“YouTube represents not so much the collision as the co-evolution and uneasy co-existence of ‘old’ media and ‘new’ media industries, forms, and practices” (Burgess & Green 14).
“Our YouTube videos often capture the particular and idiosyncratic character of ourselves and our local culture while also reminding us of the universal nature of our every day lives” (Michael Strangelove, Watching YouTube 40)
The Course
Wired Magazine published a timeline of important innovations in human history that begins with fire and ends with YouTube. Along with vaccines, combustion and atomic theory, Wired claims, the technological agent that enables mass distribution of amateur personal videos is changing the course of human history. Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has revolutionized the possibilities and expectations for self-representation in both film and video. In this course, we’ll study a variety of late 20th century first-person films in order to analyze the genre and assess its aesthetic, cultural and ideological implications. We’ll also look at YouTube in this context to examine how user-participation and amateur video are changing the ways we broadcast and imagine the self. Class will focus on: 1) viewing and reading about first-person films/ videos; 2) learning the “grammar” of film and video (camera work, editing, etc.); 3) researching and “curating” collections of videos that capture an important theme or idea; and 4) producing and distributing our own short videos. Welcome to Saint Rose’s first class on YouTube!
