http://binnypark.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/week-9/
I have chosen to comment on this post by Binny Hendrix because I completely agree with her central argument about how ordinary people are offered the ability to seek celebrity status through outlets such as YouTube, but this does not give them equal status in and access to the “the system of celebrity [of] the mass media” [Burgess and Green, 2009: 23].
It is true that, as Burgess and Green argue, “more accessible new media technologies and platforms can open up possibilities for the commercialization of amateur content”, however it is clear that being a Youtube celebrity does not automatically make you a “mass media” [Burgess and Green, 2009:23] celebrity. This is due to the fact that
“success for these new forms, paradoxically, is measured not only by their online popularity but by their subsequent ability to pass through the gate-keeping mechanisms of old media- the recording contract, the film festival, the television pilot, the advertsing deal” [Burgess and Green, 2009:24].
An example of this is the well-known story of our friend Justin Bieber, who found his stardom through the DIY medium of YouTube. This, however, is a rare occurance, as “DIY celebrit[ies]” [Burgess and Green, 2009:22], such as Xuso Jones, are surely discovering. Jones is a young Spanish boy emulating Bieber’s entrance into the ‘true’ world of celebrity through his popular YouTube videos in which he sings covers of well-known pop songs. His DIY celebrity status has not yet, as Burgess and Green predict, automatically translated into mass media celebrity status.
Thus DIY media celebrities are not in the same as ‘ordinary’, traditional celebrities because their digital popularity does not “convert directly to legitimate success and media fame” [Burgess and Green, 2009: 21]. So, as Binny rightly points out, “Like one-hit-wonders, YouTube celebrities, after seven-digit/eight-digit number of views, will be forgotten so long as they stop producing videos that entertain fellow YouTube users”. This idea is illustrated in South Park’s hilarious parody, which I have included for your entertainment below.
Works Cited
Anthony Burgess and Joshua Green, ‘YouTube and the Mainstream Media’, in Youtube: Online and Participatory Culture, [Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009]
stephanielouisebowe 