Thursday, December 13, 2007

Talking Back to the Screen

A recent New York Times article, "God and Man on YouTube" makes a useful point about what MIT's Henry Jenkins has called the "vaudeville" character of YouTube. It notes that much-watched virtuoso performances like "The Evolution of Dance" or animal hijinks, which the author calls "dumb shows," rarely garner video responses or even many substantive comments despite huge numbers of views. In contrast, other videos invite participation, such as "Atheist," which is often embedded, responded to with another video, or commented upon.

Indeed, one of my students chose to do her final video essay for my digital rhetoric class as a response to the much-watched and much commented upon "On Profanity." Her video, "Profanity," uses a more structured format of stock images to make a sustained counterargument to this vlogger's high-profile riff about offensive language.

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1 Comments:

Blogger bob c said...

A long time ago I was counsuled that freedom does not exist without bourders, it exists between them. My rights do not include the right to dismiss the rights others have. I may disagree with someone, but when I play in their game it's their rules just as it's my rules when playing my game. The meshing of the games into a coherent, doable thing reqires giving a little if one wishes to participate. Or, one can play by oneself. To advance one must accept that one is not always playing alone and may not always be right.

9:16 AM  

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