Over the last several years, YouTube™ has become a public forum for creative, informative, and political endeavors around the globe. As the website’s influence and appeal continues to grow, questions regarding the legal usage of material, as well as potential governance issues regarding surveillance and political sway, are becoming more relevant. Power, Surveillance, and Culture in YouTube™’s Digital Sphere examines the imaginative, socioeconomic, and innovative features of the video sharing community of YouTube™ and how these areas traverse the digital world. Highlighting theoretical concepts and empirical research, as well as in-depth discussions on cultural studies, participatory experience, and media theory, this publication will appeal to professionals, practitioners, researchers, and students interested in the use of video sharing as a means of surveillance, communication, or personal promotion.
Power and Surveillance in YouTube's Digital Neighborhood: A Case Study of College Students in the Bronx explores classic issues of power, surveillance and media use in the social-networking site YouTube. As articulated in its Empirical Model, this exploratory study utilizes a Cultural Studies approach and a Uses and Gratifications framework. These perspectives form the theoretical foundation for the research plan and mixed-method qualitative and quantitative research strategies structure the research protocol. Focus groups and a widely distributed survey were used to gather and analyze the raw data. In the Bronx YouTube study, the researcher posed the following research questions: --What does posting on YouTube mean to users, Why or why don't users post on YouTube, --Do systems of power and surveillance operate within the YouTube digital neighborhood and if so, how do they operate and are users aware of them, and finally --How does YouTube differ from other social networking sites?The study results indicate some potential areas for further research in terms of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. For instance, study participants were concerned about the privacy of their email address and financial information yet did not participate much in uploading videos themselves, nor were they concerned about gender, race, or education when correlated with YouTube DV's. Study participants did, however, actively comment on other people's videos and communicated with people they knew in real life (IRL) through YouTube's SNS features. Study participants also expressed high-levels of concern about the collection and selling of their financial and email information by YouTube and its affiliates. Of particular note, the research results indicate that the Bronx YouTube study participants were aware of many online surveillance techniques utilized by YouTube, LLC and Google, actively protected themselves while in YouTube from that surveillance and even sought out specific ways to circumvent surveillance and seek opportunities to further their own personal or professional goals.
