“YouTube Favorites = Media Masters” presented by Richard

This paper outlines a basic research on visual media culture (a triangulation of media structure- and iconographic research) of the presented online video platform: product analysis of clips with focus on the media structure, analyzing the creative handling of images and the deviations and differences of pre-set media formats and stereotypes by young users.
Web 2.0’s communication mainly works through images. The video host YouTube uses this form of visual communication and makes art forms of western societies visible through their online videos especially for young users that provide nearly 75% of the visual content. Generally, a coexistence of different perspectives is possible. YouTube allows polysemic and polyvalent views on the everyday and media phenomena.

The YouTube research (birgitrichard.de) started 2006 at the New Media Department of the Goethe University of Frankfurt. The results of the research have already worked out representative forms and basic patterns, as to say, categories for the clips appearing here. These kinds of clips, recurring in the observation period, have an impact on the basic representation of art or the artistic expression within moving images on this platform. Methodologically the focus leads to the investigation (which has to be adequate to the specifics of the medium = as to say media adequate) of new visual structures and forms which can create – consciously or unconsciously – an art form.