New Forms of Media Publishing

What do you get when; videos can be uploaded on the net to a server which is free of charge? Youtube. Yes Youtube was the first free online video sharing website that was introduced in 2005. The time when video hosting was still considered a scarcity. Why is it so popular? Well it is free to access and upload and there aren’t many restriction and rules to begin with.

"Youtube in action"

There are issues where Youtube are caught hosting sensitive or pornographic issues. However, the Youtube management team has taken actions to eradicate this issue, by applying law where videos will need to have adult advisory steps. (Polly, A, Jean 2006) Recently, Youtube also encounter issues where users posted vulgar words in comment boxes which are not children friendly.

There are many issues ranging from sensitive political videos to obscene entertainment videos that were hosted up in YouTube. Some memorable ones are the videos that documented the local ‘Bersih Rally’ in 2007. Many of the videos were not available in the mainstream media in Malaysia. Another one was the controversial video ‘Negarakuku’ by Namawee which offended the Malaysian Citizens in general. As a conclusion, we can tell that new age media platforms such as Youtube, can be benefits and also disadvantages to our society. Therefore, effective planning before implementing such platforms should taken in consideration.

Reference List

Jean Armour Polly (2006) commonsense media blogs, Viewed on 6^th May 2008 at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/YouTube.html