YOU-TUBE-SIZED: 10 Radical Things About YouTube
By Open Youth Networks youth members Ameenah Muhammad, Sadia Nawab and Zane Scheuerlein (Editing help from OYN Director, Mindy Faber).

OYN nurtures youth to empower innovative micro-enterprises that mobilize their peers from awareness to action. By helping youth imagine new ways of engaging in socially-motivated commons-based peer production, Open Youth Networks aims to strengthen youth participation in democratic decision-making through critical media production and analysis.

[Qualifier: Actually, YouTube here is a stand in word for any online video sharing site. We actually view videos on many different sites similar to YouTube so we refer to YouTube in the generic sense like saying Kleenex instead of tissue.]

1. Creating a Freer Youth Culture or Democratizing Media

We create our own entertainment and use our voices as a vice to expose issues within the communities that, otherwise, would not be viewed. In the last few years internet sites such as YouTube have been flooded with videos from youth expressing ideas and showing the world that we are the leaders of a new revolution.

Look, when You-Tube was invented, we went from a top-down profit driven corporate broadcast system to a free open source user–driven on-line Mecca, like overnight. Whatever, its flaws and there are many, YouTube has democratized media.  Okay, we know we have to challenge YouTube when it caves into the political pressures and removes controversial content, but still, the level of gatekeeping going on by corporate owned mass media television networks… We are no longer forced to listen only to “the man” and seeing other people do it makes us realize we can do it too.. In our opinion, you can’t have a real democracy without dialogue between people with differing points of view and sometimes, at its best, YouTube makes dialogue happen.

EVIDENCE
The Revolution Will Be Televised by Open Youth Networks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJd0Q8HjPw)

2. Counter-surveillance
Everyday at our schools, we are being watched by cameras and surveilled by adults. Posses of parents spy on our Facebook pages.  Academic researchers study our “online behaviors”.  Marketers spy on our subcultures and consumer habits so they can sell what we create back to us. Police arrest us just for “being in public.” But with camera phones in our pockets and with YouTube as our witness, we can take the private abuses of authority that we as youth endure on a daily basis and make them public for all to see.

EVIDENCE:
Angry Teacher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymBz1pwSEnw

Police Brutality: Skateboarders vs. the cops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6AYVn2yw4

ThePrincipals Office
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRu7FVX41aQ

Mr. Schwartz Imitation by Adam Norway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPsPRIqU44

# 3- Bedroom Cinema – Lots of the videos we watch online are quite simple. They showcase one person in their bedroom with a camera, often one that is built into the computer and instantly uploaded to YouTube. No special effects. No broadcast TV equipment. Just totally raw. We all vent in different ways whether it be in journals or on videos. Showing the world your personal views on an issue is radical and venting can be personally calming. We can play, experiment and try on new personas or react to and reframe the ones that are marketed to us through commercial media. We are clever and witty and sexy and smart and honest or not. You decide.

Evidence
Dax Flame
http://www.youtube.com/user/Daxflame

Miss West Carolina goes to Hollywood http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PzmLELu0RM

#4. Our Culture Kicks Ass
YouTube allows us to celebrate our own subculture, show off our talents and challenge the hegemony of sameness. On YouTube you will see youth doing parkour, cup games , quadrupal kickflips, speed-stacking, animation, and break dancing.

EVIDENCE
Urban Ninja by Evolved Monkey Combat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2kJZOfq7zk

Daft Hands: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cYWfq

World Champion Speed Stacker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VizrAgSI4O0&feature=related

Cheeeeeeeeez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5XQxf8quGg&feature=related

Cup Game DOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhFyQjVsq3U&feature=related

5.  Monetizing Makers, Not the Corporates Takers – No ads on YouTube.
Okay, yeah there are little ads found throughout the site but you aren’t forced to click on them. Viewing all your favorite episodes and music videos without having to see an AXE body spray commercial is simply a blessing. And there is no limit to what you can and can’t watch, no compulsory or maximum amount of videos that can be viewed at one time.

Compared to other forms of media, YouTube is freer- we need to make sure we keep it that way. But if someone makes a really great TV ad, you can view it on You-Tube, because trust us, if its worth seeing, it will be there. But then when shameless commercial interests try to corrupt the YouTube user-driven spaces, they must be prepared to suffer.
When the Dove Evolution ad became viral, its hypocrisy was exposed.

YouTube is Talk-back TV. So even though it isn’t really the point to make money, some YouTubers hit a nerve –they are real artists, actors and political geniuses– so when they become successful and develop a subscriber base in the thousands and get hundreds of thousands of views then why shouldn’t they be able to make a living off their art or bring attention to their talents, messages and music. Revver.com shares 50% of its ad revenue with is content providers. We should monetize the makers not the corporate takers.

Evidence
Midwest Teen Sex Show - http://midwestteensexshow.com/

Chongalicious new Video by Laura DiLorenzo and Mimi Davila
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/chongalicious-girls-new-video/2002947577

6.  Social Sanctuary
What you share is who you are. We define our identities and build our social networks by creating affinity groups through the culture we make and consume and share!

For example, there is this familiar, “Psssstt…have you seen that video??” Chainletters no longer circulate in our inboxes, instead its chain videos! [fwd fwd fwd fwd fwd] “So&so sent you a video on YouTube!” Sometimes it is just entertainment, sometimes political, but politics is in everything, so what’s the difference?

And these videos are the ones that can bring out the haters. Actually, haters are everywhere on YouTube and sometimes if you get a lot of haters, it is actually a compliment because those are actually paying attention on some level. Who said democracy and dialogue isn’t messy? Besides the really stupid haters end up being dissed and exposed by everyone anyway. The worst haters we face are found on our streets everyday – some of them criminalize youth for hanging out in public. At least on YouTube and MySpace, there are no curfew and anti-gang loitering laws. YouTube is a sanctuary.

Evidence
Hater Comments from the Sarcasm Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSYw4dUVb1E

Leave Britney Alone Trace Remix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FAuJod1XmY

7. Political Remix
With the right tools, YouTube is a digital burying ground for all sorts of treasures- ripe for the reusing. It puts anything from embarrassing flubs to hilarious images in the public eye, to be remixed, reused, and thrown back into the world with a fresh spin or biting political commentary. One of the absolutest coolest things about YouTube culture is when people immediately respond to some insane TV news segment or political speech through brilliant remix.

I mean, they can’t get away with their spin machine like they used to now that we are watching them. Plus, we trust the remix version more than the source footage, if you know what I mean. Through political remix, we expose lies and critique the mass media. To quote copyrighted text is to be a good American.

Evidence
Political Hillary WASN’T LYING! Bosnia gunfire footage discovered…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc&

Sunday Bloody Sunday Song by George W. Bush http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5vZ-2xpmXs

8.  Alternative News and Analysis
Lets face it. A lot of the 24-hour news programs are bullshit. No one, especially teens gives a crap about what a bunch of boring old people jabber on about. Enter YouTube. Now youth can produce and feature their own news about what matters to them. This appeals to many kids because we want to stay in touch and aware, but not become brainwashed and comatose.

For example, politics! As busy young people who usually aren’t in front of a TV to watch the presidential debates, so we tend to get on YouTube to stay up to date. Sometime we like to look up world issues and get a quick summarizing documentary of what’s going on around the world… like in Sudan, Palestine, etc. This means we see all the media views on the issue – not just the corporate TV news version. It’s interesting to see what crazy videos people make either making fun of rival’s parties or of expressing their position on a certain issue. It gives you a whole different perspective.

Evidence
George Bush Don’t Like Black People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjHS6yUdio

The Jena 6 by Youth Radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqse_Yhmlrw

9.  Laughter and other Guilty Pleasures
Not to complain but to 1) survive high school emotionally, 2) get into a good college and 3) afford the insane tuition of that college means that we have to get awesome ACT/SAT scores, do “Mother Theresa” type levels of community service, achieve “a strong B average” in our GPAs while avoiding the gang crossfire in our neighborhoods, all while having to put up with a high school that operates like a prison system or police state.

And if you are out in public with a bunch of other kids who are not playing soccer, you are immediately suspected for gang activity. But it doesn’t matter because we have so much homework. So we multi-task and in between figuring out the quadratic formula and memorizing dates, we go to YouTube and escape by watching little puppies fall asleep or Japanese televisions programs called “How to Poop”. Adults need to grant us that. Its okay to laugh, really.

Evidence
Sleepy Spudgy, The Best Cat Video You’ll Ever See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvo-g_JvURI

10.  In Bed With Embedding
We can embed YouTube videos into our blogs, our MySpace and facebook pages, our websites and our Google MyMaps. In other words what is sent to YouTube doesn’t just stay on YouTube – you can cross-fertilize. For instance, some of our members are creating videos about environmental racism that they post on youtube but then embed onto OurMap of Environmental Justice (link below). We can network and build peer to peer movements through shareable media.

Evidence
See Our Map of Environmental Justice
http://www.elcilantro.org/?page_id=6

Youth Media Exchange the Hidden Cost of Cashmere
http://ymex.org/video/

Go Army: Bad Guys by Jonathan McIntosh
www.politicalremix.wordpress.com