Making Bank on Youtube

So, originally I had started a blog post today to discuss some video game advertisements I had seen recently. When I opened up YouTube to grab links to the video game advertisements, I was recommended to a video that looked really interesting. I opened it, and THREE AND A HALF HOURS LATER I finally closed YouTube up. And yet in those three and a half hours, I never made it to the video game advertisements I had been looking for.

I have no idea how many videos I watched during this time, and to tell you the truth, I don't remember what they were all about. But during this time, I remember feeling extremely hungry and not being able to put my computer down. I was so intrigued and entertained that it made it hard to look away.

When I finally closed YouTube and looked at the two paragraphs I had originally started, I dreaded the idea of going back to YouTube for fear that this would happen again. This is not the first time I have diverged into binge watching when I was supposed to be doing something important, and it probably won't be the last.

I started thinking about all of those videos that were created by the same users. Here are some of my favorite YouTube channels that are consistently adding new videos:

BuzzFeed

Here are some of the other BuzzFeed channels.

CollegeHumor

JennaMarbles

An article from CelebrityNetWorth, called 25 Highest Earning YouTube Stars, estimated (in 2013) that the annual income that Jenna Marbles makes is about $4.3 million, while CollegeHumor only makes about $3.3 million. BuzzFeed isn't even on this list but it's likely that it is also making a fairly good sum from their YouTube channels.

It was amazing to me to see this because these people have made careers using this new new media. They have established a fan base that continues to grow and change, but the truth is that as long as they keep posting, there will likely always be that fan base for the information they offer. It's inspirational to see these channels succeeding to the point of making millions for simply getting views.

The study of English is a study of the way we communicate with the world through language and shared stories and that's exactly what YouTube allows us to do - share stories.  JennaMarbles has been sharing her life story for over four years. She has introduced the public to her family, friends, boyfriends and pets. CollegeHumor has shared knowledge and stories that are focused on the humorous thoughts and situations we deal with in college or around that time frame of our lives. BuzzFeed tells stories, shares information and discusses serious topics. All of these stories can be experienced over and over again the same way we can experience literature over and over again. YouTube just allows us to experience these stories in a different format than classical literature.

One last thing I'd like to note is that since all of the videos are like little stories, and because they are all within this larger frame that is YouTube, we can consider YouTube a Frame Narrative!! Woah! Mind Blown!

Sharing Stories Internationally through New Media

I have always had a fascination with Japanese manga, from when I was really in my younger teens I was always checking out manga books from the library or searching YouTube to watch different anime cartoons and to see the animation that they use compared to how we create it here in America.

My favorite manga is one called Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody created by Michiko Yokote. It is about the seven mermaid princesses that were the guardians of the seven seas. It focused on one princess in particular, Luchia, because she was coming into adulthood and had fallen in love with a human boy, Kiato. It was forbidden, but the princess continued to kind of "woo" Kaito.

Kaito and Luchia

Unfortunately, her true form and the monsters that were trying to capture the princesses created complications for the couple. I have not finished the series, so don't spoil it for me.

Luchia's Different Forms (Human, Mermaid, Warrior)

Various Mermaid Melody Villains

How I stumbled on the story is kind of interesting. I had been watching music videos on YouTube that showed animation clips from different cartoons. One of the clips showed a mermaid and a young man together. It caught my attention so I looked into the list of cartoons the creator had used and found Mermaid Melody listed among them. I investigated into the cartoon and found episodes of the anime on YouTube.

During my youth I was only able to find episodes that were in Japanese with English subtitles. I was also able to find similar versions with French or Spanish subtitles, instead.

But recently, I was able to find versions that have voice overs in English, French, Spanish and even Greek, which you can see below, respectively.

I knew the anime was based off of the manga, but I hadn't really looked for it. One Christmas morning, sitting in my stocking, I found an English copy of the first volume of Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody! I was so excited! I have plans to buy the other six in the series and to finish watching the anime on YouTube when I can find all of the episodes.

My copy of Mermaid Melody

I found it really interesting how over the course of ten years the manga was created and published in its original form, was translated and published in other languages, and then became an anime that has been recreated by YouTube-ers to have not only subbed versions, but dubbed versions, as well. It is so neat how new medias have allowed the public to not only share stories internationally but how they can be recreated, or changed so that a new audience can understand them in their own languages.

Changes like these also show us back to that idea that "Medium is the Message", because of the different formats this story was created in.

In its original form, its message was meant to reach Japanese individuals for entertainment purposes, then when the English versions came out, it was given the chance to reach a wider audience. It's possible there are other languages the manga came out in, I am just unaware of them at this time.

When the anime version came, it was meant for the content of the story to be shared in an easier format because people no longer needed to read a whole book, but they could watch half hour episodes that breaks the story down.This version was meant to stay specifically in Japanese. The creators did not have plans to create it in English or any other language. But YouTube-ers had different plans. Because these people created versions of subbed and dubbed episodes, the message had now been changed again to allow a wider audience to enjoy the story in the new format.

Unfriended

I was at the theater this weekend to see Kingsman. (Btw great movie!!!)  During the commercials, there was a new horror movie being advertised. I was very intrigued by it because it put a twist on the usual horror film.

The film is based on a group of students having a conversation on Skype about a friend that had passed away. A video had been posted on YouTube about this friend and the results from the cyber-bullying that occurred affected the girl enough for her to commit suicide shortly afterwards.

As the group talks they notice an extra viewer, or Skype-er as we'll call that person, within the conversation and they start to question who it is and why that person is part of the conversation. The extra Skype-er starts to harass the students to find out who had posted the video. As the movie goes on some of the students die by the hand of this extra Skype-er.

This is the official trailer for the movie. It was posted on YouTube on January 13th, 2015 and as of today (February 18th, 2015) has received over 5 million views. The movie is said to arrive in theaters on April 17th, 2015.

In case there are people reading this that don't understand what Skype is, it is a program that allows people to message, call, and video chat with people. It is a free program that connects people all over the world and allows them the benefit of seeing each other physically even though they cannot touch each other.

Click on picture to view it's web page.

With the opportunities that new medias allow for us, the general public, it brings to light that our safety and privacy are now, more than ever, harder to protect because it is so easy to find almost anything online. Even if you're not the one posting them.

The video of the girl, Laura Barns, left an everlasting impression of her to the rest of the world that she was never going to be able to escape. This video was not approved by her, posted by her or even taken by her. She had no ability to control whether this was put out into the World Wide Web, nor did she have the ability to take it down and destroy it. In the end, as cliche as it sounds, this video destroyed her and all of the friends that were involved in the making and posting of it.

Medium is the Message

The way a message is shown and/ or shared with the general public - the medium in which the message is shared is a message in itself.

There are so many different types of mediums that we have the opportunity to use: from old media to new medias like books and newspapers, oral stories, essays, poems, television programs, movies, music, social medias, blogs, video games - all of these different mediums have a way of reaching the public in a different way, they're also meant to reach different audiences.

When studying stories in class, I have noticed that there are so many options to learn about the story. I can find where the story first comes from and I can look for physical copies through those books. I can find an electronic version and read it straight from my computer, nook or phone. I can also look for videos of audio readings, whether it's from a tape or from YouTube. I can also find movies about the story or based off of the events and characters in the story. There are so many options to find this one story.

The thing about all of these different mediums is that there's a new message being sent because of the change in the original. The physical version, the original medium (normally), says "You need to work to find this book and take time to read this book to get this story." While audios found online say "as long as you stumble upon me, you can clean, drive, and do other activities while getting this story." Videos say "Hey we're gonna cut the time you spend reading or listening to this story in half and engage new senses to show you the story."

But these different mediums can also change the story. When we read the story from its original medium we get the personal feeling of how the story was meant to be shared but once you start to listen to the story or watch videos, the story changes because the person creating and sharing the new medium may perceive and display the story in a new way than it was originally intended to.

New mediums are meant to make it more available for the general public, the audience, to get the story. But they do change the original message and the original story.

Participation with New New Media

I have participated in

• I have posted and re-posted links, videos, and other such things on Facebook.
• I have liked and followed pages on Facebook.
• I have liked videos and channels on Youtube.
• I have commented on videos on Youtube.
• I have posted a video to Youtube through my channel.
• I have pinned, re-pinned, and liked posts on Pinterest.
• I have created boards and pages on Pinterest for specific purposes.
• I have liked movies and tv shows on Netflix.
• I have have posted and re-posted tweets on Twitter.
• I have a blog.
• I have blogged on a group blog account. 
• I have commented, liked and followed other blogs.
• I have used Google Docs to collaborate with fellow students.
• I have helped with a Omeka Exhibit, the Museum of Fictional Literary Artifacts.
• I have rated and given feedback on Amazon products.
• I have also put Amazon products into a personal wishlist.