Tubefilter: The first annual VTuber Awards are happening Dec. 16. “The first VTuber Awards will air Dec. 16, 2023, hosted by VTuber Filian and put on by Mythic Talent, the talent management company co-founded by OTK members Asmongold and TipsOut. It’s produced by WePlay Studios and will be hosted live at the WePlay Esports Arena in Los Angeles.”
Michigan Daily: A closer look at toxic family vlogging channels. “Over the past several years, the curtain has begun to be lifted over many of these ‘wholesome’ family vloggers, and the picture-perfect image that was plastered all over the internet for years on end has been torn to shreds. Issues such as child exploitation, privacy violations and religious prejudice have been brought into the limelight as fans have begun to see the truth behind the light-hearted vlogs they used to enjoy. There is no family, however, who has fallen apart quite so tragically as the ‘8 Passengers.’”
Teen Vogue: Influencer Parents and The Kids Who Had Their Childhood Made Into Content. “Search Claire’s name online and this is some of what you will find: photos of her as a child, merchandise with her face on it available for sale, and a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers and hundreds of videos featuring Claire and members of her family. In the videos, Claire grows from a toddler to a teenager. On Instagram, fans comment they miss videos from the old days. In public, people sometimes recognize her and ask for photos. Altogether, the family’s YouTube channel has over a billion views but if it were up to Claire, none of the videos would exist.”
Input: Riding the rails with YouTube’s hobo vloggers. “Through their videos, these hobos — who are overwhelmingly male and white — hope to document what they consider to be a dying artform, while fending off critics who believe their content is dangerous and irresponsible.”
The Kashmir Monitor: How social media is influencing Ramzan transmissions in Kashmir. “Gone are the days when people used to glue to the radio sets to listen to Ramzan transmission. Now YouTubers and Vloggers are giving it a new twist. From Ramadan cuisines to busy nightlife and from Iftaar gatherings to street foods, social media influencers are showcasing Kashmir in a new avatar.”
CBS News: TikToker’s old phone enables social media updates from behind Russia’s “iron curtain”. “American social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been blocked or limited in the country. TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, voluntarily restricted its platform to Russian users so they are only able to see new videos uploaded in Russia. Eager to remain connected to the outside world, 24-year-old Natalia, whom we are referring to by only her first name to protect her identity, tried switching on an older phone she still had lying around. The software on it had not been updated in years.”
CNN: A Chinese vlogger shared videos of war-torn Ukraine. He’s been labeled a national traitor. “Wang Jixian didn’t set out to become the Chinese voice of resistance in Ukraine. The 36-year-old resident of Odesa, a key target in Russia’s invasion of the country, simply wanted to show his parents he was fine.”
Independent: The YouTube channels revealing what ordinary Russians really think of the war: ‘I want to show every perspective’. “…one forum – at least so far – remains unblocked: YouTube. And on certain channels, one can still get a glimpse of what the Russian people are thinking. One such channel is 1420, where a 21-year-old man named Daniil wanders the streets of Moscow, collecting pedestrians’ comments on the latest news. The channel provides a fascinating chronology of Muscovites’ opinions, especially because Daniil posts so often. Watching his videos, we learn how Russians feel before the war, after it starts, one week in, two weeks in – and in the meantime, more and more restrictions of speech emerge from the Kremlin, to which the pedestrians respond in real time. Many become more reticent, but an impressive few become bolder.”
MakeUseOf: How to Start Vlogging: 11 Tips for Absolute Beginners. “It might seem as simple as turning on a camera, saying your piece, and uploading the video—but there’s a lot more that goes into vlogging, especially since it’s become a competitive multi-million dollar industry. If you’re interested in becoming a vlogger but have no idea where to start, you’re in the right place. We’re going to give you several essential tips every beginner needs to know.” This is more of a “things you need to think about,” a good place to start, but for techniques and setups, you’ll need more in-depth articles.
TMZ: YouTube Stars Charged With Swatting … After Bank Robbery Pranks. “YouTube stars Alan and Alex Stokes are in very real trouble for allegedly faking a series of bank robberies … they’ve each just been hit with a felony charge. Authorities say the twin brothers, who have 4.81 million subscribers on their Stokes Twins YouTube page, staged a pair of fake bank robberies in Irvine, CA back in October, one of which resulted in an unsuspecting Uber driver being held at gunpoint by police.”
Wired: On YouTube, vloggers are teaching people how to migrate illegally . “Since 2017, we have come across over two dozen accounts like Didi’s on YouTube – of people from North Africa migrating to Europe and beyond using irregular and often dangerous means, and passing that knowledge onto other users, while blogging about their lives. As this virtual community has grown, online platforms have fostered an ecosystem for migratory networks, central to which are personalities such as Didi and their relatively unfiltered content, standing in contrast with Morocco’s heavily state-dominated media landscape.”
Ditch that Textbook: Google Classroom (still) to the rescue: Blogging, vlogging, and podcasting. “My top performing post by far debuted in January, 2018, and deals with how to use the new Google Sites for blogging while combining it with Google Classroom to provide our students with the authentic audience they need and the feedback via comments that are still safe. Since then, I’ve opened up the platforms to include Adobe Spark Page and Wakelet, giving my high school students control over which platform they prefer, but I still sitesmash (like an app smash…but with websites) with Google Classroom to give me the control over the comments that I prefer.”
CNN: Dollar General has a new beauty brand for under $5 and it’s going viral. “Beauty video bloggers, or vloggers, hold a lot of sway over makeup brands. Vloggers have long used YouTube and Instagram to review makeup and skincare products and to give tutorials to their followers, which for some can be up in the millions. Experts and beginners alike tune in to learn techniques, tips and to see if new products on the market are worth buying. Dozens of Believe reviews on YouTube have already racked up hundreds of thousands of page views.”
CNN: Teens, screams and celebrity YouTubers: This is VidCon 2019. “ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ blared over the speakers when the Vlog Squad, a group of former Vine stars who do pranks and make funny videos on YouTube, came out on stage for a question and answer session. But you could barely hear the music over the deafening screams from a standing-room only crowd of mostly tweens, teens and twenty-somethings. Screams were not uncommon at last week’s VidCon, an annual conference in Anaheim, California for famous and aspiring social media stars, their fans, and the brands that love them.”
New York Times: Filling Oreo With Toothpaste Earns YouTube Prankster a Jail Sentence. “It was a humiliating video that fueled outrage on social media. A YouTube prankster filmed himself offering a homeless man in Barcelona an Oreo cookie filled with toothpaste rather than cream. Now, the prankster, known as ReSet to his followers on YouTube but whose real name is Kanghua Ren, has been handed a 15-month prison sentence and must pay 20,000 euros, or about $22,300, compensation to his victim.”
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