dancing to a Prince song. A company that represented Prince, Universal Music, happened to stumble upon the video and immediately contacted YouTube (the website she posted the video on) to remove that video. YouTube complied but informed Mrs. Lenz who was outraged by the whole situation. She decided to fight back!

In this case, personally I think that Universal Music took this incident completely out of proportion and I think that Mrs. Lenz was right in fighting back. There is a different between plagiarism and using a product that has been put in the public eye for entertainment purposes. Mrs. Lenz was simply filming her toddler dance to a song that was playing in the background of their home. The main focus of the video was not the song but in fact the child dancing. Mrs. Lenz was in no way trying to copy Prince's song or distribute it unlawfully.

I think legally actions should be used when plagiarism is evident but in this case there was no clear evidence. Plagiarism is no way right but there is a difference between plagiarism and simple enjoyment of entertainment that is out in the public eye. So keep posting you videos of you singing a song by your favorite artist, just make sure that you acknowledge that you are in fact singing a song by that artist. Performing their work is fine as long as you give them credit for it. But, don't post videos of you dancing to any particular song because you could get sued for plagiarism.

Response to Lethem's “The Ecstasy of Influence”

      Lethem is trying to make the point that plagiarism is not right but there is a difference in plagiarizing and using work that has become popular culture. Though, it is not acceptable to take someones work some pieces of work have become such common knowledge in today's society and such a huge part of society that it is not uncommon for them to be including in other forms of work. An example of this would be me referencing The Little Mermaid in some form of work I was doing. I am not stealing it because it is part of society.
     
     Stealing work or plagiarism has been going on for a very long time and some of it is even unknowing. I personally, away from Lethem's opinion, think in today's society it is very hard to have a completely original thought because we are so exposed to outside sources. To write something completely non-bias or uncontaminated by outside sources is nearly impossible. And though, we should try to be conscious of plagiarism at all times it is often hard to be uninfluenced by other works.
     
     Throughout history, work has been plagiarized but not always on purpose. People can plagiarize without physically finding a text, copy and paste, and putting it into a word document and writing their name on it as the author. There is plagiarizing that happens mentally, without fully understanding that you are copying it. Maybe, its a subconscious thought in your head that you did not even realize. There are so many forms of plagiarizing today. But, are they actually plagiarizing or just simply influence?