By Ryan Holiday 5/14 3:31pm

Off the Media

offthemedia-1

The Jenna Marbles Paradox: Why Are YouTube Videos So Terrible?

It’s been nearly seven years since YouTube first launched its “Partners Program,” a platform for YouTube creators that gives them a portion of revenue made on their videos, and nearly two years since Google invested more than $100M in YouTube content producers. Despite this financial influx, the quality of content on YouTube has stagnated somewhere between “awful” and “downright terrible.”

Call it the Jenna Marbles paradox, after the top YouTuber profiled in the New York Times earlier this year who, after more than one billion views and millions earned in ad revenue, still makes some of the most amateur videos you can imagine. As she put it, she makes “more money than I need, ever” and yet, if you had no idea who she was and watched one of her million-views-plus videos, you’d think this was the first time she’d ever turned on a video camera.

Read More

By Jessica Roy 12/21/12 7:59am

Internet Democracy

(Screencap: YouTube)

President Obama Responds to Petitions Against Gun Violence in New Video

In the wake of the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, social networks lit up with cries for gun control. Hundreds of thousands of people descended on We the People, the White House’s official petition portal, to ask the President to take meaningful action to help stop gun violence. Today, President Obama released a video recorded especially for those who signed these petitions. Read More

By Jessica Roy 11/30/12 9:52am

Life in 3D

(Screencap: YouTube)

New Will.i.am and Britney Spears Video Also Stars a Makerbot 3D Printer Because . . .

When one mulls over the future of manufacturing, naturally the first question that comes to mind is: How we can we as a nation effectively mass produce cornerstone products, like a plastic bust of performer Will.i.am?

Luckily, Mr. Am–who last we heard was hurtling our planet towards a Martian attack–has ushered 3D printing into the mainstream by including it in his newest video, “Scream and Shout,” also featuring the eminently GIF-able Britney Spears. At around 1:38 in the video, a 3D printer sitting on a platform displaying the Makerbot logo is seen printing thin layers of plastic to create a bust of that vital American commodity: Mr. Am’s head. Read More

By Jessica Roy 9/13/12 2:34pm

Apple in Your Eye

(Photo: YouTube)

Los Angeles Residents Can’t Tell the Difference Between the iPhone 4s and the iPhone 5

Was it really only yesterday that we watched with muted glee as Apple fanboys everywhere lost their shit over a phone that is only mildly different from its now much cheaper predecessor? My, how time flies.

The iPhone 5 is slightly lighter and slightly longer than the iPhone 4s, but apparently even Apple fans can’t really discern the difference. Jimmy Kimmel brought an iPhone 4s out on the streets of Los Angeles and told everyone he encountered that it was an iPhone 5. Read More

By Jessica Roy 6/07/12 7:56am

Parodies

(vooza.com)

Everything That Bugs You About Startups in One Video

Despite the fact that we love to spotlight the companies and characters that make this scene hum here at Betabeat, we occasionally grow weary of all the unbridled enthusiasm for the New York tech space. What can we say? We’re journalists–we were born skeptical. So when this parody video of a soon-to-launch startup popped up, its light-hearted jabs at the more eyeroll-inducing side of tech were all too familiar.

“Vooza is a mobile web app that’s real-time, cloud-based, social and local,” begins the animated video. “What does it do? SHHHH! We’re in beta!” Read More