sometimes I find myself stressing about
youtuber II questions like what kind of
videos should I make should I have a
regular schedule of one video a week
like John Green says I should how do I
get more viewers should I be making my
videos more actually educational do I
need more snakes how do I do this right
sometimes I feel the pressure of all
those eyes watching me that's when I
need to take a step back and open up
they became what they beheld by Ted
carpenter to the forward and reread the
wisest words I know I recently came
across the following rules of
communication posted in a school of
journalism 1 know your audience and
address yourself directly to it to know
what you want to say and say it clearly
and fully 3 reach the maximum audience
by utilizing existing channels whatever
senses may have made in a world of print
it makes no sense today in fact the
reverse of each rule applies if you
address yourself to an audience you
accept at the outset the basic premises
that unites the audience you put on the
audience repeating cliches familiar to
it but artists don't address themselves
to audiences they create audiences the
artist talks to himself out loud if what
he has to say is significant others hear
and are affected and I'm reminded of why
I do this artists create audiences I
don't make videos for mass consumption I
make them for myself to amuse myself or
because I have a cool concept that I
want to make real Carpenter meant it
metaphorically but I'm literally talking
to myself I am the only example of a
human I have access to the only one
whose thoughts I can hear so if I can
make a video I like at least it appeals
to someone if I were making videos for
imaginary people whose thoughts I'm
imagining they'd probably be terrible
let's read on the trouble with knowing
what to say and saying it clearly and
fully is that clear speaking is
generally obsolete thinking clear
statement is like an art object it is
the afterlife of the process which
called it into being the process itself
is the significant step and especially
at the beginning is often incomplete and
uncertain the problem with full
statement is that it doesn't involve it
leaves no room for participation it's
addressed to consumer not co-producer
what a perfect description of what is
wrong with education there's a reason
people prefer my videos which ramble
through my thought process or Sal's Khan
Academy videos which he makes in real
time
to the stale polished information let's
memorize equations stuff that education
publishers still insist on producing as
if they just put all the facts in the
perfect order and add more splashy
graphics that pretend what you're
learning is good for sports or shopping
then surely it will suddenly be
extremely successful up to a certain
point maybe you can know a little kid
better than she knows herself but these
days people are savvy enough that it
doesn't take them long to realize that
they are being used as consumers
utilizing existing channels can wipe out
a statement there is a widely accepted
misconception that media merely serve as
neutral packages for the dissemination
of raw facts photographers once thought
that by getting their photographs
published in life they would thereby
reach large audiences gradually they
discovered that the only message that
came through was Life magazine itself
and that their pictures had become but
bits and pieces of that message the same
thing occurs on TV guest shows guests
accept invitations to appear on programs
in the hopes their message will reach
new and wider audiences but even when
they are treated in a friendly manner
they generally come away with a sense of
failure somehow the message transmitted
is far removed from the message intended
and still YouTube comes on the scene the
young today shunned the hardware of the
past Marx thought the big question was
who owns the presses software makes
Hardware obsolete an encumbrance
creating a false sense of power and
security the young packaged their
messages in media that fit their
messages that is they create new media
to fit their messages in so doing they
create their own audiences some of these
audiences may be very small at the
beginning the point was that they would
reach the right people in the right way
with the right message this was written
in 1970 Ted carpenter didn't know there
would be an internet or YouTube but he
knew this reaching a wider audience is
not worth sacrificing your content
better your message be heard clearly by
a small audience than warped in favor of
a large one I would rather have one
person know me well than a billion know
me poorly I didn't expect you to want to
watch my videos I thought maybe some of
the math professor types in the math art
community would like my stuff and that's
it but I'm glad you are watching because
it turns out y'all are super cool I know
this because I've met a lot of you at
events like VidCon where you went from
imaginary the audience to actual
individual people and it turns
I like you I do want to make you happy
nothing makes me angrier then when
people want to use me in order to use
you through advertising or promoting
their pet projects or friends or
whatever but if I try to do things for
you
it will destroy the very thing I'm doing
I'd be sacrificing my message for the
sake of audience Edmund snow carpenter
doesn't have a large audience he's dead
this book is long out of print and not
so easy to find which is why I'm showing
so much of it to you this unconventional
book didn't make him famous but his
message came through I don't know to
what extent he's captured the difference
between art and entertainment or where
education fits in but it's enough to get
me thinking someday YouTube probably
will grow to the point that the medium
will be the message already people are
starting to feel that they have to do
things a certain you to be way in order
to get their message out people are
obsessed with subscriber counts they
think they need to use flashy titles and
thumbnails and sex appeal that they need
to become partners and join networks and
solicit comments and subscriptions there
are accepted formats if you have a
message to share please remember you
don't need those things maybe more
people will hear you but what you
actually want to say could be lost we'll
take that format which seems to work and
repeat those cliches until none of us
are saying anything at all and then
YouTube will go the way of television
too much medium not enough message