Using Online Video as a Platform for Social Change

I’ve spent all day at the 24/7 DIY VIDEO SUMMIT at USC and wanted to touch base on some interesting points. The ‘State of the Art’ panel focused on possibilities to leverage such a popular online video platform as youtube for public good. Alexandra Juhasz showed findings from a class she ran on youtube, concluding that as the site currently stands, youtube is not good at supporting groups to have a conversation and work collaboratively to take action. But the two speakers who caught my attention were Sam Gregory from Witness and Henry Jenkins. They both talked about the potential of using online video for social activism.

Sam described some of the issues Witness deals with, working with online video, and introduced their recent web-video platform, the hub. Sam’s vision of video, is a tool for change. He mentioned the importance of smart narrowcasting rather than the usual broadcasting. When Narrowcasting, one concentrating on a smaller audience, to which the content is more relevant, rather than trying to produce content that speaks to a larger crowd (which is *usually* much more difficult to create). He stresses the importance of video having a reason and speaking directly to a particular audience. Some of the challenges Witness is currently facing deals with creating effective content used in courts discussions on human rights in Africa. How can you capture someone’s testimony effectively abd then project it directly within a judicial discussion?

The Hub is Witness’s solution, a site that provides the context that youtube lacks. Whenever a video on a “different topic” ( for instance human rights issues…) is uploaded to youtube, it is usually followed by a trail of nasty comments. When taken out of context and placed in the generic pool of youtube videos, a social activism clip does poorly, both in hits and in sparking conversation (Sam gave statistics for this – something like 10 times less views on average). I don’t fully agree with this statement, although it might work out when looking at the average. From my perspective it is a matter of production and knowing how to create and enticing narrative that will grab a wide audience.

Henry Jenkins, in return, talked about the importance of having a site like youtube as point of intersection – this meeting point for diverse communities. He recognizes the potential of change when everyday citizens have the opportunity to participate and create content that is seen by and affects masses. He stresses the importance of achieving diversity, and maintaining it even through the many obstacles that exist. Jenkins is optimistic that we can move from a narcicistic, self-indulging youtube to a group-friendly platform. However there are obstacles along the way:

1) Participation Gap – digital divide, access to using technology. If nowadays anyone can produce media, why don’t they all do it? There is still a lack of access to skills and to educational opportunities. Digital Media Literacy is extremely important.
2) Top videos on sites – everyone voting is a problematic method. What are better ways to present minorities in a participatory culture? Youtube masks minority perspectives.
3) Hate speach that surrounds diversity – you’re made fun of and receive racist comments if you are different, sadly. The web enhances social behavior, from which the nastiness is certainly present in forums and the commenting space of popular sites. On the other hand, if we create safe little enclaves, they will be excluded from the conversation. It is important for human rights videos to stay within the main turf, and bubble up more, even on youtube. Moving sideways, or out is problematic.

I want more talk about production and less about access
Access is pretty much taken care of. The tools exist, they are becoming more and more ubiquitous, and are reaching a wide array of users worldwide. While it is extremely easy to upload a video to the web, it is still very difficult to produce it. To make it good. Making an engaging video is much more difficult that it seems. It is a bottleneck which is not catching up fast enough to the rise of the sheer amounts of raw data. I want to see more tools that help with scripting, framing shots, weaving engaging narratives and editing. That is the part which usually makes video content memorable. We are already in a world overloaded with far too much content. Online production tools like Kaltura, youtube remixer and jumpcut are a good start, but the pressure is on… and it is only growing.

[tags] video247, summit, DIY, video, Jenkins, Henry, Sam, Gregory, youtube[/tags]