BW Media Spotlight

YouTube’s slogan when it began was “broadcast yourself”. It was a platform for uploading videos. Later, to compete with Blip before Maker Studios tore it apart to look better to Disney when they were considering buying the company, YouTube added revenue sharing through their partner program. While admittedly there are people who abuse YouTube in the past by uploading other people’s content, which does still happen whether there’s a legal alternative or not, it’s YouTube that has been doing wrong by many of their creators. It doesn’t help that old media loves taking shots at new media, which YouTube now qualifies as. Streaming services that aren’t run by TV networks or are also built on user content get away with things by either acting like TV channels to the point that they’re treated as such or are run by actual TV networks. For example, Hulu doesn’t get YouTube’s grief but it’s own by two (formerly three) big name studios.

As part of his new documentary series Technocracy, animation reviewer The Mysterious Mr. Enter has taken to demonstrate the problem with social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and for his first episode YouTube. While Facebook has started their own service, Facebook Watch, it’s still a streaming service rather than a user content service like YouTube, Vimeo, or Daillymotion. YouTube is the biggest game in town, but it’s a game that’s hard to play.

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