Revolution in Egypt: A 4-Minute Introduction
1 2013-11-13T16:30:26-08:00 Raffi Sarkissian ea4d223e7e677fefa407ef0510a69291f3210963 610 3 Leave your questions for Question Tuesday in comments! In which John discusses the Egyptian protests, which may become a burgeoning revolution in Egypt or ma... plain 2013-11-13T16:35:04-08:00 YouTube 2011-01-31T23:56:47.000Z video Pn9x4LCQ5I0 News vlogbrothers Raffi Sarkissian ea4d223e7e677fefa407ef0510a69291f3210963This page has tags:
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- 1 media/medialibrarythumbnailsscreenshot.jpg 2013-10-30T17:18:54-07:00 Gabriel Peters-Lazaro 3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0 Confessional / direct address Karl Baumann 7 plain 2014-07-07T17:29:27-07:00 Karl Baumann 8f815d830edc63efb3e0a280741f8a0e18e65a8f
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- 1 2013-11-03T11:01:40-08:00 Samantha Close f42637f3cf8f8e584095341d3b0809f178e3d449 International Politics Samantha Close 1 plain 2013-11-03T11:01:40-08:00 Samantha Close f42637f3cf8f8e584095341d3b0809f178e3d449
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Nerdfighters
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Civic Network page for Nerdfighters
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About
The Nerdfighters are an online community of young people that coalesced around the YouTube channel of the “VlogBrothers,” John and Hank Green. John Green is a best-selling young adult author and Hank Green is a musician and entrepreneur, and both engage in a wide variety of online educational projects. Since 2007, the two brothers (inspired by video artist Ze Frank) have uploaded two to three videos a week to their YouTube vlog (video-blog) channel. Their topics range widely, from “How to make friends,” to “Revolution in Egypt: a 4-minute introduction.”
The name Nerdfighters refers to the predominantly young followers of the VlogBrothers. As the brothers’ YouTube vlog became increasingly popular, the brothers’ followers adopted the term to describe themselves, and the VlogBrothers since address many of their vlogs to Nerdfighters or “Nerdfighteria.” Over time, Nerdfighters came to exist as a community, coalescing mostly online, on YouTube, Tumblr or on Facebook group pages, but also face-to-face, in meet-ups of informal local groups. The Nerdfighter community has reached significant proportions—the average Vlogbrother video is viewed over 400,000 times. In the yearly “Nerdfighteria census” of 2014, conducted by the Vlogbrothers, over 100,000 Nerdfighters participated. The “barriers of entry” to Nerdfighteria are kept low. As the VlogBrothers quip: “Am I too young / old / fat / skinny / weird / cool / nerdy / handsome /tall / dead to be a Nerdfighter? No!! If you want to be a Nerdfighter, you are a Nerdfighter.”
Nerdfighters pursue a shared social agenda, which they loosely define as “decreasing world suck.” As the VlogBrothers enigmatically define, “World Suck is kind of exactly what World Suck sounds like. It’s hard to quantify exactly, but, you know, it’s like, the amount of suck in the world.” This broad definition leaves much space for individual Nerdfighters to interpret what “World Suck” (and decreasing it) means to them, from being a good person or cheering up a friend, to collective acts that fit within existing definitions of civic engagement, such as donating money to charity or volunteering. For example, Nerdfighters are very active on Kiva.org, a non-profit organization enabling individuals to make small loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. The Nerdfighters also support Project for Awesome (P4A), an annual event in which members are encouraged to create videos about their favorite charity and non-profit organization and simultaneously post those on YouTube. In the 2013 P4A, Nerdfighters uploaded hundreds of videos and donated impressive amounts of money to the “Foundation to Decrease World Suck” (a non-profit created by the VlogBrothers). Nerdfighters could then vote on which charities should receive the donation.
See Neta Kligler-Vilenchik's By Any Media Necessary Chapter, Decreasing World Suck, to learn more about the Nerdfighters and other groups who employ fan activism.
Contributed by Neta Kligler-Vilenchik on 9/29/14
Nerdfighter Media
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Confessional / direct address
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With the advent of personal webcams and the development of video sharing networks, the confessional/direct address style has greatly developed. In traditional filmmaking practices, directly addressing (or even looking into) the camera was highly discouraged, as it was thought to disrupts the audience's "suspension of disbelief" or immersion into the film's storyworld. Directly addressing the camera was sanctioned only for news programs in which the reporter looked into the camera to give a sense of proximity to the audience, as if they were talking directly to the television viewer at home.This sense of intimacy and direct conversation continues to be the underlying effect, and often intent, of making direct address or confessional videos. The image of someone at their computer mirrors that of the audience member, creating an illusion of direct, simultaneous conversation. Though in reality they often act as video letters that are exchanged back and forth amongst groups and individuals.The Harry Potter Alliance in particular often broadcast their group video chats around discussions or have individual channels set up to address the general public as well as respond to each others' previous posts. The "How to Change World" video for example shows one member Lauren responding to Julian's video post about the importance of voting. Her video develops his discussion by adding further logical arguments about the role of communication and community building as part of the voting process. Additionally, at the end of the video she elicits viewers to submit their own videos to add their voices to the conversation.Similarly, Hank and John Green (the Vlog Brothers) respond to each other about important topics but often with a more educational twist, relating to science and history. John's "Revolution in Egypt: A 4-Minute Introduction" is in response to his brother Hank, but focuses on developing a factual backstory to a topical political situation more so than delivering a personal confession or opinion.
