The most important thing to consider when undertaking a study of any phenomenon is where that phenomenon originated and how it came to be. This is even more true when the phenomenon being studied is as chaotic and unstructured as the effects of new media on culture-making, and the role of corporations in the culture-making process. Dr. Strangelove breaks it down into three stages of evolution, starting with the dominance of home movies in the 1950s. He describes the first stage as being one which was based on simplicity and which was largely controlled by corporations, and dominated by the white male. Strangelove identifies the second stage, ranging from the 80s to the 90s, as being encompassed by complexity. This stage sees the rise of the amateur filmmaker, challenging the power of the corporations over the formation of culture. The argument is that we are moving toward a third stage of culture-making; this stage is founded on the interrelationship between corporations and amateurs in the culture-making process.
The amateur filmmaker today has been granted access to many platforms for expression, due to the Internet. YouTube has seen an explosion of amateur filmmakers rising to a nearly celebrity status. When this happens, it is difficult for corporations to ignore the amateur filmmaker, as was once so easily done. Take Debbie, who with over 16 million views after just four months, she had everyone trying to figure out whether or not her video was an actual eHarmony Video Bio, or if it was just acting. “Corporate filmmaker” FOX News saw an opportunity for a story and debunked the Video Bio. The confirmation that the video was fake came from an email from an agency — another corporation. So we see corporations hiring actors to make films which are amateur in appearance, post them on YouTube and then corporations are again involved when these videos reach “YouTube celebrity” status.
YouTube can also been seen making a presence in popular television shows. Mythbusters, for example, takes on the task of busting a video that garnered over 10 million views. The video depicts three men developing a new sport they call Liquid Mountaineering. Essentially, they are learning to run on water. The viewer-base of this video seems unsure as to wether or not the video is legitimate, and when Mythbusters finds out about it, they decide to invest in either proving or disproving it.
In response to the viral Antoine Dodson’s Bed Intruder video that was a news cast where he made himself famous came 100s of people revlogged their own parody of the interview he gave. There was an Autotune the News version which made light of the ridiculousness of the original. This was taken to a whole new level of remake when established and signed artists Hayley Williams from Paramore, Jordan Pudnik from New Found Glory and Ethan Luck from Relient K did their own remake of Bed Intruder. The irony in this is that there is no longer a simple acknowledgement from established commercial media of viral videos, but a near celebration of their hilarity and appeal.
A perfect example which analyzes this third stage in the commercial and internet interaction is seen in the T.V. show The Office when Jim and Pam get married only to have their co-workers sabotage it by enacting the viral video JK Wedding Entrance Dance. Before hand Jim and Pam respond to the stress they’re feeling and go off and have their actual wedding vows on a boat away from everyone and to come back to have a public ceremony which they find themselves thrust into. Jim ends the show with “I bought those boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video.” This quintessentially illustrates how a studio produced successful television show used a user generated video to base their episode’s climax around and generate a connection with the audience as the actors are now the ones trying to copy an amateur idea.
This established a whole new level in this third type of relationship where the amateur takes on an auspiciousness in being the original and as reproduction is made, becomes immortalized.
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