Media experts examine the 20-year impact of the world\u2019s biggest and most popular online platform<\/p>\n
On 23 April 2005, a grainy 19-second video clip was uploaded on a platform that was initially conceived as an online dating service. It shows YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo\u2019s elephant exhibit. Little did he know that this new platform would revolutionise how we consume and share content online over the next two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can never underestimate what a big thing YouTube was when it came out,\u201d Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University\u2019s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture in the United States, told the \u2018Los Angeles Times\u2019. \u201cWhen that debuted 20 years ago, that was a sign of major important changes, not only in the way that we watch TV, but in what we even thought of as TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cYouTube was the place where you went to for an exciting new art form. This idea of the user-generated video, whether it\u2019s something somebody made, whether it\u2019s some clip they just found and posted, it was different. It wasn\u2019t just another sitcom or reality show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ever since then, in one form or another, the scientific community has been using YouTube as a source of information in their research. A journal article from 2022 presented 15 years of YouTube scholarly research.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to today and the figures are staggering. According to YouTube, there are over 20 million videos uploaded daily. In 2024, users averaged over 100 million comments on videos on a daily basis. Videos received over 3.5 billion likes from users per day.<\/p>\n
Two professors at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Annenberg School for Communication explore YouTube\u2019s effect on cross-cultural connections and the explosion of social media influencers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be sure, YouTube\u2019s immense popularity and reach also means that the platform is part of a digital ecosystem in which companies and governments relentlessly track, gather, and monetize users\/citizens\u2019 data with little to no regulation and oversight,\u201d commented Aswin Punathambekar in a university news item. \u201cYouTube also occupies a prominent place in networks of right-wing influencers and propaganda in multiple countries around the world. It is also a dazzlingly creative and sociable world in which activist networks \u2013 such as those that cohered around the \u2018Arab Spring\u2019 from 2008 onwards, or #BlackLivesMatter beginning in 2012-13 \u2013 do emerge and thrive for crucial periods of time. YouTube\u2019s 20th anniversary is a good reminder of the work we need to do if we are to make our digital world more open, hospitable, joyful, and just.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jessa Lingel explained the key ways the platform has documented digital culture\u2019s major trends. \u201cOne is the commodification and professionalization of content creators. It started off with videos that were often unpredictable and unpolished, but now viewers expect content that is slick and highly produced. YouTube was also an innovator in establishing a model for actively cultivating partnerships with content creators, which other platforms have followed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cAnother thing that YouTube\u2019s trajectory shows us is the extreme difficulty of content moderation, misinformation, and algorithmic bias. There have been so many controversies around this platform, but their longevity means you can see different waves of approaches to these issues, from flagging to policy changes to tweaking algorithms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Media experts examine the 20-year impact of the world\u2019s biggest and most popular online platform On 23 April 2005, a grainy 19-second video clip was uploaded on a platform that was initially conceived as an online dating service. It shows YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo\u2019s elephant exhibit. Little did he know\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_scj_primary_category_id":130,"_scj_featured":true,"_scj_featured_from":"","_scj_featured_until":"","_scj_featured_order":150,"_scj_visibility_class":"current","_scj_layout_family":"standard","_scj_article_style":"","_scj_display_overrides":[],"_scj_intro_image_id":19710,"_scj_intro_alt":"Experts reflect on 20 years of YouTube\u2019s impact on media and culture","_scj_intro_caption":"","_scj_intro_class":"","_scj_intro_float":"","_scj_full_image_id":19710,"_scj_full_alt":"Experts reflect on 20 years of YouTube\u2019s impact on media and culture","_scj_full_caption":"","_scj_full_class":"","_scj_full_float":"","_scj_media_type":"","_scj_media_provider":"","_scj_media_external_id":"","_scj_media_url":"","_scj_media_poster_id":0,"_scj_media_width":0,"_scj_media_height":0,"_scj_media_aspect_ratio":"","_scj_media_description":"","_scj_gallery_items":[],"_scj_related_post_ids":[],"_scj_additional_authors":[],"scj_layout_family":"standard","scj_media_provider":"","scj_media_url":"","scj_full_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[2485,2483,1949,2484,4389],"class_list":["post-19711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-algorithm-bias","tag-digital-culture","tag-social-media","tag-user-generated-content","tag-youtube"],"yoast_head":"\n