[Music]
hi my name is Lisa Philippa and I'm a
youtuber journalist and author from
Berlin I grew up in Augsburg in Bavaria
and my youtube journey started there
almost 10 years ago in 2010 I was 15
years old and I was angry in my free
time I was working for our local
newspaper every week we had an editorial
meeting and every week I had a big
discussion with my chief editor because
we had different opinions about the
topics that I should write about he
wanted me to write about the opening of
a new shopping centre while I much
rather would have written about the
graffiti scene in our city and about
their political messages my chief editor
as cliche as that sounds
wanted me to go to the summer party of
the rabbit breeders club while I am
wanted to interview the mayor and ask
him why the youth center in my part of
town was in such a bad repair because I
was so angry about the topics that he
forced me to cover I was looking for a
new creative outlet at that time I
already knew about YouTube but I only
associated it with cat videos music
videos or movie trailers but when I took
a closer look I realized that there were
quite a few laughs that they were quite
a few young people on the path on the
platform who were doing their own kinds
of shows they created comedy videos or
short films without having a big budget
or a big team and that inspired me to do
the same thing together with a few
friends I started uploading parodies of
TV shows for example Germany's Next
Topmodel addressing the unrealistic body
images that they're showing and the
pressure
they're putting on young girls but still
this was all just a nice hobby that I
did for fun up until in 2012 I realized
for the first time that I could also use
my youtube channel for political content
specifically for the topics that I
wasn't allowed to cover at the newspaper
in 2012 ACTA the anti-counterfeiting
trade agreement was a big topic there
were lots and lots of discussions about
copyright and critics worried that the
freedom of the Internet was at stake so
of course I wanted to write about ACTA
in the newspaper but as always my chief
editor had other plans for me
he told me that our readers wouldn't be
interested in that internet crap and it
bothered me so much that he didn't take
the topic and me seriously that I took
it into my own hands
so I took my video camera and I went to
the little anti ACTA demonstration that
took place in my hometown I interviewed
a few people there asking them about
their motivation and I also shot a
statement of myself explaining my own
opinion I edited the video and uploaded
it to my YouTube channel where it got
20,000 views in 2012 that was a lot
especially for my small channel because
back then I only had around 250
subscribers quite a few of these 20,000
people who watched my video about ACTA
shared their opinions in the comment
section and it made me really happy to
see that my video brought them together
and initiated these discussions it would
be a downright lie if I told you that
since then I only did political content
on my channel
I didn't because after all YouTube is an
entertainment platform and I love using
it for that purpose but every few weeks
there was a more serious topic that made
me think and that I did discuss with my
viewers for example how we could deal
with bullying at schools or why back
then homosexual couples couldn't get
married then three years later in 2015
three years after my video about ACTA I
got a new and very interesting
opportunity to talk about politics on
YouTube I got asked if I wanted to work
as an author and presenter for a public
broadcasting television service they
just started a new documentary format
that only aired on YouTube from Azhar
for my first documentary I interviewed
minor unaccompanied refugees and talked
with them about their experiences with
war and their difficult journeys to
Germany a few weeks later my camera team
and I went to Paris right after the
Bataclan terrorist attacks and we
reported from there the feedback that we
got from our viewers on YouTube was
really positive and some of them even
told us that we were their main source
for political information but we quickly
realized that the more traditional
journalists and editors often just saw
us at as that little internet project
and yeah they didn't take us seriously
so now I was 20 years old and I was
still angry because again me and now
also my team and our collective work
weren't taken seriously but we forced
ourselves to look at the bright side
most of our viewers were between 18 and
30 years old they were exactly
the target group the traditional media
couldn't reach any more it took us a few
more years until our little Internet
project became fully acceptance but
today it is part of funk that's the
young program of the public broadcasting
stations audience @af and this theorem
together with several other documentary
formats so they realized as well how
much potential political content on
YouTube has but let's get back to my own
YouTube channel the small group of 250
people who subscribe to my channel in
2012
grew into 250,000 people in 2017 and
with that I became a so-called
influencer my goal for my YouTube
channel was still mainly to entertain
people but I also wanted to use that
influence for something good for example
motivating my viewers to vote in the
upcoming federal elections I was lucky
to get an opportunity that allowed me to
do so together with three other
youtubers I got to interview the German
Chancellor before we did these
interviews each of us asked our viewers
what they wanted to know from angle
America together we collected over
10,000 questions they came from people
our age yes that infamous and political
generation that doesn't care about
anything but likes and followers turns
out they care about a lot of other
things environmentalism sustainability
digitization LGBT rights just to name a
few
I mean Fridays for future is the best
example for the heavy political
engagement of young people the interview
with Angela Merkel was broadcasted as a
live stream on YouTube where it got
almost
two million views we also did an other
piece with chancellor candidate martin
shirts that reached a similar amount of
views and the project also got a lot of
coverage within the traditional media
but the most important thing was that i
got dozens and dozens of messages from
my young viewers telling me that thanks
to our interviews for the first time
they got the feeling that politicians
were actually interested in their
questions and opinions since i did these
interviews in 2017 lots of other
political actors NGOs and companies also
started to get interested in political
influencer campaigns and that interest
is still lasting since I did these
interviews in 2017 I got to work among
others with several federal ministries
NGOs and companies and this year for
example we did projects about the
European election and the third year
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall
these projects and videos resulted in
lots of messages from my viewers telling
me that they learned a lot of new things
about politics through my videos that my
videos made him think and that they
motivated them to get acted themselves
and to use their voices and to hear that
really gave me the feeling that my work
had a purpose and that it was meaningful
to them there's one final project that I
would like to tell you about before I
end this talk because it is really
special to me in 2017 I went to Lebanon
together with an NGO and two other
youtubers we did a journalism workshop
there together with a group of 20 young
syrian refugees as refugees they were
not allowed to go to school or to
university in Lebanon so this project
was the only way for them to get an
education there
we filmed a documentary with them we
wrote texts together and we even shot a
music video the results were published
on our YouTube channels where we asked
our viewers to support the project
together we raised the money that was
needed to finance the further education
of these 20 young syrian refugees and to
save the project from being closed down
so why am I telling you this
it's because I want to share with you
the three most important things that I
learned during these past 10 years 1
even if people are not taking you and
you work seriously if it feels right to
you if it was meaningful to you then
keep on doing it - some things just need
time 10 years ago
YouTube for me was just a hobby a very
very unusual one that I got bullied for
a lot at school but today it became my
job and also a very powerful tool for me
3 on YouTube we can not only inform
people about politics or motivate them
to vote political engagement on YouTube
and other social media sites can
actually change lives for the better
like it did with our project in Lebanon
today I am 25 years old and I am not
that angry anymore because more and more
people are actually using their voices
and are not staying silent anymore they
are becoming aware of the positive power
of social media using your voice that's
something that is not just reserved to
traditional journalists on the internet
there is no chief editor who's telling
you what you are allowed to write about
you are your own chief editor not just
as a youtuber or a blogger all of you
are so please use your voices do
participate input
discussions because your voices to
matter especially in the fight against
racism sexism homophobia or any other
kind of discrimination thank you
[Applause]