UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA GRADUATE SCHOOL ...

users of the site. 217 Moreover, as the technology behind it also enables embedding videos on
websites, blogs, news portals etc., the culture of video making and watching inevitably also
reaches far beyond the site itself. At that YouTube also features as a social networking site, with
functionalities that enable creating a channel, adding/making friends, subscribing, viewing and
uploading videos, (video and textual) commenting, creating playlists and choosing ‗your‘
favourite videos etc. Thus YouTube, via video-sharing functionality, is a site where individuals
(and corporations) can make their digital appearance, i.e. manage their digital identities
audiovisually and textually, and interact/engage with other users.
Since launched in 2005, the number of users and uploaded content has been soaring and continues
to grow exponentially. 218 During 2010 only, 13 million hours of video were uploaded reaching
700 billion playbacks. 219 The types of posted videos span music videos, gigs recorded with mobile
devices, home videos, funny videos, video blogs (vlogs), various sorts of ‗how to‘ instructions,
jokes and pranks, commercial and advertising content, feature films, clips from sporting events
etc.
The most appealing functionality perhaps is that YouTube enables publishing and sharing usergenerated
content (UGC). This do-it-yourself philosophy is an important part of YouTube culture
which builds upon the technological potentiality of publishing/sharing content which otherwise (in
traditional media) would be facing considerable difficulties in reaching wider audiences. YouTube
gives very personal, individual narratives, digital stories and practices of digital storytelling a
platform where they can be voiced. The question, however, remains if also (or at all) heard. On the
level of the basic idea promoted by YouTube and its slogan ―Broadcast Yourself‖ 220 the service is
also giving space to under-represented, unheard voices, providing a media channel for expressing
marginalised views, obscurities and rarities from personal lives, histories and memories that
rarely, if at all, find their way to the big media or out-of-the-know communities. The reality,
however, is that it is very difficult indeed to see this as an entirely democratising venture; the
217 As of early 2011 YouTube lifted all video length limit which since the beginning of the service was 10 minutes and
in mid-2010 increased to 15 minutes.
218 For chronological overview see Viral Blog, Viral Ideas, Social trends, http://www.viralblog.com/research/youtubestatistics/,
accessed 23 August 2011.
219 Jeremy Norman‘s From Cave Paintings to the Internet, Chronological and Thematic Studeis on the History of
Information and Media, ―YouTube Statistics 02-2011 (February 2011),‖
http://www.historyofinformation.com/index.php?id=3252, accessed 23 August 2011.
220 In July 2009 the slogan was removed from the logo on the website
(http://www.hotforwords.com/2009/07/21/youtube-removes-broadcast-yourself-slogan-again/; accessed 23 August
2011), yet it can still be seen occasionally in the website title, plus it is part of YouTube Broadcast Yourself Live
feature. It can also be seen at www.archive.org, the Internet Wayback Machine, where users can also see the first
slogan, Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!; the modification from December 2006, Broadcast yourself.
Watch and share your videos worldwide! already introduces the latest slogan and emphases the sharing of videos.
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