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YouTube as a participatory culture

Article in New Directions for Youth Development · December 2010

DOI: 10.1002/yd.376 · Source: PubMed

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 YouTube lies at the intersection of media creation
and social networking, providing young people a
participatory culture in which to create and share
original content while making new social
connections.

6
YouTube as a participatory culture

Clement Chau

recent discussions around youth’s online activities focus on

Web sites as virtual spaces where they can “hang out” and “mess
about.”1 Nationally representative statistics have shown that online
technologies have made creating and sharing media content easier
and more accessible for young people 2 Researchers see these vir-
tual spaces as becoming portals to communities where youth bond
with peers, engage in public discourse, explore identity, and
acquire new skills.3
The explosion of youth subscription to original content-media-
sharing Web sites such as YouTube has confirmed their relevance
and importance in the lives of today’s youth. These Web sites com-
bine media production and distribution with social networking
features, making them an ideal place to create, connect, collabo-
rate, and circulate novel and personally meaningful media. By
merging the technical aspects of youth as media creators with the
social aspects of youth as social networkers, new media platforms
such as YouTube offer a participatory culture in which to develop,
interact, and learn.

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, NO. 128, WINTER 2010 © WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/yd.376 65
66 NEW MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

As youth development researchers, we must be cognizant of this

important and relevant context and critically examine what this
new platform offers that might be unique to (or redundant) typical
adolescent experiences in other developmental contexts. To this
end, this article examines YouTube using Henry Jenkins and col-
leagues’ participatory culture framework in order to understand
how this type of Web technology offers a space for youth
development.4

The YouTube craze

YouTube is a video-sharing Web site. Users share and view videos
made by other users free of charge. Boasting that it is one of the
most frequented Web sites on the Internet, YouTube received
100.9 million unique viewers who watched over 6.3 billion videos
(62.6 videos per viewer) in January 2009 alone.5 Most of these are
short video clips averaging three and a half minutes each. Although
the majority of viewers are adults, teens between fifteen and nine-
teen years old account for 17 percent of YouTube’s market, with
about even male (8 percent) and female (9 percent) representa-
tion.6 Thus, young people account for a significant portion of the
YouTube audience.
Research shows that teens engage in a variety of activities
on YouTube. Entertainment Media Research found that 44 per-
cent of teens find YouTube to be a better source of video entertain-
ment than other sources. Over half of this population reported
that they registered to become a member to post comments. In
addition, 17 percent of teens who registered to create their own
YouTube channel, a Web page that users can customize and per-
sonalize, did so to broadcast their original content. Teenagers visit
YouTube to be entertained (79 percent), pass time (71 percent),
watch videos (61 percent), see what others are talking about (56
percent), and follow up recommendations from friends (53 per-
cent).7 These numbers are not much different from data from
other age groups.
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
 YOUTUBE AS A PARTICIPATORY CULTURE 67

However, YouTube is much more than an online platform for

sharing and broadcasting content. Its unique technical and social
features support the formation of a participatory culture among
the members of its community. Rooted in media studies, the par-
ticipatory culture framework is relevant to youth development
researchers because it provides a lens to understand specific mech-
anisms that attract youth to collaborate and produce creative, self-
expressive, and self-initiated media products.8

Participatory culture
The participatory culture framework is defined by five
characteristics.

Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and

civic engagement
One key element that sets YouTube as a pertinent space for youth
activity is that it has low entry requirements and its participatory
trajectory is gradual. Most visitors to the Web site are unregistered
users who come to the site to view videos, and teens account for 35
percent of the avid viewership who watch a video at least once a
day.9 Some viewers stay at the periphery of the community; they
may watch a video and read comments but not contribute to any
discussions.10 Their participation is accounted for in terms of view
counts, which increases the popularity of each user video. When
members feel comfortable about contributing to a comment
thread, they register for a free account to comment, respond, and
rate video clips. These activities account for the majority of users’
engagement and are crucial to the way the community operates.
These feedback interactions motivate content creators to create
more videos and are critical to the ways video content is circulated
within the community.
Full-fledged YouTubers are those who regularly broadcast vid-
eos to the YouTube audience. Approximately thirteen hours of vid-
eos are uploaded every minute, and YouTube continues to develop
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
68 NEW MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

new features to make the process as simple as possible.11 Although

teens constitute the dominant demographic on YouTube in terms
of viewership, comments, rating, and other feedback mechanisms,
they are not the leading age group for video uploads: only 22 per-
cent of teens who have visited the site have uploaded videos as
opposed to 30 percent of adults ages twenty-five to thirty-four.
Although scholars in the field of media studies have begun to
suggest that youth are increasingly becoming producers of media
content rather than mere consumers, the statistics show that teens
still prefer to participate at the periphery.12
Finally, as with other social media properties, a few individuals
tend to rise to leadership roles because of their contribution to the
community. YouTube’s Partnership Program raises the status of
selected well-known contributors of the community by giving
privileges such as allocation for longer videos and advertisement
revenue. Although teens do not make up the majority of uploaders,
seven of the ten most subscribed partners are teens and young
adults ranging between ages fifteen and twenty-four, and the other
three are large media studios. The top partners are Nigahiga, a
nineteen-year-old student who creates video blogs about his life
with a funny twist; Fred, a character with a high-pitched voice por-
trayed by a fifteen-year-old student; and Smosh, a dynamic duo of
college students who create comedic sketches.
These youth user experiences demonstrate an expansive trajec-
tory with relatively low barriers. Such low barriers afford easy
entry into the community and legitimate engagement even at the
periphery. Youth gain new skills and explore their identity as they
navigate the community and participate in its activities. Further
research is needed to understand what motivates young members
to move along the participation trajectory.

Strong support for creating and sharing one’s projects

YouTube is principally designed as a content-sharing site. Beyond
a simple and intuitive interface design, YouTube also features many
instructional videos to guide new users at all levels of engagement.
The ease at which youth create and share content is evident in the
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
 YOUTUBE AS A PARTICIPATORY CULTURE 69

popularity of YouTube. Members and viewers can share automati-

cally generated links, and popular videos are featured on the home
page so that visitors are familiar with the emerging topics of the
community.
The home page layout is designed to facilitate quick access to
popular content. It presents a number of featured and popular vid-
eos, as well as a subscription section for registered members (see
Figure 6.1). However, youth tend to opt for the search box, where
they enter key terms to search for video clips based on their inter-
ests. Once a user finishes viewing a video, she or he is presented
with a number of related videos based on a relevant topic.
These various ways of entering the YouTube database are par-
ticularly important because they allow both top-down and bottom-
up entry points. When a user is looking for a particular video, the
search function can quickly query relevant content; if a user is
interested in exploring the community, the recommendation lists
help the user learn the hottest and newest topics. As young people
navigate across multiple developmental contexts, the extent to
which they can operate within these contexts and contribute to
these communities becomes crucial to their development.13 By
making content sharing easy and part of the communal discourse,
platforms such as YouTube prioritize their members’ sense of
belonging and identification with the community and, in return,
loyalty to the platform.

Informal mentorship
One of the main categories in the large corpus of user content is
how-to videos on a variety of topics, from cooking to skateboard-
ing to hairdressing. One of the most popular topics is how to con-
tribute to the YouTube community. Highly rated how-to video
clips such as those by teenaged Charlie McDonnell, or Charlieis-
socoollike’s “How to Get Featured on YouTube,” is an example.
Created when he had only 150 subscribers, a low count within the
YouTube community, this video propelled his YouTube status from
an unknown member to a featured partner. Many similar
videos followed, including videos on general editing (an example is
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
70 NEW MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

Figure 6.1. Screen shot of the YouTube home page

fourteen-year-old TerryCPiano’s “Mac Tip: How to Edit Your

Video”) and on making specific types of video clips (for example,
twenty-two-year-old Strawbury17’s “How To: Music Video”).
What is important to note is that these videos represent broadcast
mentorship. They are ways in which new YouTubers learn new
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
 YOUTUBE AS A PARTICIPATORY CULTURE 71

skills and learn to take a larger role within the YouTube commu-
nity. This type of mentorship is informal and unregulated by You-
Tube; however, it provides opportunities for youth to take on
different responsibilities. This type of mentorship is beginning to
appear in other media communities as well.

A belief that contributions matter

At any level of participation, from viewing a video to creating
response clips, visitors contribute greatly to the community. The
database takes into account every viewing, and videos that receive
the most views are promoted at the home page. Furthermore, view
counts are prominently displayed next to each video so that visitors
and content creators can clearly see the number rising. Comments
and responses by registered users are displayed below each video.
YouTubers who consistently read and respond to their “fans” are
more likely to retain subscribers and gain more views.
Rating videos and commenting are popular activities among
teens, and a small portion of teens contribute by posting videos as
responses to videos they have viewed, creating a self-generating
process.14 Members build a connection with the community and
the media content creator when providing feedback through com-
ments and video responses. Teens report that reasons for posting
comments include, “Because I really like a video,” “To show sup-
port for the user that uploaded the video,” and “To respond to
other users’ comments.”15 Fans use this feedback system to encour-
age and support the content creators, and content creators in turn
are more likely to produce additional content for viewers to enjoy.

A sense of social connection

YouTube has a limited number of social networking features to
promote member connections. Registered users are equipped with
a customizable profile, friends list, and subscriptions list to keep
track of favorite channels and members and receive updates when
a new video is posted on a subscribed channel. Other than meta-
statistics features and some primitive social networking features
such as private messages, subscriptions and friends lists, and
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
72 NEW MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

comment walls, YouTube is not designed as a Web space for col-

laboration and synchronous interaction. However, young You-
Tubers have created some innovative ways to support each other
and promote collaboration.
Some of these innovative practices quickly become norms
shared widely across the community. One norm that grew out of
youth user interaction was collaborative channels. Because You-
Tube did not provide features for users to share an online “play
space,” young YouTubers collaborated by creating joint accounts
and sharing account information. A new practice emerged in
which teams of five young YouTubers would collaborate on a chan-
nel, with each member taking responsibility for posting a new
video clip on the same day of each week. This helps maintain and
attract subscribers, as their channel would produce new content
every day while providing a space for collaboration around a spe-
cific theme. For example, the popular collaborative channel
FiveAwesomeGuys consists of Alan, Charlie, Alex, Todd, and
Johnny, five teens from the United Kingdom who got to know
each other through their personal channels. This channel com-
prises daily video logs of each member’s day from Monday to Fri-
day. Members of the team give challenges to other members in
order to motivate and spark creativity and to get to know each
other’s strengths and interests. In addition to the support shared
among the team, viewers and subscribers use YouTube’s feedback
features to provide suggestions and ideas to the team.

Conclusion
This article demonstrates the extent to which YouTube provides a
sociotechnical platform to support a participatory culture among
young YouTubers. By examining the YouTube universe through
the five characteristics that describe a culture, this article illumi-
nates the various social norms, practices, and technical features
that afford opportunities to connect, collaborate, create, and circu-
late original media creations. The ever-growing youth subscription
new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd
 YOUTUBE AS A PARTICIPATORY CULTURE 73

to YouTube is evidence of the pertinence and relevance of this kind

of medium in their lives. Youth are attracted to YouTube because
the barriers for them to participate are low, their creation is easily
circulated and shared, informal mentorship and instructions facili-
tate their developing identity, their levels of contribution matter,
and they feel socially connected to peers within the community.
This analysis has design implications for other spaces that
attract youth media creators. It illustrates how participatory cul-
ture invites and motivates youth producers. As broadcast and tech-
nical Web portals are beginning to merge with social networking
Web sites, it is important to consider how new spaces can leverage
Web 2.0 technologies to create a sociotechnical participatory
culture in which members feel empowered to engage and
participate.

Notes
1. Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanit, M., boyd, d., Cody, R., Horst, H. A., et al.
(2010). Hanging out, messing about, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with
new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2. Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2005). Teens online creators and consumers.
Pew Internet and American Life Project Report.
3. Ito et al. (2010); Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Home-
steading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; boyd, d.
(2008). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics
in teenage social life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, identity, and digital
media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Iden-
tity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster; Knobel, M., &
Lankshear, C. (2007). A new literacies sampler. New York: Peter Lang
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4. Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., Clinton, K., & Robison, A.
(2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the
21st century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
5. ComScore. (2009, March 4). YouTube surpasses 100 million U.S. view-
ers for the first time. ComScore press release. Retrieved from http://www.
comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/3/YouTube_Surpasses_
100_Million_US_Viewers.
6. Entertainment Media Research. (2009). The YouTube report 2009.
London: Author.
7. ComScore. (2009).
8. Jenkins et al. (2009).
9. Entertainment Media Research. (2009).

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10. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral
participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11. Hurley, C. (2008). The future of online video. Retrieved February 4, 2010,
from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/future-of-online-video.html.
12. Palfrey, J., Gasser, U., Simun, M., & Barnes, R. F. (2009). Youth, cre-
ativity, and copyright in the digital age. International Journal of Learning and
Media, 1(2), 79–97; Rheingold, H. (2008). Using participatory media and pub-
lic voice to encourage civic engagement. In L. Bennett (Ed.), Civic life online:
Learning how digital media can engage youth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press;
Stern, S. (2008). Producing sites, exploring identities: Youth online author-
ship. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth identity and digital media. Cambridge,
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13. Ito et al. (2010).
14. Entertainment Media Research. (2009).
15. Entertainment Media Research. (2009).

clement chau is a doctoral candidate at the Developmental Technolo-

gies Research Group in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Develop-
ment at Tufts University.

new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd

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