The New York Times’ Dan Crane has this article today on the phenomenon of viral videos and the weird distribution loop traveled by these often-homemade short and amusing videos. The piece focuses on a VH1 hit program called “Web Junk 20,” a weekly program that shows web-delivered videos.
But, some of these videos traverse back and forth between the web and TV — one video highlighted in the article originally appeared on “The Jimmy Kimmel Show,” then jumped to iFilm.com and youtube.com and then back again to VH1.
What’s interesting is that TV coverage of web-based videos (there are now four programs on the air or in the pipeline that focus on Internet videos) is fueling the creation of more web-based videos. Even more intriguing is the prospect that this short-film phenomenon could morph into longer-form user-generated content.
With four viral video shows soon to be on the air, what’s the next wave of user-generated content? “One could imagine a next generation version of ‘Saturday Night Live’ that’s created entirely by the viewers,” Mr. Hirschorn speculated. “It might even be better.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:52 AM|Comments(0)
Blogs We Read
