YouTube as archive

Abstract

At first glance, the ease with which individuals can access and contribute to YouTube sets it in direct opposition to large corporate media outlets with their top-down mode of dissemination. However, I argue that, despite these seemingly democratic features, YouTube is better understood not as opposed to traditional corporate media but in the same genealogy as previous archival technologies and techniques. In archives, all content is flattened and has equal weight, so it is up to a curatorial authority to present content to audiences. While YouTube promises to democratize media, its lack of a centralized `curator of display' actually sets the stage for large media companies and entrepreneurs to step into the curatorial role and decide how each object in YouTube's archives will be presented to users. The role of the curator of display is, as of this writing, unresolved. This article thus draws on political economic and historical critiques of collections and archives in order to connect the emergent technologies in YouTube with earlier attempts to organize and present information, objects and images. •