[Air-L] New OA publication - Poetics of Early YouTube: Production, Performance, Success

[Rainer Hillrichs]

Dear colleagues,


let me introduce you to my e-book about early YouTube culture, which has
been published open access now.


*Poetics of Early YouTube *offers an analysis of the most subscribed
YouTube channels of the years 2005 and 2006 – the first two years of the
platform’s operation – with methods of film and media studies. The aspects
in focus are users’ backgrounds and motivations for using YouTube, video
production, settings, modes of performance, cinematography, editing, the
overall form of videos, and the activities of the contributing users and of
others with regards to the videos once uploaded to YouTube.


Is today’s professional and commercial YouTube culture the downfall of a
‘participatory culture’ in which there were no lines between producers and
consumers and the approval of the ‘YouTube community’ was revenue enough?
This study argues otherwise and challenges the participatory culture and
social media paradigms which have been predominant in the research thus
far. It shows that dedicated video production mattered already in the early
years of the platform. It shows how YouTube users employed their performing
bodies and audiovisual techniques in creative ways to produce their videos
– and how they made their videos successful and generate revenues on and
off YouTube.


How is YouTube an extension, transformation, or break from media like film
and television? How can YouTube videomaking be situated with regards to
other cultural practices? This study offers novel insights.


The website: http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2016/4407/4407.htm

The full pdf: http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2016/4407/4407.pdf


Kind regards,

Rainer


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Dr. Rainer Hillrichs

Universität Mannheim

http://uni-mannheim.academia.edu/RainerHillrichs