Soft Journalism at its Finest.
“What is up drama alert nation, I’m your host Killer Keemstar, LETS GET RIGHT INTO THE NEWS! Today we will be looking at the ‘Exposing’ of a D-List youtuber’s distant relative and some alleged accusations that may or may not be true. You know that following you have created through lots of hard work? Well I will try my best to ensure that I tear it to shreds to boost my own popularity.”
This is a parody of a popular youtube channel, Drama Alert, run by a youtuber known as ‘Killer Keemstar’ who’s channel is an example of soft Journalism. Soft journalism (aka, soft news) is the practice of ‘News that deals with topics or events that are lighthearted or not serious.’ An example of this would be the widely reported ‘Brangelina Split’. This news does not effect the workings of the world, but entertains it’s audience to the extent that people want to consume it. However this post is not about the use of soft journalism, it is about youtube and how it is becoming a breeding ground for toxic trolls that create content with the purpose of targeting individuals and advancing their own career. Soft journalism ties into a singular example (teased above) that I will be looking at.
Disclaimer: Though I will be discussing the content created by certain youtubers, this is not aimed at them specifically, but only challenging the artistry behind their work.
The Birth of Youtube.
There once was a group of employees from Pay Pal who created a video sharing platform in their spare time. This platform was originally used by them and their friends, however they decided to open this domain to the public, thus creating www.youtube.com. Since then the youtube community has thrived, with individuals creating content to entertain, educate and inform the masses. Comedians, singers, dancers and vloggers would set up a camera and unknowingly to them, begin their career. Though this sounds simple, there is a lot of work that goes into it, from Planning to promoting they’re never short of work to do. We’ve all seen it, a video ending with ‘Like and subscribe’, this is because the revenue gained by a channel is correlated to how many views, likes and subscriptions a channel has.
The Issue.
Everything has an opposite, black and white, off and on, talented and untalented. Which may be the reason that for every content creator out there, there are a thousand critiques. Just look at the comment section of any video, for every fan there will always be a ‘hater’. These mean spirited people however are not the main issue, as comment sections can be disabled. The main issue is the growing community of ‘News Channels’ and ‘Troll Accounts’ that create videos with no individuality, but attack other content creators.
The example I used earlier in this post was ‘Drama Alert’, and the reason I use this example is due to the amount of times he has reported a story about a youtuber, that has negatively effected their revenue, but has later been found to be untrue. For example the accusation that a streamer named Tony was a Paedophile who married a 14 year old. He later apologised but that does not change the fact that an innocent man was harassed by a lot of people because of his content. If this had happened in the business world, it would be labeled ‘Slander’ and would carry with it a hefty lawsuit.
But because of channels like this existing, funding and revenue is being taken away from channels that create content to make youtube a better place. It has gone so far that when people upload videos now about their personal life, they have to mention that they do not want to be reported on by these ‘news channels’. For example Colleen Balinger’s Channel ‘Psychosoprano’ posted a video about her recent break up, saying that she will take some time off but be back soon. She specifically says that she wishes to not be reported on by these ‘youtube news channels’ as it is a private matter and she needs time to ‘heal’. Within hours of posting this video, she was greeted by multiple videos making crazy accusations about the reason they are getting divorced. Some going as far to state that her ex-husband is gay.
The Solution:
Freedom of the press is defined as ‘The right to circulate opinions in print without censorship by the government.’ Therefore these channels are allowed to continue making this kind of content. But something they are expected to do is fact checking. Journalists are legally obliged to only report things that have been fact checked and confirmed to be correct. However as these people run independent youtube channels and are not technically classed as journalists, this means they get away with a lot more than they should.
The solution to this problem would be to enforce the restrictions that govern print journalists to these types of youtube channels. This would avoid what happened in the case of Tony. Unfortunately with current legislation there is no way to stop these channels reporting things like Coleen’s breakup. So we can only hope some people decide to do the nice thing and give any similar cases in the future some space, and if they have to report on it, wait at least a day.
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