YouTube is a great online resource, it allows us as individuals to create our own content, develop our own opinions and spread our voice through video. I see it as the video version of Twitter.
This platform is hugely important to our social culture and our society. A great example of YouTubes creations is Soul Pancake. The media convergence from this is huge, they now have a book out and a multimedia production company all because of YouTube. Soul Pancake works to inform the world of “stuff that matters” as their tagline would like to put it. They have created their own network through YouTube creating different series of videos referring to a vast amount of issues. In terms of social impact they have raised over $2 million for charities supporting cancer research.
YouTube as a online resource allows audiences to be interactive and get involved by commenting or creating videos responding. Not only can we learn from this online platform we can also educate. It allows us to see into different cultures, different opinions and develop different ideas.
Vloggers have become the new TV stars due to this platform. My generation I feel is the key generation to this idea of ‘vlogging’ and the power of videoing yourself talking to a camera in your bedroom. Vloggers have created a new online social group and I feel YouTube does connect information and society at once.
Network Society and the Media 
I agree that YouTube is now a huge part of modern day media. It allows the everyday consumer to be become a content creator, and gives them a literal voice (compared to Facebook, Twitter, etc. where everything must be typed out) through audio/video. I’ve actually never heard of Soul Pancake, but now feel compelled to check them out. One channel that came to my mind was the VlogBrothers, since they discuss current news/issues going on in the world. In a way, it’s another form of media for our generation to get their news and keep up with what’s taking place in other parts of the world and in their own.
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I definitely agree that YouTube is useful, because it creates a platform for people to reach their target audience they want to influence, effect etc. This is useful for those that are not celebrities or famous in some why that do not already have that platform. In addition, especially as media students YouTube is probably the best online source in order to get our work out there for others to recognise. For instance if there was a TV student who made a short movie that was uploaded on to YouTube and it was recognised by a well know producer and was interested in your work, tat could literally be start of someone’s successful career, and there has been instances where that happened. One of them was a YouTube episode called ‘Mandem On the Wall’ which lead to tem having a programme on E4.
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I would totally agree with the fact that we NEED YouTube, and not just to entertain ourselves, but for education too. I can give some example from my life. YouTube videos helped me a lot when I was revising for my exams, because some information on YouTube is put in a way that I could understand, which helped a lot. The channel that you’ve mentioned is really cool! I’ve never heard of it before, it has to do with psychology, which I really like, so thank you for the new interesting channel to watch 🙂
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