<videovortex> history of online video (2007-2009), a video by Patricia Lange

[Geert Lovink]

Hey Watch This! Sharing the Self Through Media: https://vimeo.com/394007182

Hey Watch This! Sharing the Self Through Media (2020) is a documentary of video sharing on YouTube. It uses a case study of early YouTubers to explore human mediation. The film engages with enduring and profoundly philosophical questions about how we relate to media as individuals and as a society. Issues include discussing where the “real me” is located, how we learn to make media, what counts as full participation on social media sites, and how we envision our digital legacies.
As an ethnographic film, Hey Watch This! analyzes the interactions, beliefs, and life ways of a social group. The director is an anthropologist who explores why people share themselves and engage in sociality through media. The film began by exploring video blogging but ultimately analyzes the astonishingly vast array of media that interviewees used to communicate and record their life stories. The film is oriented around interviews and observations recorded at participant-run YouTube meet-ups that the director attended across the United States and one in Canada.

Rather than being character-driven, the documentary is organized around themes such as: Is it important to show my own image to fully participate in media-based “participatory cultures”? Why do we use certain types of media for specific purposes? How should we deal with hurtful commentary, as a community or individually? How does commercialization impact perceived options for sociality? When and why do we migrate away from a social media site? The case study remains timely as we are now seeing a “third wave” of concerns about fair internet access, beyond physical access (the first wave), and equitable production of content across different social groups (the second wave). The “third wave” of internet inclusion aims to ensure availability of venues for people to post their personal media. The documentary encourages new generations of media participants to discuss and reflect on how future platforms for media sharing might be designed as we all navigate an ever-expanding mediascape. 

Special thanks to all the video makers who participated in this study. Thanks also to everyone who shared videos and photos for the film. I appreciate the support of YouTubers who provided encouragement for this project!
Special thanks also to Henry Jenkins [18:00 <>] and Michael Wesch [25:38 <>] for lending their insights to the study.

Hey Watch This! was recorded between 2007-2009.

In Memoriam
I was saddened to learn of the passing of thetalesend (Ryan) and ZenArcher (Po), bright spirits who are greatly missed. I feel very grateful for their important contribution to the film.

Thematic Time Indexes 
(Pages numbers refer to my book Thanks for Watching)

01:40 <> Video reciprocity and ethnographic researcher vulnerability [01:40 <> to 2:08 <>]
02:19 <> Community perspective remarks
03:48 <> Getting started on YouTube 
10:07 <> Playful "paparazzi" (pp. 57-61)
11:46 <> Importance of showing one's image [11:46 <> to 15:00 <>]
15:00 <> Using characters to find the real self [15:00 <> to 17:55 <>]
17:58 <> Participatory cultures and YouTube [17:58 <> to 22:16 <>]
22:17 <> Video drum circle (pp. 65-68)
23:06 <> Difficulties of attending meet-ups
23:56 <> Example of Stickam (former live video chat service)
25:38 <> Research on community [25:38 <> to 27:07 <>]
27:07 <> Interviewees' ideas about community [27:07 <> to 35:34 <>]
27:56 <> Conflict and proposals to handle it [27:56 <> to 33:05 <>]
35:35 <> Subscription reciprocity [35:35 <> to 36:25 <>]
36:26 <> Ethnographic researcher vulnerability [36:26 <> to 37:25 <>]
37:25 <> Alternative perspective on subscribers [37:25 <> to 38:28 <>]
38:29 <> Exploring the "real me" across media and in person [38:29 <> to 40:13 <>]
40:25 <> YouTube losing social centrality to interviewees [40:25 <> to 44:17 <>]
44:24 <> Personal reasons for organizing a gathering
45:48 <> Reflections on future digital legacies [45:48 <> to 51:42 <>] (pp. 203- 216)

The filmmaker’s statement, study guide, transcript, director’s bio, and sample discussion questions are available on the film’s website at: patriciaglange.org/page2/page2.html <http://www.patriciaglange.org/page2/page2.html>
Evidence in the documentary also informed my book, Thanks for Watching: An Anthropological Study of Video Sharing on YouTube (University Press of Colorado, 2019). It explores video sociality and analyzes core concepts in anthropology such as reciprocity, community, participant-observation, chronotopes, and the posthuman.

A pdf version and hard copy of Thanks for Watching may be found on the University Press of Colorado website: upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/3737-thanks-for-watching <https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/3737-thanks-for-watching>

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