The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, 7 Volume Set

3

Betting on YouTube Futures (for New Media Writing and Publishing)

Alexandra Juhasz

ABSTRACT

The work of media scholar, artist, and activist Alexandra Juhasz directly addresses many of the concerns that Lovink and Rossiter raise in the previous two chapters. In this chapter, Juhasz repurposes blog posts about her undergraduate media studies course and “video-book” Learning from YouTube to consider the future of new media scholarship: how academics might write and publish about and in new media. By moving her writing from screen to page, the chapter itself enacts the concerns of circulation, vernacular, standards, and publication at the heart of new media studies projects and the work of writing about them. Juhasz demonstrates and discusses how academic styles, methods, and audiences can adapt in ways that are productive and dynamic. The changing roles that control, knowledge, and reflexivity play for YouTube, Juhasz's course, and digital culture more generally are central frames for the chapter, as Juhasz thinks through what her own experience teaching with and writing about YouTube suggests for the future of digital humanities.

Introduction

This “essay” links seven blog posts from 2007 to 2010 by using brief asides and introductions. The topic is my undergraduate media studies course, titled Learning from YouTube (held on and about the site in 2007, 2008, and 2010), and its related bodies of writing. I also consider new media's future scholarship: how academics might write ...