(news clips)
Welcome to Psych IRL. My name is Donna.
You should do an analysis of Philip DeFranco.
Sup you beautiful B. Phil’s approach to reporting the news, counters the familiar
format of mainstream media.
On the surface, this may make it seem like it would lead to his channel's failure due
to the fact that it diverts from the already proven successful “news model”, However,
it’s clear to see when looking at his analytics how his show has impacted an audience that
is sometimes far greater than many mainstream media outlets.
Meanwhile they see me, just some schmuck with an editor and in the past 30 days getting
37 million views.
Their average time on site is supposed to be around 2 minutes.
Ours is 8 minutes plus.
I mean that could make you feel like garbage if you're someone that looks more outward
that inward.
That then leaves the question, despite not following a winning news model, how has Phil
created something so successful?
To really understand how DeFranco has persevered we need to look at mainstream news stations.
When you look at the presentation of mainstream news, you realize a lot of them are similar.
Reporters are often dressed in suits or business attire giving the illusion of authority, professionalism,
and importance.
This phenomena is similar to the white lab coat effect, where individuals judge how much
authority you have based on what you wear.
Although your local news is dependent on your region in the US, the accent they speak in,
is the same.
News reporters from the South speak exactly the same as news reporters from the West Coast.
Eye witness news at 11am.
I'm Philip Palmer and I'm Leslie Sykes.
We're getting a clearer picture of what happened inside that texas church.
Monday is memorial day but here's something you may not know.
It was originally called decoration day because of the tradition of decorating graves with
flowers.
This is deliberately done so the message is understood at a national level, but it makes
for hilarious commentary when reporters mess up and you hear them speaking normally.
What really happened on that Thursday here on Agusta Highschool that led to Chris Wood's D.
The F is that?
Philip Defranco also has a deliberate presentation for his show.
Serving as an homage to how he started, the set for his show takes place in what seems
to be a regular home office or bedroom.
Behind the scenes, you can see that Defranco is actually in a larger space, an office,
or studio.
Okay just as an update, as I'm editing this, Phil puts out a tweet that says moving to
the new office on Friday.
Pretty much everything except the part my office that is on camera has been moved to
the new studio.
So ready excited for this.
Thank you for being with me on this ride.
Oops read that wrong.
His dress code seems to be business casual often wearing button up shirts, but he isn’t
afraid to go full casual on some days.
To me, his set up gives an essence of professionalism mixed with “regular guy”.
You’d think that not going full on professional would discredit him aka suit and studio background,
but it doesn’t.
YouTube being the medium, a lot of viewers become dedicated fans to someone because of
personality.
You notice human quirks in these vlog style videos that make you see the creator as more
human than these polished suits that talk funny.
I so pale.
You're on air (whispers).
Today snow is crippling much of the Washington Low Lands.
One of three inches of snow fell on Seattle in other areas.
In fact, going too professional sometimes makes viewers lose interest in a creator because
it seems like they’ve lost their humanness.
For example, a comedy/opinion channel that comments on news in a humorous way called
Just Kidding News, stepped up their production game by moving their set to a more news like
setting.
They still kept their comical vibe in the set design, but viewers still felt like the
change was too much like TV and they didn’t like it.
The crew ended up shooting back at their old office, holes in the wall and all.
Defranco understands this YouTube trope and designed his show with that in mind.
This is someone you know or can get to know by the backlog of old videos.
Some very cringey yes, but that’s what personalizes the whole experience for viewers.
What really do you know about this reporter and would you care if he got replaced?
A good amount of profit is based on ad revenue.
There are other things like subscriptions and donations, so this is me explaining things
at the most basic sense.
Basically, Ford.
A company like Ford pays X news network for money.
Ahhhh.
A company like Ford pays X news network for airtime and this is how the network profits.
Phil is paid in a similar fashion but the ads are through youtube and this format may
lead to his downfall.
Ultimately YouTube acts as a sales team and chooses what ads go where.
Zoella gets everyone trying to sell lipstick, Casey Neistat gets people who are interested
in filmmaking, and so forth.
Unfortunately, according to YouTube’s Advertiser friendly content guidelines one topic that
is not advertiser friendly and can cause demonetization are videos that talk about controversial issues
and sensitive events.
They have this is what's considered not appropriate.
Controversial or sensitive subjects even if graphic imagery is not shown.
How are you supposed to cover news?
Pretty much every time we talk about a natural disaster it's not thumb and title.
We try and get people to donate money and help.
How? What?
Yeah looking through these videos a lot of people were saying, maybe it's just the tags.
Some of the videos being hit don't even have anything that can be construed as offensive
in the tags.
This appears to be a straight attack on the content of the video.
I was kind of hoping those people were right.
This could be the beginning of something horrible where I'm just worried that this video is
going to be shut down.
Thankfully Defranco has fought against this by selling his merch, attaining sponsorships,
using affiliate links, and fan funding on patreon.
He is also engaging an audience outside of youtube through his app Defranco Now.
Information in mainstream news follows a formula.
The information seems objective but how the questions are framed follows a partisan.
Fox News leans more right while CNN leans more left.
This isn’t something that’s surprising.
It’s one of the first things you learn in school when you start learning about how to
research a topic.
Despite everyone who has gone through middle school/jr. high knowing this, MSM continues
on to be lucrative.
The reality is, money isn’t made by covering both sides and revealing the truth.
It’s made by clicks, views, and sensationalism.
Dividing the audience into left and right leaning, keeps them watching their preferred
network.
The stories may anger people, but the networks rarely do and if it did, you could just change
the channel.
Before I move on I want to say there is completely no unbiased news sources.
As long as advertisers are the companies that keep these things afloat, reporters will always
report the news in a way that doesn't lose them money.
Though nothing is truly unbiased, I believe Defranco comes close.
He counters how MSM presents information by presenting both sides, and then his opinion.
Rosanne Barr then eventually deleting that tweet.
Later tweeting.
I apologize.
I am now leaving Twitter.
I apologize to Valarie Jarrett and to all Americans.
I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks.
I should have known better.
Forgive me.
My joke was in bad taste
Now obviously this part is my opinion and I say this as someone that on this show has
defended comedians many times, I don't know if that was really a joke.
With all that said, I do want to pass of that question to you.
What is your take away from this situation.
Did you see this as a bad joke that didn't land or is this just an example of.
He humanizes the whole news experience.
But presenting things in an unbiased way can have its disadvantages.
Sometimes you’re not going to agree with him and he states this over and over again.
In contrast to MSM where most people agree on what’s being reported, Phil risks his
business by stating his opinion.
As I stated before, a lot of his income is fan funded, his merch and patreon.
If viewers hear something they don’t like, it may be possible they stop supporting him
financially.
In spite of me naming these financial challenges, DeFranco succeeds and he succeeds because
of something simple, trust.
But trust isn’t easily gained from someone behind a screen.
Defranco first gains trust by showing the reality of the situation and how things aren’t
always black and white.
All these sites came out of the woodworks saying that Felix is a.
He's an anti.
He's a.
In that video making commentary that the YouTube Heros program is like.
YouTube heros are like and are bad.
You're not going to get that context when you have journalists who are going through
hundreds and hundreds of videos.
Just going like...
He also gains trust when he often defends those he does not agree with.
While watching that video will make me angry.
If we don't allow that to exist in the world, that flag doesn't necessarily represent everything
that I want it to represent.
Freedom isn't freedom if you constantly drawing lines in the sand of what you can criticize
and what you can disrespect.
You see someone doing something with free speech that you don't agree with, you use
your own free speech.
Phil meets with people that do not necessarily share the same political views as him and
the conversation is decent.
he has refused to monetize on a number of tragedies despite knowing these videos will
get millions of views, and whereas most channels will not comment on the actions of friends,
Phil has done this multiple times.
Now before moving forward, because I feel like it is very important to be transparent.
I am friendly with Ethan from h3h3 so I wanted to let you know that so you have all the information
but know that that will not change how I cover this story.
Though some may not agree with his opinions, I think his fans realize this and support
him anyway due to trust.
Phil sometimes presents ideas that may be opposite to ours, but that’s okay and we
should be open to that.
In a time where “the like algorithm” has created massive bubbles in America, it’s
important to support creators like Phil.
Platforms like Facebook and YouTube have not done this deliberately, but individuals only
click what they want to see.
The algorithm then recommends videos that are similar to this feeding the individual
only information he/she agrees with, which can create an extremist opinion.
We are rarely hit with information that disagrees with our beliefs and when we are, we often
refuse to listen and respond back with anger.
That's the end of the video.
I'll see you guys next time.
Stay psyched.
Alright I'm done.