Sample Issue-Analysis Report
Note to reader: This draft is re-printed here with the author's permission. These student drafts are provided for a couple of reasons: first, to give you a taste of the variety of topics and approaches students have taken, and second, to provide instructors with readings that might be used in class discussions and activities. These samples are not perfect and represent final grades from across the grade scale (A through F), so please be forgiving, understanding, and respectful if you find errors or problems.
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Bari Whalen
English 1010 D-04
Professor Mike Peterson
November 5th, 2015
Issue Analysis
Making Millions In Your Pajamas
My son has been interested in creating his own YouTube channel for a while now. He is ten years old and feels like this is something he could to do for the rest of his life. As a parent I want to support my kids in all their endeavors no matter how crazy it seems. I want to know, is being a professional you tuber a legitimate career choice and a viable source of income?
YouTube was created in 2004 by three guys who worked together at pay pal, Jawed Karim Chad Hurley and Steve Chen they were “frustrated that they couldn’t find footage of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and, er, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl.” (Telegraph) That’s when they decided to create a place where people could upload videos to share with others worldwide. One of the co-founders of YouTube said when YouTube was only a few months old “the site users were consuming the equivalent of an entire blockbuster movie store each month. Today, 300 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute.” (Telegraph)
I don’t think the creators of YouTube had any idea how big YouTube was going to become, or that people were going to be able to make a career out of making videos. But that is just what happened. It became a place where “Almost anyone can upload almost anything to YouTube, for free, and be in with a chance of reaching its one billion monthly users… It has changed our world.” (Telegraph) Today YouTube videos can make you big money, according to Forbes magazine, the top earning YouTuber is a 25 year old Swede named PewDiePie, who plays video games and uses explanatory comments as he plays. He earned 12 million dollars pretax in the last year. “Thanks to the millions of fans who make up his bro army, advertisers are willing to pay a pretty penny to have their products featured in his videos”. (Berg) These YouTube stars “have made millions doing what members of older generations may consider more play than work.” (Berg) I think it amazing that you can get paid to make videos of yourself having fun and playing around all day.
One thing that most YouTuber have in common is that they are under the age of 30, so they are more relatable to their audiences who are from a generation that prefers watching online videos instead of T.V. According to Michelle Phan a YouTuber who said, “I thought, if [YouTube] is going to be the global television of the future, I need to build my brand here.” (Berg) Michelle uploaded her first video and it had 40,000 view in the first week, that’s when she said “I realized I’d found my calling.” (Berg) Michelle does makeup tutorials and is one of the most watched people on YouTube. She said “I’m passionate about being a makeup artist and teaching others how to look and feel fabulous in their own skin.” (Phan) Michelle Phan currently has over eight million subscribers.
Most YouTubers make their money from the advertisements, and product placements in their videos. While other have used their popularity to launch their careers in other fields outside of making videos for YouTube. Some have gone on to star in movies some have become authors while others have launched their careers in the fashion industry. According to Erica Dhawan a contributor to Forbes magazine, “Zoe Sugg, 24, better known by her blog name Zoella, started making videos in her bedroom in 2009…Fast forward five years and her new book Girl Online, which debuted November 25, [2014] sold more copies in the first week in the United Kingdom than any previous debut novel on record.” (Dhawan) Zoella has over nine millions subscribers on her channel.
One of the most lucrative ways to earn money on YouTube is by playing videogames, some of the top paid YouTubers make videos of themselves playing popular video games while they comment on what they are doing. Kids will watch these videos for hours, I have never understood why it’s fun to watch someone else play a videogame. Kids love to watch Stampy Cat and Dan TDM, they both play Mine Craft a popular videogame. Stampy and Dan create worlds and interact with other people online in the game who help create this imaginary world. Stampy Cat works from his home in England, his videos “are watch by more people than Justin Bieber’s or One Direction’s.” (Independent) He is known by parents as “the annoying British man in the corner” (Independent) because he is seen in the top corner of the screen talking throughout the video. As a parent I have always appreciated that there isn’t swearing in his videos, Stampy said as soon as he realized that his fans were young ranging from four year olds to twelve year olds, “As soon as I knew that, I knew I wouldn’t be able to swear and I wouldn’t use too-long sentences. I made sure I put a little more energy into my voice, and that I was keeping the child’s attention.” (Independent) Stampy interacts with his viewers as though he is talking directly to them, which gives his videos a personal feel. Stampy Cat has gone on to create his own television show for kids called “Wonder Quest” which will air in Britain this fall. Stampy works about 11 hours a day on his videos, he said “I spend almost all my time making videos”, in his videos his character, “[happens] to look like a cat but apart from that he’s me, a bigger, brighter, better version”. (Independent) With three million views per episode, I think he will continue to make videos from his desk at home in England.
Comedians are also among some of the highest paid channels, Smosh and the Fine Brothers earned around 8.5 million dollars last year. According to Troy Dreier a journalist, “the word “Smosh” doesn’t mean a thing; it’s just a nonsense word. And for online video viewers under a certain age, Smosh are kings, two of the funniest, strangest, most original guys working today.” (Dreier) Smosh started out just making videos for fun and posting them on their website before YouTube even existed. They just wanted to have fun and made videos, they didn’t realize that someday they would be millionaires. “They tapped into YouTube at just the right time, when the site was taking off.” (Dreier) Smosh now has a huge following with almost 22 million subscribers. The Fine Brothers make videos where kids, parents and teens react to different things. I watched one video where they showed the reaction that teens had to World Books, all 26 volumes were placed in front of them and they had to try and explain what they were. Most knew what they were but had never used them, instead they use Google. The Fine Brothers really are brothers they have multiple channels on YouTube and are doing quite great with thirteen million followers.
Some of the most famous people got their start on YouTube, Justin Bieber’s mom uploaded a video of him preforming at a local talent contest at the age of 12. Back in 2009 Justin talked with ABC news about how his videos took off, “It had a hundred views, then a thousand views, then ten thousand views, so I just kept posting more videos and more videos.” (Adib) Another unusual star is Grumpy Cat, His owner Tabatha Bundesen quit her day job to manage her cat. According to The Telegraph, “The animal earned more than Gwyneth Paltrow last year.” (Telegraph) The first YouTube celebrities began with, “viral one-hit-wonder videos, like Charlie Davies Carr, the baby who famously bit his brother’s finger in 2007.” (Telegraph) The parents of Charlie earned more than 300,000 in advertising for this one viral video.
“A handful of successful full-time YouTubers create and broadcast videos to audiences that are often fanatically loyal- and too many on the outside, that stature seems tantalizingly within reach.” (Balyan) It takes hard work and dedication to make it on YouTube, for some it can take years to before they are noticed. YouTube requires lots of creativity and sometime working long hours. The Shaytards are called the first family of YouTube, they live in rural Idaho and upload daily vlogs of their family. Chris Miller a journalist from kutv 2 news said, “The Shaytard vlogs show the family playing, going on vacation and heading off to school…They’ve seen two daughters battle and defeat lice.” (Miller) Chris went on to talk about how the Shaytards have shared some of their most personal and intimate moments with their viewers, “Their two youngest children were, literally, born on camera, and the videos have been viewed more than a million times.” (Miller) The Shaytards have made a fortune from their daily vlogs but Shay said that their success due to good timing, “It was being ahead of the curve and working my butt off, just like anybody who’s ever got anything good.” (Miller) Shay was a co-owner of the production company Maker Studios, and had a good payday when the studio was bought by Disney for close to one billion dollars. Shay has gone on to start his own clothing company with his family and a few close friends called “Trixin”, and still continues to make family vlogs.
One of the youngest professional YouTubers is Evan, he is a seven year old boy that started making videos with his dad for fun, he also makes videos with his sister where they will review video games and toys as well and compete in challenges. Evan estimated yearly income for last year was 1.32 million dollars. According to Evans father, “all of the proceeds from the channel… goes into investments and savings for their children.” (Jacobs) “When YouTube was founded ten years ago, it was with the mission “to provide fast and easy video access and the ability to share videos frequently.” Now it can add another: minting young millionaires by the dozen” (Berg)
Works Cited
Adib, Desiree. abc news. 14 november 2009. 31 october 2015.
Balyan, Baghdig. A Look Into the Lives of Full-Time YouTubers. 28 October 2014. 22 October 2015. <www.thelink.com>.
Berg, Madeline. The World's Highest paid YouTube Stars 2015. 14 October 2015. 21 October 2015.
Dhawan, Erica. How You Can Use YouTube to Turn Your Passion into a Career. 17 12 2014. 18 October 2015. <www.forbes.com>.
Dreier, Troy. Smosh: YouTube Gods and Unlikely Online Video Superstars. November 2012. 26 October 2015. <streamingmedia.com>.
Independent. Stampy Cat: Joseph Garrett's cartoon from Minecraft that is bigger than Justin Bieber- and has just been linked to Disney. 2 January 2015. 23 October 2015. <www.independent.co.uk>.
Jacobs, Harrison. We Ranked YouTube's Biggest Stars By How Much Money They Make. 10 March 2014. 4 November 2015. <www.businessinsider.com/richest-youtube-stars-2014-3?op=1>.
Miller, Chris. Meet the Shaytards: the story behind the first family of YouTube. 13 November 2014. 3 November 2015. <kutv.com/news/local/meet-the-shaytards-the-story-behind-the-first-family-of-youtube>.
Phan, Michelle. Michelle Phan. 2015. 21 October 2015. <michellephan.com/about-me/>.
Telegraph, The. How YouTube changed the world. 9 February 2015. 26 October 2015. <s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/youtube/>.