Comment by thebrain | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thebrain | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I get what he's trying to say but the fact is that the two mediums are different.

I know when I watch a TV show, large sums of money went into making the show I'm watching due to the history of television. Writers, actors, set builders, etc. were all paid during the production of a TV show and I know commercials and product placements paid for all of it.

When I watch something on YouTube, my first inkling is to think I'm watching some bloke with a webcam making a video in his basement. The history of YouTube causes me to think that the person on YouTube operates all by themselves just for the fun of it. While I know that that's not the case anymore the historic perception is still there, that's what the rules are meant to protect general public against.

YouTube creates a different kind of relationship between viewer and content creator, one that's particularly intimate and consequently persuasive.

This argument would be valid if not for the rise of reality TV. There's a while genre of shows made to seem "unscripted" when in reality they're almost entirely artificial. Something like pawn stars is a great example of this[1]. Viewers are led to believe that it's actually organic content, and more naive viewers could easily fall for this falsehood.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z31G3Ct98EM

I thought about this as well but reality TV shows are still enough of a spectacle that it's clear that big money is involved.

Survivor placed the contestants on an island competing in elaborate challenges with camera's everywhere for a million dollar prize.

The Bachelor featured a wealthy suitor/suitress and a dozen attractive people of the opposite sex dressed in ridiculously expensive clothing again with camera's everywhere doing extravagant things.

Anyone can end up on YouTube, only certain people can end up on TV and viewers always have this in the back of their minds.

On the contrary, I think that TV paid product placements are often way more subtle. On social media and YouTube it's really in your face full on ads.

> YouTube creates a different kind of relationship between viewer and content creator, one that's particularly intimate and consequently persuasive.

It may, but should that relationship be enforced? Letting well-backed productions get away with not disclosing while the less well-backed have extra rules they have to follow is just favoring incumbents. It's similar to the discussion surrounding "real journalism" and bloggers/youtubers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com