Focusing upon the platform of YouTube we are going to explore the ways in which video content consumption has been altered due the networked nature of its presentation. Film has always being an art form dictated by the director shaped by the hands of an auteur. Within modern platforms the notion of the “creator” has paradoxically been diminished and made central to consumption. Diminished in the fact we now consume video amongst a stream of information, as consumer picking and choosing the content we watching, changing freely between content. Within this freedom to change between videos provides the consumer with an ultimately unique experience and understanding of a producer or group of works, creating their own montage sequence, interspersed with ads. A video collage in which the intentions of the videos creator no longer provide a guide for the consumer, who consumers what they like, how they like.  The platform of YouTube on the other empowers the creator alongside the viewer with a clear online identity. This identity however carefully structured with its library of content becomes yet another aspect in audience understanding of the content. As a producer and more recently a produser our creation and then archiving of our own video content has become in some aspects more simplistic to distribute but more complex in its presentation within a networked environment.

 

Footnote:

No longer is the neutral state of being static. Progression and change is now the constant of not only the society we live in but also the technology and content we create. These changes are a reflection of a consumption habits and the trends in manufacturing. No longer are products built to last and corporations capitalise on people’s need for their latest product. Whether, as humans, our need for change as facilitated this or whether technology has caused this shift it is an issue of great complexities. What’s clear though is that it is near impossible to remain static. Without fail a new version of iTunes will be required every few months, with only the slightest improvements and changes, something as small as bug fixes, but it’ll be a required download regardless.

Problem solving is now a process of progression and software no longer has to operate perfectly. Issues can now be resolved at a later date, through updates. How does this then reflect the way in which we publish content? Far from the days of new editions we are able to update the works that we have authored with the click of a bottom. No longer do we as producers of content have to be so guarded about our published content, as it is far easier to revise and adapt.