Maybe fame is very segmented these days. In an era where the mass media isnt quite so mass, and the rise of the long tail, there is less collective recognition of a limited set of people who are the megafamous.
Its probably easy to overstate such things, but I guess it would potentially be especially true of something like videoblogging, compared to traditional sources of megafame like television, which will have a very slow and painful decline (or rebirth perhaps), rather than their fame vanishing overnight. The generation gap, in terms of certain elements of shared culture etc, has never been so big as it is now, Id guess? It wasnt like this when things like music were passed mostly person to person, folk-tastic. I dunno how things will pan out with this stuff and the internet, whether it will make everything more folksey and human again, whether it will send fame on a shrinking path, a race to the bottom where more people become famous but to less people. Will we reach a time where it is accepted as totally normal to have a fairly small number of viewers, and everyone can still thrive on this, rather than the exception of the highly viewed 'famous people' being seen so often as the goal and anything else as failure? Easy to say but this then ties in with ideas about how much people 'deserve' (or need) to get paid to vlog sustainably. I dont ever know how a question like 'who is the most famous xxx' can be answered. There cant be one definitive answer, normally. And with something like vlogging, someone could be famous for some other reason and then happen to do a videoblog. And my mum doesnt know any videobloggers, none of them are famous to her. But in other segments of society there are some famous vloggers. Fame eh, has anybody seen any videoblogs that say anything profound about the concept of fame? Right now Big Borther is on UK TV, ugh a bunch of people getting famous by being on tv, sometimes strangely compelling, usually a talent-free zone, yet people feel like they get to know these characters, creating a strangely intimate sort of fame? Either way if you urinate in the shower on big brother, you'l get a lot more fame than if you urinate on youtube. But then again the downside of attention may be felt as everyone youve every known are tempted by bucks from the tabloids, who wish to print all about your past in the papers. Some people do well on fame and others are destroyed by it. So perhaps Im glad it doesnt come easier to most vloggers, I would find it very painful to see some of the unfortunates whose fame experience led to horrors in their life. Cheers Steve Elbows --- In [email protected], "Stephanie Bryant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ze Frank was the closing keynote speaker at the annual STC conference this > year, approx. 20,000 attendees of professional technical writers. So, um, > he's *known.* > > --Stephanie > > On 6/20/07, Bill Streeter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I think Markus was talking about Times person of the year issue where > > they named the person of the year as "you." > > > > Are your friends familuar with YouTube? That's videoblogging. When you > > talk about things like "most famous" etc. Those are hard things to > > quantify. There are Videobloggers like Zefrank who is very famous in > > some circles but is virtually unknown in others. And he never did put > > his stuff on YouTube and yet the most popular YouTubers probably get > > way more views than he ever did--and it's very likely that few on this > > list had ever heard of them. What I'm saying is "fame" is relative. > > Some of us are "famous" to a few--which sounds like an oxymoron, but > > it's true in a way. But thats the world we live in now--even > > conventional definitions of what seem like simple things like "fame" > > don't really mean anything anymore. So what I'm saying is that your > > question isn't an easy one to answer. To someone not familuar with > > internet video none of us doing this is famous in the least. > > > > Bill Streeter > > LO-FI SAINT LOUIS > > http://lofistl.com > > http://billstreeter.net > > > > > > --- In [email protected], "oovooworld" <simon@> wrote: > > > > > > Well yes I'd heard I was mentioned but I was hoping someone else was > > > kicking around with half the skill...its a lot of pressure to live > > > with you know...<sigh> > > > > > > I don't know how I missed that issue of Time. Was it the same one > > that > > > had the article reviewing George Bush's new pioneering green policy? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Stephanie Bryant > Author, Videoblogging for Dummies > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.mortaine.com/ > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
