Medium Theory, Cultural Studies, and Other Ways of Seeing YouTube

Abstract

This chapter presents several theoretical perspectives through which YouTube, social networks (platforms), and social media can be examined. One particularly influential form of analysis, especially useful in describing how various forms of power and surveillance work in television and other forms of media, is Cultural Studies. Cultural Studies makes assumptions about how media and power coexist, as well as how specific power structures strengthen traditional ideas of who should have power and how power is used by individuals, groups, and organizations. Cultural Studies also examines the differences between cultural, or constructed knowledge, and knowledge that might be assumed to be more objective in nature. Medium Theory is connected with Cultural Studies but is concerned specifically with cultural and human activity in and around television, film, and the Internet. This chapter introduces several medium theorists, such as McLuhan, Postman, Meyrowitz, and Carey, as well as cultural studies scholars such as Stuart Hall. A brief analysis of Post-modernism and Uses and Gratifications frames the YouTube discussion and introduces the theoretical approach to the original YouTube studies in this book. There are many types of SNSs and social media worthy of examination, but YouTube is the most culturally influential SNS, due in large part to its technological connection with Google. YouTube is an enormous, free, easily searchable database available to the whole of humanity with a simple mouse click.