What’s the point of making and posting videos online?
1. Make Culture: Role of Creator and Personal Authorship
2. Participate in Culture: Open Interaction with Worldwide Community
Offering accessibility, immediacy and an opportunity for participation, YouTube has provided a platform for ordinary people (who are not professionals in media studies) to make culture as they participate in it.
There is a fascinating kind of satisfaction that comes from producing one’s own work. The advantage of YouTube is that one’s video is not edited or touched by anyone (unless you are working in an intentional collaborative team), but yourself. It is not manipulated by and for someone else’s use or purpose without your approval. As the author of the piece, one may feel empowered, free and encouraged to engage in more creative work through a moving digital medium. Creators make, improve and alter culture as they debut their little, private pieces of culture into the public sphere.
After creating a video/film, the goal of most modern videomakers is not to keep it in a closed archive for personal use. Videos are meant to express, teach and share with others. The majority of video recording in the past had been used as a means to keep records of moments or events and at most to share with family and friends. However, publishing a video on an open website has altered what was once the primary goal of video production. There is a greater emphasis on the importance and value of exposure and visibility of one’s creation to the public. Not only is there disclosure, but also there is certainly an aspect of vulnerability from the creator/publisher’s part. Posted videos are open for any kind of feedback from any viewer around the globe.
The Women Archive 