This is a website that has videos and many articles for college students. The reason I picked it is because it updates its videos everyday. It takes viral videos from YouTube and puts them in a most watched of today. It has produces many of its own videos and is extremely popular. Some of the sites original videos have been posted to YouTube and have received over a few million views. They have also won several website awards for their work, specifically with viral videos. This will be a very useful source when it comes to seeing the progression of videos from just posted to viral.
Fletcher, Dan. "YouTube's 50 Best Videos". Time. Published: 21 Mar. 2010. Accessed: 11 Feb. 2011.
This is an article on Time online about the 50 most popular or best videos on YouTube to date. They have all the videos linked to the article and a brief summary of the background of the video. They also have some information on what has happened to the people who have made the video since it became viral. This is a very interesting article and useful for my project because it gives me the videos highest to lowest in ranking. This along with the brief summary will help me see why these particular videos went viral. I can learn a lot by studying these videos.
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
This is an article on CNN online about how online videos go "viral". It looks at videos on YouTube and starts by explaining in detail the background story of the "Evolution of Dance" video. When his video went viral more than just fame came from it. He began booking gigs and has made a decent amount of money since and because of this video.This shows that there is more to viral videos then just popularity and they can actually help you make real money. I think this will article will help me immensely with my search for the definition of a viral video and what makes videos viral.
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
This is an article that talks about the negativity that comes with viral videos. Not all viral videos are of positive things and this article goes over some of the negative videos there are posted online. An example it gives in one of the beginning paragraphs is the video of the SeaWorld trainer being killed during a live show by one of the parks orcas. The family of this trainer has fought to keep the video off the internet because it is too painful for them. The fact things like this become popular is sickening I think this will benefit my paper because it gives a different perspective than the common thought that viral videos are so good. Seeing the negative side of viral videos is very beneficial while looking at viral videos as an overall.
"Viral Marketing" Wikipedia.org. Last modified: 28 Feb. 2011. Accessed: 28 Feb. 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing
This is the wikipedia site about viral marketing. This is viral in every sense possible such as things like smartphones and the internet in general. This is a look into how things that happen online become profitable. I think that it will help my project get an inside look into the overall online profiting.
"Viral Videos" Wikipedia.org. Last modified: 26 Feb. 2011. Accessed: 28 Feb. 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_video
This is the wikipedia site about viral videos. I think it gives one of the best definitions of a viral video and details about viral videos that really no other site can compete with. Wikipedia itself has gone viral in a way and what other site knows viral better. I think that it will benefit me and my paper by giving me the overall actual definition of viral and more specifically viral videos. I think it is a wonderful source that will help me better my understandings.
"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&
This is an article in the Business section of The New York Times that talks about the start of YouTube. It more specifically focuses on the fact that it was bought from Google a little while back but Google has still yet to figure out how to make any profit off of it. I think that this is an interesting article all around because it lets you see into the business aspect of YouTube. I think it will be helpful for my paper because it will give me a little bit of insight into what it is like to run something like YouTube. It also gives me a chance to compare the profit of stars from YouTube videos to the owners of YouTube itself.
"YouTube". Wikipedia.org. Last modified: 1 Mar. 2011. Accessed: 28 Feb. 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
This is the wikipedia site about YouTube. Without YouTube there virtually would be no viral videos. YouTube is what made internet videos what they are today. YouTube and viral videos go hand in hand. "Viral videos" would not exist without YouTube and YouTube would not be as popular without people catching on and uploading internet videos onto YouTube. Overall, this site will extremely help me with writing my paper because YouTube is constantly changing and so is wikipedia to make sure it covers exactly what is happening. Without a sense of what YouTube has done to the internet (forming a community) I would not be able to write my paper efficiently.
