PressEthic

Recent discussion over internet mediums like facebook, myspace and youtube has confirmed that the entire concept of so-called “fifteen minutes of fame” is beginning to fade into history. Most of us have built up an internet legacy by now, whether it be through personal sites, videos, or publicly accessible photo albums. The ability to reach to a wide audience is no longer confined to the small elite of journalists, authors, filmmakers and broadcasters.

As far as the expansion of public rhetoric goes, myspace and facebook are relatively unthreatening concepts; thousands of simple web pages that list each individual’s favorite bands, relationship status and number of friends contribute more into the creation of masses than the discovery of new voices. It is blog sites and youtube, however, that give each of us an opportunity to join the ranks of the media. Instead of gathering programming based on secondhand ratings, youtube is created directly by the viewers themselves. Rather than simply an information box, television is on its way to becoming, literally, a public forum.

Many media professionals are likely to be less than amused. In this Sunday’s New York Times, New Republic writer David Hajdu analyzes the evolution and risks of the youtube phenomenon.

According to Hajdu, the origins of youtube were already present in the introduction of video technology into Jonathan Winters’ NBC show in the 1950’s.

“Broadcast live, like nearly all television at the time, the program was largely unscripted, reliant on its star’s dependably unpredictable comic imagination. Mr. Winters would amble out in front of the camera, and a stagehand would toss him an everyday object — say, a pen and pencil set — as the sole prop for a wholly improvised comedy routine.

Thus the audience was prepared for the unexpected and the occasional misfire when, 50 years ago this month, it was told the network would be conducting a test of a new technology. The musical interlude in that week’s show, a two-and-a-half minute song by the ever-bubbly Dorothy Collins (then beloved as one of the stars of “Your Hit Parade”), had been performed the day before the broadcast, captured through an experimental process called videotape recording, and inserted into the otherwise live telecast. The video era had begun.”

The value of prepackaged programs was soon realized. Reruns and replay became possible with the aid of video clips, and entire characters could be brought into television shows in the form of video rather than as physical bodies.

Hajdu writes:

“It is a neat coincidence — perhaps a wrapping up of things by the fates — that YouTube had its big payday exactly half a century after it was found that a sequence of action could be documented cheaply and easily, viewed immediately, disseminated widely and replayed endlessly. But it is also a sign of something America has lost; not our innocence, but instead our sense of awe — the idea that technology should be used to challenge our creativity rather than as a crutch for quick fame or easy laughs.”

In other words, Hajdu argues, video technology and the resulting world of youtube have oversimplified a once-artistic endeavor. 21st century humans have become large-scale examples of children who play rounds of videogames instead of creating their own, imaginary worlds with sticks and rocks. With too much technology in our hands, unprofessional youtube clips have become the norm.

“Like the small, hazy box of free images that YouTube provides, video recording derived its appeal not from its technical quality, but from its immediacy and its economy,” Argues Hajdu and continues:

“Video gave us Super Bowl instant replays, the Eyewitness News and “America’s Funniest Pets,” as well as countless moments of instant iconography, from the moon landing to Sept. 11, 2001. The mere mention of such images is a cliché, a banality; such is the effect of the endless repetition videotape made possible. It diminishes the power of the images it documents, steadily desensitizing us to the events, much as each pass of a videotape across the heads of a VCR weakens the picture.”

In other words, facilitated technology gives the previously magical paradigm of film a banal quality. Video repetition makes the digital reflection of an event more the norm than the event itself. Our memories become oversimplified by endlessly copied and repeated images.

Hajdu refers to a Martin Scorsese interview from the 1980’s, in which he voiced his worry over the spreading of video technology.

“The preservationist in him found the fragile images of video unbearable, and the workhorse in him found the technology’s ease of use unacceptable. With video, he said, the making of moving images was too easy. Indeed, the emergence of camcorders in the 80’s began to make moviemaking treacherously simple and inexpensive, within the grasp of nearly everyone. A generation has grown up with its childhood documented in near real-time on videos too long and dull to replay. “

Hajdu continues:

“We have become so accustomed to cameras everywhere that we know how to behave on video as well as we know how to order a burger. And we all know what such familiarity breeds. It is no wonder that, for the generation raised on video, the au courant way to address the camera is to exude contempt for it, degrading it. This is the YouTube aesthetic; and with it, Martin Scorsese’s fears are realized. “

Hajdu makes a valid point by claiming that sloppiness is an undeniable danger in a world where one can shoot video with his or her cell phone and upload it onto a globally accessible web site. Yet, he fails to consider that the value of art has rarely been defined by its novelty. Self-publishing has not killed good literature, and hundreds of straight-to video movies have not eliminated the creation of cinematic gems.

Rather than simply serving the elite, video has become a standard form of self-expression for countless average Joes. In a world where millions, even billions have access to video technology, one will not break out from the mold unless he or she demonstrates true talent and appeal. In other words, the quality of one’s work should matter more than ever. Simply appearing on Youtube is no longer enough.

Hajdu's article