I watch too much YouTube. Recently, I had replaced all my television viewing with YouTube. Sure, I still watch television, but YouTube has been kind enough (pre-Google era) to immortalize everything on television. However, since Google bought out YouTube, they’ve been deleting videos (and the very good ones, might I say) because Viacom whined like a little girl over the fact that YouTube has made television viewing more convenient. Missed that episode of House? Watch it on YouTube! Need video game trailers? Watch it on YouTube!
Ever since Viacom sued Google for $1 billion concerning copyright infringement, the viewership of YouTube (and the site quality) has gone down. However, Rick Roll, Tay Zonday and the Merciless Gladiator Athene all revived it:
The only way that YouTube will get to its original level of awesome again is if they stopped removing the good clips, seriously. I used to have 8,700 favorites on my old page; my new page has an astonishingly low 515. Thank you, Viacom, for your super-hegemonic actions against Internet media (as in your $1 billion lawsuit); now I don’t have any good videos left anymore.
And, my all-time personal favorite (I probably don’t have to warn you that it has strong language and verbal sexual content. THEY’RE ALSO FROM OAKLAND!):
Special guests include Avenged Sevenfold.
Anyone with a YouTube account can post videos; from the complete moron to scholars. (This video ranks between “completely hilarious” and “I should just quit the Internet and watch this video forever”.) This video shows that you don’t have to be a complete genius to prove a point through media; this guy shows the stupidity of certain people on Xbox Live playing Dead or Alive 4.
In conclusion, YouTube (ideally) supports all readings, whether hegemonic, negotiated, or counter-hegemonic. Unfortunately, in recent times, since Viacom watches them like a hawk over copyright infringement, they have been forced to adopt the hegemony Viacom imposes onto them.
I wish I had the old YouTube back.
Galactic Federation of Awesome 