Intro: I will go over my history in English class and describe how my interested in writing has fluctuated throughout both high school and college. Then I will talk about my interest in writing has really come down to the topic which I am writing about and if it is something I am passionate about then it will show through my writing and analysis of evidence which I use in my body paragraphs.

Thesis: Throughout this semester, I have grown in being able to read texts and understand how the evidence would affect my audience rather than myself, I have been able to look at someone else’s work and critiquing them has helped me with my own work and sometimes I see my flaws in other people’s writing, and I have improved in being able to structure a paper and organize my ideas with fluidity. I have improved a lot on a variety of different things but also still need to improve on things such as the vocabulary in my writing and creating new ideas which I can use to my advantage while writing.

BP1: This will be all the positives which I have noticed over the course of the semester and I will touch on all the things referenced in my thesis and further elaborate.

BP2: The second body paragraph will work as a way for my audience (Dr. T) to see as to what I still think I need to improve on. I will also include how I can potentially improve on those things in the future and where I can go from there.

BP3: I might want to work in the department of Sports Journalism so I will so talk about how I can take the tools which I gained from this class and how they can help me in the future for where I might need them. This could be tied into paragraph two but I am not sure where I want to put it yet.

Conclusion: I will go over my thesis and all my main points of improvement and lack of improvement. I will reference my journey as a writer and explain how it has brought me to where I am today and will end by thanking Ms. T and all she has done for me and my peers throughout the semester.

Throughout this semester, I think that I have grown in being able to read texts and understand how the evidence would affect my audience rather than myself. This is crucial in order to have body paragraphs that would actually have effect and meaning on the reader. I used to find evidence that went along with the topic of my paper but didn’t necessarily work with the message that I was trying to deliver in that particular paragraph. Also, being able to look at someone else’s work and critiquing them has helped me with my own work and sometimes I see my flaws in other people’s writing. The peer editing of each other’s papers helped me a lot through the semester and especially on A2. I  would peer review with peers who had the same topic as me and we would talk and bounce ideas off of each other and it really made my paper more multi dimensional. Lastly, I have improved in being able to structure a paper and organize my ideas with fluidity. Instead of just throwing in my body paragraphs at random, I took a sort of chronological view to them and organized them accordingly. Now that I am able to do that my writing makes a lot more sense and the different parts of my papers seem to work together better than they ever have.

Jonny Passman

Ms. Tharp

ENG 110

25 November 2016

YouTube Stars and the True Meaning of Celebrity

In the year 2000 not one major social media outlet was yet relevant at the time. There wasn’t a site which could propel someone’s ideas into something which was extremely meaningful and had financial worth. Now, that exact idea can be more than ever imagined with an outlet like YouTube. YouTube was created in 2005 as a website which would serve as a way for people to upload videos. Users could upload and share videos with each other freely and the website began to quickly grow faster than any other outlet at the time. Within a year of the first video upload, YouTube had more than sixty-five thousand new video uploads and more than one hundred million video views a day. As time went on, people began to see the major personal and financial benefits that would come from YouTube. More and more people began to upload videos which expressed all different types of topics and discussions and this started a creative revolution. Creativity and personality are prevalent more than ever in today’s society than ever before because of YouTube. This is because of how involved the YouTubers are. YouTubers are given a golden opportunity to shine through the lens of their audience and it is proven through their success outside of YouTube and their growing audiences, which follow their channels like their favorite TV show. This is a job which allows for people do what they love and make a living doing it. YouTube is a generator for the creative workforce of the world and can perfectly summarize our ideas of a perfect job. This job entails hard work but also allows for time at home. Being a YouTube star is the epitome of what American people call the American Dream and allows the creators to be both successful emotionally and financially.

In order to full understand the meaning and impact of a YouTube star, one must understand YouTube and exactly what the website is. YouTube does not work without its content creators (the YouTubers). If not for the content creators, YouTube would not even exist. They are the driving force behind everything that YouTube is. They make it a place where freedom of expression is fully embraced by both creators and audiences alike. In the book “YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture”, Jean Burgess and Joshua Green do their best to explain what YouTube is by describing the website as a “participatory culture”. They go on to give a more detailed description of the YouTube environment, “The contributors are a diverse group of participants—from large media producers and rights-owner such as television stations, sports companies, and major advertisers, to small-to-medium enterprises looking for cheap distribution or alternatives to mainstream broadcast systems, cultural institutions, artists, activists, media liberate fans, non-professional and amateur media producers. Each of these participants approaches YouTube with their own purposes and aims and collectively shape YouTube as a dynamic cultural system: YouTube is a site of participatory culture.” (Burgess and Green vii). This depiction of the YouTube culture perfectly illustrates the immense amount of diversity which lies within the website. This is what makes YouTube the best option from both a personal business standpoint and it is proven through the different types of channels across YouTube. Not only is YouTube an option for creators to put out content but for major companies to distribute content at a price which is unmatched. Burgess and Green mention the involvement that some sports companies have on YouTube and one company in particular is the UFC. The UFC has a channel which currently has over three and a half million followers and allows their audience to have an extreme in depth look at all the fighters. They have videos which range from a miniseries leading up to each fight card to behind the scenes look at weigh ins, press conferences, and the fights themselves. For the UFC and many other companies, YouTube is a way for a company to go to the next level in terms of content. With the UFC, the audience is getting more than just a fight now and that has single-handedly come from YouTube. Fans can access content whenever they want and for free by means of just typing in “UFC” on their computers. This is exactly what people want and YouTube delivers that to them.

YouTube channels are a perfect example of this country’s idea of an American dream. However, with this American Dream comes a lot of hard work. Becoming a YouTube star is not so easy as just uploading a few videos. It is about quality, hard work, and consistency within the making of the content. In an interview with Bloomberg, titled “Want to go Viral? Here’s how to be a YouTube Star”, Charlie Todd, who founded the channel Improv Everywhere, explains that in order to make it big one has to be consistent with uploading content and emphasizes that “it’s also important just to do it because you love it.” (Bloomberg). Todd explains that this is not just another ordinary job. It really does take hard work and the audience of the channel expects to have content consistently and the channel needs to do that in order to be successful. Just like anything in this world, Todd demonstrates that it is a constant grind in order to be successful in this particular business but it pays off because YouTube gave him the opportunity to make a living by doing what he loves. That is also the most important part of this quote. The fact that he is able to make a living by doing something that he is interested is the most attractive part of being a YouTuber. Being a YouTuber is now the truest form of the American dream because it allows one to express freely about what they are interested in and make an income as well.

Being a YouTuber is also more than just making a living, it allows that person to make connections to sometimes millions of people all over the world. The audience to these YouTube channels feel so connected to the YouTubers because the videos they make are on such a personal level. It doesn’t matter what the topic of the videos they make are, they have a positive impact on almost everyone who watches. Not only do these videos have a positive impact on random people all over the world but in some cases can improve relationships within one’s own family. Kevin Pang, a writer for The New York Times, describes how his father’s YouTube channel of instructional cooking videos brought them closer together and said, “So when I became a food writer, my father and I shared, for the first time, a mutual interest. I would call to ask about recipes and cooking techniques. He would school me on the world of Cantonese cuisine. The first time he visited me in Chicago, I took him to a dim sum restaurant for brunch, and as we ate shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns, he explained — gesticulating with his arms like a conductor — how the shiu mai’s wrapper should caress its filling ‘like a dress on a woman, like petals of a flower, like prongs on a diamond ring.’” (Pang). This passage demonstrates the connection that can happen from making YouTube channel. It is more than just an ordinary job and this is a perfect example because it shows the personal connection that a father and son developed from the YouTube channel itself. It gave them a topic to talk about and allowed them to bond over that topic. Being a YouTuber allows one to give an audience that topic that they need. Sometimes, it is as simple as just having conversation in the comment section but other times it gives people the tools they need to develop closer family bonds.

In terms of an opportunity for business, YouTube creates financial success on its own and opens even more business opportunities through the exposure of the website. One of the many YouTube stars to benefit from their YouTube fame is Jimmy Tatro, a twenty-four-year-old comedian who started his YouTube career in 2010 while attending the University of Arizona. He began by making videos for him and his friends to laugh but soon realized it was more than just his fraternity that found his videos hilarious. In 2012, he decided to make a new channel where he would upload a video every Monday. His videos vary but mostly consist of satirical comedy sketches in which he plays a variety of characters. His channel has grown and now has over two and a half million subscribers and his subscribers are not the only ones to notice his hilarious knack to make people laugh. Hollywood started to notice Tatro and he has landed roles in two major production movies such as “Grown Ups 2” and “22 Jump Street. One writer for the Huffington Post would even go as far as saying that Tatro is the second coming of Mark Wahlberg. He says that, “Tatro seems to have the street cred experience and good looks of someone like Wahlberg, with the same grounded sense of humor that knows better than to take himself or his frat boy appearance too seriously. Like Wahlberg, Tatro is smart and knows how to play to his audience.” (Elliot).  Tatro has gained endless amounts of followers and fame which he never thought fathomable but it hasn’t stopped there. His YouTube channel supplied him with all the tools necessary to now go on and achieve what he has always dreamed of. Tatro now has the ability to go for any movie role he wants and can do so because of his immense experience and library of sketches and massive audience. No director will second guess his likableness or whether he can sell tickets in the box office. He already has two and a half million people who he can guarantee will go out of their way to buy a ticket to whatever movie he stars in. In this case and many others, YouTube is both the building block and core of Tatro’s rapidly growing career.

The job of a YouTube star is one that has driven creativity and personality straight to the top of the spotlight. It is a career which highlights the involvement of the content creators with their audiences. The involvement is far greater with their audiences than it is on any other outlet online. The audiences not only fall in love with who the YouTube stars are but also the potential for what they could become. The true American Dream is finally coming to fruition and it is seen through the path of a YouTuber. These content creators are able to put out videos in which they have great interest in and make a living off of it. More and more people are starting to begin their careers as YouTubers because of the freeness in terms of working on what they want to work on. Not only has YouTube enhanced the lives of everyday people but it has also opened opportunities for small and big businesses alike. These businesses have found that they can distribute content at no cost and make massive profits off it. Every person can benefit from being a YouTuber. The job itself and the freedom of expression that comes along with it perfectly describes our constantly growing progressive culture. More and more it is seen that YouTubers are coming up with new ways to create more content to not only propel their only lives but the lives of their audiences. The YouTube star has changed the meaning of celebrity and changed the culture to one that is participatory.

 

 

Cited Sources

Pang, Kevin. “My Father, the YouTube Star.” The New York Times. N.p., 27 July 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/magazine/my-father-the-youtube-star.html?_r=1, Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

 

Bolton, Deirdre. “Want to Go Viral? Here’s How to Be a YouTube Star.” Alexander Street. Bloomberg, 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

 

Brown, Eric. “Why Disney Dropped Nearly $1 Billion On Maker Studios, A YouTube Channel.” http://www.ibtimes.com/why-disney-dropped-nearly-1-billion-maker-studios-youtube-channel-1572752 IB Times. N.p., 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

 

Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. N.p.: Polity, 2009. Print.

 

Elliot, Bryan. “Why Youtube Star Jimmy Tatro Might Be the Next Mark Wahlberg.” The Huffington Post. N.p., 7 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Be a YouTube Star 

YouTube channels are a perfect example of this country’s idea of an American dream. However, with this American Dream comes a lot of hard work. Becoming a YouTube star is not so easy as just uploading a few videos. It is about quality, hard work, and consistency within the making of the content. In an interview with Bloomberg, titled “Want to go Viral? Here’s how to be a YouTube Star”, Charlie Todd, who founded the channel Improv Everywhere, explains that in order to make it big one has to be consistent with uploading content and emphasizes that “it’s also important just to do it because you love it.” (Bloomberg). Todd explains that this is not just another ordinary job. It really does take hard work and the audience of the channel expects to have content consistently and the channel needs to do that in order to be successful. Just like anything in this world, Todd demonstrates that it is a constant grind in order to be successful in this particular business but it pays off because YouTube gave him the opportunity to make a living by doing what he loves. That is also the most important part of this quote. The fact that he is able to make a living by doing something that he is interested is the most attractive part of being a YouTuber. Being a YouTuber is now the truest form of the American dream because it allows one to express freely about what they are interested in and make an income as well.

More Than Just a Job

Being a YouTuber is also more than just making a living, it allows that person to make connections to sometimes millions of people all over the world. The audience to these YouTube channels feel so connected to the YouTubers because the videos they make are on such a personal level. It doesn’t matter what the topic of the videos they make are, they have a positive impact on almost everyone who watches. Not only do these videos have a positive impact on random people all over the world but in some cases can improve relationships within one’s own family. Kevin Pang, a writer for The New York Times, describes how his father’s YouTube channel of instructional cooking videos brought them closer together and said, “So when I became a food writer, my father and I shared, for the first time, a mutual interest. I would call to ask about recipes and cooking techniques. He would school me on the world of Cantonese cuisine. The first time he visited me in Chicago, I took him to a dim sum restaurant for brunch, and as we ate shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns, he explained — gesticulating with his arms like a conductor — how the shiu mai’s wrapper should caress its filling ‘like a dress on a woman, like petals of a flower, like prongs on a diamond ring.’” (Pang). This passage demonstrates the connection that can happen from making YouTube channel. It is more than just an ordinary job and this is a perfect example because it shows the personal connection that a father and son developed from the YouTube channel itself. It gave them a topic to talk about and allowed them to bond over that topic. Being a YouTuber allows one to give an audience that topic that they need. Sometimes, it is as simple as just having conversation in the comment section but other times it gives people the tools they need in order to develop closer family bonds.

Jonny Passman

Ms. Tharp

ENG 110

9 November 2016

Outline

• Intro:
  • Hook: In the year 2000 not one major social media outlet was yet relevant at the time. There wasn’t a site which could propel someone’s ideas into something which was extremely meaningful and had financial worth. Now, that exact idea can be more than ever imagined with an outlet like YouTube.
  • Thesis: Creativity and personality are more prevalent more than ever in today’s society than ever before because of YouTube. This is because of how involved the YouTubers are. YouTubers are given a golden opportunity to shine through the lens of their audience and it is proven through their success outside of YouTube and their growing audiences, which follow their channels like their favorite TV show.
• Body Paragraph 1:
  • TS: YouTube channels are a perfect example of this country’s idea of an American dream.
  • Evidence: In an interview with Bloomberg, titled “Want to go Viral? Here’s how to be a YouTube Star”, Charlie Todd, who founded the channel Improv Everywhere, explains that in order to make it big then one has to be consistent with uploading content and emphasizes that “it’s also important just to do it because you love it.” (Bloomberg).
  • Analysis: Todd explains that this is not just another ordinary job. It really does take hard work and the audience of the channel expects to have content consistently and the channel needs to do that in order to be successful. Just like anything in this world, Todd demonstrates that it is a grind in order to be successful in this particular business but it pays off because YouTube gave him the opportunity to make a living by doing what he loves.
  • Concluding Sentence: Being a YouTuber is now the truest form of the American dream because it allows one to express freely about what they are interested in and make an income as well.
• Body Paragraph 2:
  • TS:
  • Evidence: “So when I became a food writer, my father and I shared, for the first time, a mutual interest. I would call to ask about recipes and cooking techniques. He would school me on the world of Cantonese cuisine. The first time he visited me in Chicago, I took him to a dim sum restaurant for brunch, and as we ate shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork buns, he explained — gesticulating with his arms like a conductor — how the shiu mai’s wrapper should caress its filling ‘like a dress on a woman, like petals of a flower, like prongs on a diamond ring.’” (Pang).
  • Analysis:
  • Concluding Sentence:
• Concession:
• Body Paragraph 4:
• Conclusion

 

Jonny Passman

Tharp

ENG110

Research Proposal

YouTube was created on February 14^th, 2005 and the first video was uploaded in April of that same year. Like many startups, YouTube struggled at first to gain an identity. There were a lot of amateur video makers trying to do something that would have some sort of impact. At first YouTube was a way to share videos and connect with others. However, now it is all those things and a lot more. YouTube has been developed into a four-billion-dollar revenue making powerhouse. Now this did not happen overnight and just because YouTube is making revenue does not mean they are turning much of a profit. The people who are turning a major profit are the people who make the videos. These people are what are called YouTubers. There are an endless number of people who are famous to millions of people because they upload videos to YouTube. One it particular, whose name is Shay Carl, started making daily video logs of him and his family. His channel started slowly but soon was a channel with millions of subscribers. He started to make money from this process and a lot of it and he was looking past just himself as a YouTuber. He realized that this was a massive business where advertising was taking over so he created Maker Studios which hired YouTubers to make videos for their new channel/company. This company continued to grow and was sold in 2014 for nearly one billion dollars. Now more than ever is it clear that creativity and individual personalities can have a far greater impact on society than previously thought.

One broad question that will guide my research: Is freedom and creativity more relevant than it ever has been before and is YouTube a major catalyst for this?

Two secondary questions: What enables YouTube to pay their stars so much money? And what drives the people who make the videos to make the videos?

My tentative thesis is that creativity and personality are more prevalent on YouTube than any other media outlet because of how involved the YouTubers are. YouTubers are given a golden opportunity to shine through the lens of their audience and it is proven through their number of subscribers and the money they bring and they do this by connecting with the audience on such a high level.

 

I chose this topic because I am fascinated with it. I think that being a famous YouTube star is really the modern American dream. Anyone can go to YouTube and upload a video and the next day their lives may be changed forever. YouTube takes the word viral to a new level because these famous stars are constantly viral. Every video they upload is being watched by millions of people daily and the fact that one single person is able to do that is amazing to me. It takes entire television networks to develop the kind of interest and popularity that one person can on YouTube.

 

To write this paper, I will look at a variety of sources. I will use both primary and secondary sources in order to make my paper complete and have multiple perspectives. I sill start by researching articles and books that look in on YouTube stars to gain the perspective of the audience and then I will go straight to the source. Being able to easily access primary source videos from the stars themselves will help me tremendously. I plan at also looking at resources outside of the data bases and look into articles by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

            Also, a lot of these stars have accounts on other sites such as Twitter and Instagram and those accounts may help me to gain even more first-hand perspective as to what they are thinking and what drives them to be who they are.

 

10/30 Locate sources for AB, outline info for AB

11/2 Find general information

11/3 Draft paper outline

11/5 Synthesize AB information into full AB

11/9 Working Thesis

11/11 Fill out info in outline; two body paragraphs

11/15 Intro and body paragraphs finished

11/20 3/4 paper draft finished

11/25 Full draft ready

11/30 Paper Due

 

So far, I have found a few secondary sources which include books and articles about my topic. I will use a lot of primary sources as well in the form of video. I figure that the best way to discover the YouTube stars motivation and reasoning for becoming a part of YouTube is to watch their videos. I think that so easily being able to look at primary sources will make it easier for me going forward with this assignment.

The sources I have used so far and will continue to use are DELCAT Discovery, UD Library database, and YouTube.

For my research topic I chose the growing success of YouTube stars. The topic is actually quite interesting and has many different angles I can approach it from. There two main angles which I will probably end up researching heavily. One is that of marketing influence and how it generates wealth for both YouTube and it’s stars and the other is the actual personal part of it. The majority of these stars who are immensely popular went from being known by their friends and family to upwards of fifty million people. In order for the audience to have deep connection with the person on the screen, the YouTuber usually ends up sharing a lot of information with the audience. For the most part, the sharing of information is worth it for these stars because they are doing what they love and making their fair share of money from it. There is a lot more to this topic then meets the eye and it goes a lot deeper than just a random person posting videos off themselves on the internet for all to see.

In Moosa’s article “Comment sections are poison: handle with care or remove them”, Moosa argues that comment sections without moderation can only bring harm and hatred. He suggest that these comment sections be filtered heavily or we get rid of them entirely. His main point is that these articles don’t do anyone justice and bring no positivity to the internet. I happen to disagree with Moosa and believe that by focusing on the negatives of the internet, people overlook the positives of the internet and the need for balance on the internet. There are evils in the world but there is also a lot of good. The world is filled with balances so why would the internet be any different? People need constructive criticism and having the knowledge of flaws makes people improve.

“this episode is the best one I’ve seen funny as hell .”

“This man, from his voice, to his jokes, to his moustache, is a legend that you need on again.”

“Neil deGrasse Tyson STILL my fav person ever”

I found these positive comments on a variety of videos that were meant to be funny and engaging. People love to be happy and I think the majority of content on the internet is there to put a smile on someones face.

“As much as we should be treated equally, in reality, we come from backgrounds where we’re not –”

“in this assertion, the internet, too, becomes an amoral wasteland where only the “fittest” survive – and by “fittest” we usually mean individuals who rarely face prejudice or hostility premised on their gender, race, etc.”

“Just as we shape our social lives in physical space, we can shape our digital space. ”

These quotes are from Moosas article and I did not choose them because I agree with what he is saying but because they are all claims that can be talked about. Everyone did grow up in a different background and everyone has different values so how can a person be grouped with the rest of the internet when they might not even be offended by any comments. He also says that we can shape our digital space and I agree with that but in a different way. I think that shaping our digital space means to actually do just that. We have the choice to look or not look at whatever we want.

 

As soon as I started reading Moosa’s article, I knew I would have trouble finishing it. I do respect everyone’s ideas and think that Moosa supports his claims with somewhat valid evidence but I do not agree with them. I am not the type of person who really gets into the negative part of the internet. I think that the internet is a place that can bring happiness to a lot of people. Comment sections can be filled with hate and racism but no one needs that in their lives. If people are so worried about the comment section affecting them then don’t scroll down and just watch the video or read the article and form opinions for yourself. There is a lot of negativity on the internet but I think that it comes down to personal choice whether to recognize that negativity. Three comments that I found from varying youtube videos are…

“this episode is the best one I’ve seen funny as hell .”

“This man, from his voice, to his jokes, to his moustache, is a legend that you need on again.”

“Neil deGrasse Tyson STILL my fav person ever”

These are just three positive comments from millions on the internet. Focusing on the positive is how to get rid of the negative.