MM
camcorder cultures
news in the making
The camcorder: unthinkable only 20 years ago, now an everyday leisure activity.
So what do we do with our camcorders, what do they mean to us, and does
it matter? And why is our camcorder use a phenomenon worth researching?
Jerome Monahan reports on a groundbreaking new research study.
Last summer across Britain, young men software on Apples or PCs, and of course sites – every bit as tumultuous in terms of
(mostly) took to throwing themselves off high such as YouTube with monthly hits of well over communication and culture as the world
places into what they hoped was deep water. A 20 million and rising, capturing, manipulating witnessed with the development of the
small number paid over the odds for the thrill and exhibiting film before potentially vast printing press ... But we are only starting to
ending up seriously injured or even dead. audiences is within the reach of most of us. consider what our unrivalled potential for
It’s a fair bet that such activities go on every And the effect this is having on our collective individual self-expression and self-display
August, where there are teenagers at the attitudes and culture is multifaceted and is going to bring about. Is the camcorder
seaside, and rocky outcrops and enticing dark evolving. Take our tombstoners – how far was the generation going to be good, bad, ugly or just
pools below. But what made the phenomenon spread of such behaviour last summer directly banal – endlessly filming and sharing movies
different in 2007 was that it gained a name influenced by the opportunities afforded by the of one another’s crazy pets, gurgling babies
(‘tombstoning’) and a prominence in the technology and the multitudes of sensation- and socks in close-up?
public consciousness thanks to media coverage seeking social networkers? And what a shame, When questioned on this last point, he
of the more disastrous examples. What was perhaps, that despite access to such powerful explains how his lead researcher, Dr. Rebekah
also apparent and new was that many of the tools, most of the filmmaking that results is pretty Willett, discovered an entire parallel universe
death-defying plunges were being captured by trivial stuff. Or are the signs more promising of filmmakers on YouTube celebrating and
admiring friends using the digital video facility – indications that, as some have hoped, the sharing their obsession for such footwear. It is
on their mobile phones, with the sequences camcorder generation is being switched a bit of a detour from the main thrust of our
subsequently appearing on social networking on politically and creatively – leading to an subject here, but it is worth pointing out here
sites such as YouTube for tombstoners the world emergence of new forms of filmmaking, citizen that the metatag (the mechanism with which
over to admire. So? journalism and activism? content providers to such social networking
Well, there is actually something fascinating It is questions such as these that have got sites classify their work) to create discrete and
going on here. Imagine what these same at least one group of academics going. At the bizarre communities like these ‘sock-obsessives’
thrillsters would have had to do as little as Centre For the Study of Children, Youth and is a significant social phenomenon in its own
ten years ago to achieve filmed evidence of Media (CSCYM) – part of the University of right. Already these ‘folksonomies’ are becoming
their extreme pursuits. Even if they could have London’s Institute of Education, Professor David the subject of study among social scientists and
afforded expensive digital cameras, and had Buckingham and his team are now two thirds education specialists.
access to editing facilities (at school or some of the way into a three-year study of the social Professor Buckingham’s academic team has
other official institution) the most they could shifts brought about by the increasing availability swum into varied waters – some a source of
have hoped for in terms of viewers was limited and use of filmmaking technology. Professor encouragement, others far murkier, many just
to the friends and family members they could Buckingham says: bizarre. Rebekah Willett explains:
gather around a single screen. But now, thanks It is clear that there is a revolution underway. On the positive side, we have the birth in
to cheap camcorders and sophisticated, The challenge is trying to map its extent and recent times of concerned citizen journalists
latest-generation mobiles and pdas, simple gauge its social impact. and documentary makers – increasingly
digital editing facilities provided as standard We are living at an extraordinary time having an impact on existing broadcast
english and media centre | February 2008 | MediaMagazine 15
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