Cyberspace has provided people with a means of communication like nothing ever before. It started with Email, then updated itself in the form of chat-rooms and Instant messages. The most recent media for internet communication takes form in social networking sites, the most common of these being Myspace.com and Facebook.com. But what role does film play in communication on the internet? Would it be justifiable to say that film in cyberspace is part of a social network in a league of its own? Consider Youtube.com. Youtube allows people to sign up for free accounts, provides them with the ability to post their ideas on the web, and also gives them the ability to comment and rate the content submitted by other users. Film is art. Art is expression. And expression of one’s ideas in a public sphere is Web 2.0, the future, and ultimate reason for, cyberspace.

The first thing I would like to discuss in this paper (I suppose I should say project) is how film in cyberspace is being used to recruit people to fight for certain causes. Take, for example, the internet sensation ZeitGeist the movie. ZeitGeist started out as an independent project from writer/director Peter Joseph, who originally submitted the film in New York back in 2007 as a free public awareness expression and then later uploaded it to the internet. Within months of its submission, ZeitGeist received over fifty million views, and it is now estimated the film has been viewed over 100 million times worldwide. Although the first version of the film has been criticized by the mainstream media for its’ lack of legitimate sources, and attacked by Christian scholars who claim it is “The Davinci Code on steroids”, the second installment of the film, Zeitgeist-Addendum, has been largely overlooked despite the fact that its less of a conspiracy theory and more of an intelligent solution to the world’s most serious problems. Addendum is less about the wrongs of current society and more about the ways we can fix them. The second half of the film relies largely on the philosophies and conceptual inventions of designer/engineer Jaque Fresco, who feels that a majority of the world’s problems are based on the fraudulent existence of scarcity, which he believes is the reason for human greed. If we utilize our technologies to their fullest capacity, a human Utopia is possible, but that cannot happen until we switch from a monetary based economy to a resource based economy.

I’m pretty sure it goes without saying that such radical ideas would not be broadcasted on mainstream media networks like Fox News, and that brings me to another topic of my paper-the video blog. Like its brother the regular blog, video blogs, or vlogs, are almost a type of guerilla journalism. Although they do not require the same credentials as traditional video journalists, nor are they subject to the same consequences for slander, video bloggers can do some good by covering stories that major video journalists are not at liberty to cover, since unlike vloggers they are subject to companies who only have one thing in mind: profit. Like documentaries such as Zeitgeist, I consider vlogs to be associated with causes. Consider the effects websites like Rocketboom.com have on the psyche when they run stories on dirty drinking water in third world countries. It is hard to watch such images without wanting to do something to change the state of things, possibly by making donations to relief funds, and that is a prime example of how a cause in cyberspace film can affect the physical world.

Of Course, not every film in cyberspace promotes a cause. In all honesty, I’d estimate about ninety percent of it does not, and about half of that ninety percent, forty-five percent of the total, is complete garbage, but that’s no reason to be synical; the other forty-five percent of video content on the web is more than enough to make up for Miley Cyrus’s personal vlog uploads. Take the video bellow for example...

At the forefront of this new film outlet, is the somewhat controversial, infamous mega-site Youtube.com. Youtube was invented in February 2005 by three former paypal employees who had trouble sharing videos on the web. The site has now become one of the most frequently visited pages in cyberspace, shortly behind Google, Yahoo and Facebook. Youtube allows users to join for free and submit an unlimited amount of material, and will not remove videos unless they are in breach of the terms of service contract, which does not allow copyrighted material, pornography or videos promoting criminal behavior(Huber, Peter).

The importance of a film outlet like you tube cannot be understated. It is perhaps one of the most significant websites ever to be created on the internet. Think about the implications it has for those who seek to be discovered in the arts(Barnes, Brookes). Bellow are some of my favorite videos that showcase the ways a website like Youtube can bring support to artists from cultures that are thousands of miles apart from their own(Ferro, Charles).

Another important thing that Youtube has accomplished is the elimination of the middle man. What am I talking about? Well, I for one have become sick of all these America’s Most Dangerous Police Chases, and Worlds Most Shocking Videos that typically air on TruTv and the USA network during the 7-12 timeslot. And don’t even get me started on America’s Funniest Home Videos! Fortunately for our generation, we can find all these clips of calamities on the internet in one little search bar, and that’s a good thing for both the audience, and the film’s creator. Before Youtube, a video like Charlie Bit my Finger might be sent into America’s Funniest Videos where it would compete, and possibly loose to something like Cat Swinging from Fan. Either way the fact of the matter is that most of the money made through advertising on AFV would end up in Bob Sagat’s pockets, not Charlie’s parent’s pockets(Hume, Lauren). Nowadays though, Charlie bit my finger is a source of continuous income for Charlie’s parents thanks to Google ad’s on the bottom of the video screen.

Advertisement rights have led to a very serious issue concerning video content on the web however, but the consumer need not be afraid, for these issues only help us. Youtube is only one of many video outlets available on the web, and though it is constantly under attack from companies that find their copyrighted content on Youtube, the major website is the least of their problems. Link-sharing-websites like Alluc.org allow web-surfers to view any material they want, from television shows to bootleg movies still in theaters, free of charge. The website gets away with this blatant copyright infringement because it does not post any copyrighted material on the site; it only provides links to other foreign websites that post copyrighted material. Luckily for the studios that created this copyrighted material, the quality of these bootlegs is usually poor, so if studios choose, they can combat the pirate sites by creating their own archives of television shows and selling advertisement space online(Harris, Rachael Lee). Examples of this would be the cable programs Southpark and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Recently several movies have partnered with Youtube and Hulu so that they may be viewed for free also, making me wonder, is cable television coming to an end? Is free video media the reason major cable companies like Comcast and Verizon also provide internet service? I think I might be on to something here, but only time will tell.

In conclusion Film in cyberspace is spreading the word of causes, making independent films and music videos available to a broader audience, and allowing people without cable to view cable television free of charge. Behind each and every film however is a person, or possibly a group of people, happy to have their art of expression viewed by audiences the world over, and that is how we, the people, are composing cyberspace.

Works Cited
BARNES, BROOKS "Bigger Screen for a High-Pitched Whine." New York Times 08 Dec. 2009: 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Dec. 2009.HARRIS, RACHEL LEE "Queen Of the Muppets." New York Times 30 Nov. 2009: 2. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Dec. 2009.Ferro, Charles "FUNKY MEDINA." Billboard 121.43 (2009): 31. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Dec. 2009Huber, Peter "MARCH OF THE SKYPETUBE." Forbes 183.11 (2009): 82. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Dec. 2009.Hume, Lauren "Television and Youtube.com in Election 2008: A Substantive Comparison of Presidential Campaign Advertisements in Electronic Media." Conference Papers -- Midwestern Political Science Association (2009): 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Dec. 2009.