This new role of user-created content prompted Time magazine to make “You” its person of the year. Of course, “You” are the person of the year because “You” are posting your original content on YouTube, MySpace and similar sites for free, allowing them to build an impressive repertoire of content effortlessly.

Television programming references popular YouTube video clips. In turn, YouTube users reference clips of admired television on YouTube, though this practice has somewhat waned after crackdowns on the unauthorized posting of copyrighted materials. In another instance, Facebook's partnership with Ziddio to promote “Facebook Diaries” will culminate in the most alluring diaries airing on TV.

All this cross-referencing is not really media convergence yet. Television is still a one-way transmission to the viewer, even when content from the Internet is integrated into programming. In contrast, video posted on the Web integrates interactive aspects that allow individual users to become part of a multimedia conversation. This is achieved through functionality that enables sharing, easy embedding of video on external sites, tagging, commenting and replying with one's own video message.

In this way, sites like YouTube introduce a freedom of discourse not available with television, as individual users deciding what is important enough to distribute. In addition, the Internet provides a potentially larger audience than one could access with television. The production value also varies more widely than traditional media. Although some high-end recording and editing takes place, many video posts are created using webcams or shakily-held cell phones. With viral video, the message transcends the production.

Additionally, we can find perspectives via viral video that we would not likely encounter in traditional media. For example, on YouTube, “Hometown Baghdad” (user: chattheplanet) provides short documentaries about daily life in Baghdad. Vlogger Geriatric 1927 chronicles the life experiences of a 79-year-old British World War II veteran.

Video posters appear to be sharing content with a Creative Commons philosophy: we all have a story to tell, and we're willing to share because the act of telling the story and receiving comments and video feedback is powerful. But any of these sites — YouTube (owned by Google), Ziddio (owned by Comcast), Yahoo Video (owned by Yahoo) — on which we are sharing these stories are not a “commons” at all. They are privately owned enterprises making money, mostly through advertising, from users browsing content.

As long as we have a laissez-faire attitude with our own content, large corporations will retain control over the Internet medium while leaving much of the creative work to the vlogging masses.

Instead, hopefully we will start to see users developing their own video communities independent of corporately-owned sites, fully shifting the balance of message-production power.

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