Marketing Monster

In anthropology, the study of humanity has come to rest on YouTube. Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University and his Digital Ethnography working group have been studying the YouTube phenomenom and it’s impact. They’ve reached some profound conclusions.

After introducing the first viral video, Numa Numa, Dr. Wesch commented on the more than 58,000 copycat videos that have been uploaded to YouTube by saying:

I like to think of it as more than just a dance. It’s a celebration. It’s a celebration of new forms of empowerment, anybody with a web cam now has a stronger voice and presence. It’s a celebration of new forms of community and types of community that we’ve never really seen before; global connections transcending space and time. It’s a celebration of new and unimaginable possibility.

If you missed seeing an anthropological introduction to YouTube back at the end of June when Dr. Wesch addressed the Library of Congress, I urge you to watch it. And if you’ve seen it, watch it again - there is so much to absorb packed into this 55 minute presenation, it merits a second view. Plan to eat lunch at your desk, put your feet up, get comfy.

This should be required viewing for anyone with a web cam, community managers and those working in fields that are using social media to reach an audience. (Check out Dr. Wesch’s video from a year ago, The Machine is Us/ing Us, which examines web 2.0 in under 5 minutes.)

An anthropological introduction to YouTube is a tremendously well put together piece that questions the fundamental issues of self, identity and community when staring straight into a web cam.