By Sophie, Alice, Elliot and Nat.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The not i ceab le network ing s i te was S ixdegrees .com, which was launched in 1997 . I t a l l owed users to c rea te a profi le and l i s t the i r f r i ends and search the i r f r i ends l i s t s as we l l , but these were fea tures cou ld be found on other webs i te , such as da t ing webs i tes . S ixdegrees .com was the fi rs t soc ia l ne twork ing s i te tha t was ab le to combine the fea tures o f been ab le to look a t o ther f r i ends , search for f r i ends and c rea te profi le and f r iends l i s t , i t wasn’ t t i l l l a te r tha t other network ing s i tes were ab le accompl i sh th i s .

Even though S ixdegrees .com fa i led in i t s ea r ly years , i t d id c rea te a pa thway for others to fo l l ow on how to ach ieve a success fu l soc ia l network s i te . Afte r i t shut down, the r i se o f many others fo l l owed which then became success fu l s i te , wh ich many a re s t i l l a round now.

Before YouTube there was other v ideo webs i tes tha t ex i s ted and many are s t i l l a round today. You had Google Video (25 t h January 2005) Vimeo (November 2004) and Metaca fe ( Ju ly 2003) A l l o f these when they fi rst s ta r ted up had very l i t t l e shar ing ab i l i t i es , and had t roub le up load ing, due to technology a t the t ime as we l l as watch ing the v ideos took a long t ime. But these were the bu i ld ing b locks

tha t l ead YouTube to become created. YouTube s ta r ted up 14 t h February 2005 by Steve Chen,

Chad Hur ley and Jawed Kar im. They independent ly owned i t t i l l 2006 when Goog le brought them out for 1 .65 b i l l i on do l la rs . YouTube has a lo t o f fea tures s ince the beg inn ing w i th f r iends l i s t s , ab i l i t y to up load v ideos , comment ing, mak ing p lay l i s ts .

THE HISTORY

There were several social networking si tes before the popular ones everyone uses today such as Facebook and Twitter. Everyone before Web 2.0 did not use social networking, people were st i l l using old types of communication such as telephones, emai l and sending letters.

The WELL was the fi rst social networking si te establ ished in 1985. The name stood for Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link and was created by Stewart Brand and Larry Bri l l iant. The si te i tsel f gathered over 2000 members, which is a t iny proport ion compared to Facebook users today. Topics of discussion would be divided into ‘conferences’ which part icular topics of member interests such as arts, health, business, regions, hobbies, spir i tual i ty, music, pol i t ics, games, software and many more.

Other social networking si tes fol lowed many years later: Theglobe.com (1994) Geocit ies (1994) Tripod.com (1995) MySpace (2003) Facebook (2004) Bebo (2005)  YouTube was fi rst founded on February 14 2005. 8 months later, more than

$11.5 mi l l ion had been invested into the si te. Over 65000 new videos were being uploaded dai ly in July 2006.

DATE IT FIRST WENT ONLINE

The current owners of YouTube are Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim.

YouTube was fi rst founded on February 14 2005. 8 months later, more than $11.5 mil l ion had been invested into the site. Over 65000 new videos were being uploaded daily in July 2006. YouTube is now currently owned by Google, which was bought for $1.65 bil l ion.

Google is one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. Apart from YouTube, Google owns a whole l ist of websites that al low users to share a large range of media.

Google also own a social networking site called Google+, currently used by over 500 mill ion people, compared to their rivals, Facebook which have over a bil l ion users. It was set up in June 28, 2011; it off ers features similar to FaceBook but claims to be a chain of websites for Google’s online properties.

THE CURRENT OWNERS

There are many forms of social media that al lows people to create, share and exchange information and social ise with people onl ine.

YouTube is an example of this. Anyone can create a YouTube account by using an email address and creating a password. You can also access YouTube without having an account. To l isten to music you simply type in the song you would l ike to hear into the search box and select the one you want from the range of options.

You can also share songs onto other web 2.0 sites, such as Facebook and Blogger by selecting “share” and then choose from a range of options of how to share it , such as embedding, email ing or selecting the site you would to share it on.

You can also view how many people have viewed the video and how many people l iked and disl iked it . You can also view comments on the video by scrol l ing down the page.

HOW YOUTUBE WORKS AND HOW AUDIENCES USE THE SITE

With a YouTube account you can like, comment and add videos to your favourites. This is as simple as selecting the “like” or “comment” key. To add a song to favourites or to add it to a group of “watch later” you can simply select the key marked by that name. This allows people to view how popular the video is and discuss the video with others by commenting.

YouTube also allows you to add videos of your own onto YouTube to be viewed by others. This is as simple as downloading the video onto the site. This allows anyone to contribute to a YouTube trend, such as Harlem Shake, planking or create their own trend. Sharing their own videos may also allow people to share talents to be viewed and commented on by others and may even infl uence labels to sign them.

YouTube also has a converter that allows you to download songs for free. This is i l legal. Due to YouTube site being so popular and a way of l ife, the use of an il legal site infl uences the audience to use it and view it as an ethical thing to do.

HOW YOUTUBE WORKS AND HOW AUDIENCES USE THE SITE,

CONTINUED….

YouTube can be accessed today through a var iety of d iff erent ways on mobi les, iPods and tablets. The arr ival today of fast 4G Internet makes i t quick and easy to access YouTube and stay in touch with loved v loggers and their updates on new videos. The download rate of EE Internet is now 50 megabytes per second, which is equal to broadband in your own home. This would mean i t is a lso quick and easy to upload your own quick v ideos of yoursel f , and download loved v ideos.

The YouTube app al lows you to browse mi l l ions of v ideos, inc luding most v iewed, top rated and days featured v ideos, easi ly a l lowing you a lso to search for wanted v ideos.

You can a lso access your YouTube account on phones or iPod/ tablets to access your favour i tes, p layl ists and uploaded v ideos. Also to see comments and how many v iews you have on your own accessib le v ideos.

EXAMPLE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE

Uploading videos is a very easy process, and only usually takes a few minutes. There are other apps for free which you can download to edit videos on technology, so it would make them a more professional video. 

A YouTube community is built on YouTube, where people can comment on other Vloggers videos and have conversations.

The videos accessed are also in high definition.

EXAMPLE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE, CONTINUED…

800 mil l ion visit YouTube worldwide every month. People who have relatively grown up with the Internet expanding wil l be more l ikely to use YouTube. 58% of the US population use YouTube. 67% of this is ages 18- 34.

Music lover profi les- 2 mil l ion people online

81% of al l music lovers are on YouTube Globally YouTube’s market share is 20

times larger than its nearest competitor. YouTube delivers 44% of its 201 mil l ion videos viewed globally and China’s Youku with only 2.3% behind it.

Youtube’s share of market went up astonishingly 24% in a year, from November 2010- November 2011.

However in December 2012, Facebook became the top social networking site with 61.46% and youtube only being 22.2%

AUDIENCE/SHARE OF MARKET/POPULARITY

At the moment the most popular vlogger is Nigahiga, who currently has 7,345,864 subscribers. His most famous video, with 15,789,955, was "How to Be a Ninja". He has a very unique style of vlogging, with humorous comedy sketches that are entertaining and hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xeje_pp_NyA

VLOGGER

Char l ie iscool l ike has 1 ,918,624 subscr ibers . His v ideos are most ly to do wi th h is dai ly act iv i t ies and uploads v ideos weekly to show what act iv i t ies he has part ic ipated in. V loggers are popular on youtube, prosumers can interact wi th each other because you can consume with other v loggers. This a lso means people can come away from mainstream art ists and ce lebr i t ies .

Char l ie McDonnel l was the fi rst YouTuber to reach 1 mi l l ion suscr ibers after th is h is channel was spot l ighted on YouTube's f ront page in the Enterta inment category after be ing the fi rst UK channel to reach a mi l l ion subscr ibers .

He now is a successful music ian member of the chameleon c i rcui t ; creat ing music inspi red by Doctor Who.

In 2010 he a lso presented tv show Fi rstTV a longs ide Nicola Pol lard and Piers Morgan. This consisted of t ry ing to break Guinness Wor ld records and te l l ing jokes. ,A lso presented YouTube audience awards and Br i t i sh academy of Br i t ish and Te levis ion arts awards.

This shows that or ig inal indiv iduals can succeed without be ing seen by media Gods and gatekeepers.

CHARLIEISCOOLLIKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrTFKHYMEk4

Long tail theory:This links to social media due

to there being a huge variety of products available on the Internet for people to consume. This has been shifted away from a small number of mainstream artists at the head of demand. Vloggers are part of the creation of the niche in the tail. With people being a lot more creative today on web 2.0’s within socialising with videos. Social media on the Internet is easier for people to interact with, rather than being consumed outside the media.

AN APPLICABLE THEORY

A NON-APPLICABLE THEORY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnAWq1sjKwkThis link shows how social media may be in the

future. This demonstrates what may be normal to us in the future and how we will communicate diff erently.

Web 3.0 is the internet of the future. It is the portable personal web that is focused on the individual and what they want. Web 3.0 will be more connected, open, and intelligent, with semantic Web technologies, distributed databases, natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, and autonomous agents.

THE FUTURE