The Age of Alternative News in the Social Imagination...

Many Americans Get News on YouTube...Where News Organizations and Independent Producers Thrive Side by Side...

Americans are as likely to often turn to independent channels as they are to established news organization channels; videos from independent news producers are more likely to cover subjects negatively, discuss conspiracy theories

What is the attraction with youtube? Well, its not unlike any other attraction in the social imagination. The attraction is based on the desire to interact and through interaction to reach agreement. Our social reality is in agreement. That's why, we all want to be heard and we want others to hear and agree with us. That is why agreement reality in which we live is the only place where we strive to be heard, are heard and can agree or not agree about what we heard. What we agree on becomes our reality because in agreement we find out who we are and are not and in that, we find comfort and peace. 

Who creates these youtube channels? Those who want to be heard and reach out to others seeking agreement reality. Those who watch... (rather than create a channel) watch to find people that they can agree with and thus, in agreement, channels either grow or fall away. This is real and more real than mainstream news because the corporate news sells us what they want us to hear whereas youtube channels come and go based on their ability to provide information most people agree with. Their channel depends on agreement among people and that essentially is what makes them very real indeed.  

Is it a crime or breach of social justice to provide information on a youtube channel? No! And, its not dangerous or just as dangerous as any news source. Why? Because, the same principles of agreement in the social imagination apply to all news sources youtubers and all the corporately owned and directed news channels (mainstream) which push their made up agenda. You see, people seek information and agreement because its the human condition to do so ...agreement is the reality of the social imagination. 

When it comes to youtube and the mainstream, most people will find what they are looking for or accept what they are told/handed to them because its all they can find or all they have and so they accept it because their need for agreement is so great that they end up agreeing with the mainstream or even a youtuber because its become their source of information their source of agreement reality... its is always there like a good neighbor and that alone is comforting for them.  

Whether on mainstream or on youtube, most needful people look for charismatic personalities as they freely surf youtube and or some just want a person who thinks like them or looks like them, talks like them and agrees with their world view. In fact, its about agreement all the way around. 

No matter how you look at it... agreement reality is how people find out and connect with who they are and are not and there is comfort and peace in that. In saying that, such truths apply to those who watch mainstream media regularly and nothing else. However, I must tell you that there is a difference and that is this... Youtubers come and go but mainstream media is there whether you like it or not. 

For the sake of wider and fair illustration, a study was done and this is what they found. 

     A new Pew Research Center study explores these questions in two ways: through a survey, conducted Jan. 6-20, 2020, among 12,638 U.S. adults that asked YouTube news consumers about their experiences on the website; and through an analysis of the most popular YouTube news channels and the contents of the videos published by a subset of these channels in December 2019. 

    The study finds a news landscape on YouTube in which established news organizations and independent news creators thrive side by side – and consequently, one where established news organizations no longer have full control over the news Americans watch.

    Not only that, but when YouTube news consumers were asked to describe in their own words why YouTube is a unique place to get news, the most common responses relate to the content itself – including access to news sources outside the mainstream and the plethora of different opinions and views that are available on the platform. Indeed, YouTube news viewers are about as likely to say they are primarily looking for opinions and commentary on the website (51%) as they are to say they are mostly seeking information and facts (i.e., “straight” reporting; 48%). 

Indeed, watchers are seeking information and facts... ones that they agree with for the most part. They may be curious when they find information that they don't initially agree with or different than what they expected. Then what happens? They either keep watching and begin to agree or they stop watching. 

Their decision to continue to watch is based on the personality they watch (both on mainstream and alternative). They continue to watch because there is something about them, the viewer feels a connection or an attraction and this is important in respect of continued watching. Even if its just a voice, they watch/listen because the information sounds interesting, attractive, or convincing enough and that convincing comes via the person who is delivering the information. 

Whatever your opinion is in regards to alternative news or youtube channels in general, its the future and more channels will appear and more voices will be heard whether you agree with them or not, somebody will. 

The question on anyone or everyone's mind should be... whose news is the real news? Well, that depends on your 'real' comfort level... go figure.

 

*Online source ~ https://www.journalism.org/2020/09/28/many-americans-get-news-on-youtube-where-news-organizations-and-independent-producers-thrive-side-by-side/