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John Park Prompt #5

Starting out as an independent comedy Youtube channel, 유정호tv (Yoo Jungho tv) has now become one of a handful of Korean Youtubers to reach one million subscribers. All of its videos are produced, filmed, and edited by a single creator named Jungho Yoo, and as a subscriber myself, I witnessed with my own eyes the channel’s rapid growth in popularity as well as some of the difficulties it went through.

Whereas some Youtube channels target a specific subpopulation for viewership and tailor the contents to their interest, this channel has been targeting Korean youths in general as its main audience. Seeing Yoo rise to fame with prank videos and short comedy skits, I initially thought he was one of those typical prank Youtubers that attracted potential subscribers with provocative (and sometimes misleading) titles. Then I came across one of his videos that made me completely change my perception towards him and his channel’s identity.

It was a short video titled “Subscribers’ cancer surgery expenses. My silver button is on sale.” As the title suggested, its message was quite straightforward: one of his subscribers who had been diagnosed with cancer needed more money for her surgery, and he was planning to put his silver button on sale to help her pay for it. Talking about how he lost his father when he was young because his family was too poor to pay for his surgery and how he was able to receive the surgery thanks to the subscribers who funded it when he had cancer himself, he stated that it was now his turn to help his subscribers who gave him a second life. He ended the video by announcing that he will be opening a bank account to raise money for the surgery and that the person who donates the most will be receiving his Silver Play Button.

The video was definitely not the type of prank videos he usually made, since it was just him talking for about two minutes and a half while holding his Silver Play Button awarded to Youtubers with more than 100,000 subscribers. What was more, there was no extravagant visual effect whatsoever except for the simplistic subtitles in white over the top of his head. And he spoke in a very serious tone without altering his voice, which he usually does in other videos to sound funny. But it was these differences that enabled the viewers to focus solely on the message that he wanted to convey as well as his wish to help a subscriber in need. 

Yoo perfectly fits into the definition of an influencer because he has “accumulate[d] a large following on blogs and social media through the textual and visual narration of their personal lives and lifestyles” by vlogging his everyday life, has “engage[d] with [his] following in digital and physical spaces” (Abidin, 2015) through online donation campaigns and offline fan meetings, and has published advertorials to endorse the skin lotion that his wife made. Using this influential power, he filmed and published a video that connected himself with the viewers through interactive intimacy. However, this sense of interactive intimacy was different from that of Singaporean influencers mentioned by Abidin (2015) in that whereas they organized formal and informal events to meet with their followers offline, he has started an online fundraiser so that the subscribers can donate money which will be delivered to the patient offline, giving them an opportunity to actively engage in his plan to pay for the surgery.

Furthermore, Yoo took reciprocal intimacy to a whole new level in this video; instead of simply retweeting or replying to the viewers’ comments, he addressed a subscriber’s personal concern by sharing it with other subscribers and calling upon them to send collective support to save a life. That he was willing to use his fame to start a fundraiser not for himself, but for a subscriber who was in dire need of a proper surgery truly moved the subscribers, who have willingly made the donations and left comments to encourage others to do so, thereby promoting audience engagement voluntarily.

In this sense, Yoo has become a sort of celebrity that “represents something other than [himself]” (Marshall, 2014, p. 56-57)—a man who started Youtube to make people laugh with prank videos has now become a symbol of philanthropy and beneficence, which stands in stark contrast with other Youtubers that are so obsessed with becoming more popular and generating profit for themselves. His genuine love for his subscribers as well as his willpower to pay it forward are truly inspirational, and they make us think again of modern-day influencers’ agency to create a positive impact through the bond with their followers formed by various types of intimacy.




Bibliography:

Abidin, C. (2015, November 1). Communicative ❤ Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from Ada New Media website: https://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/

Marshall, P. D. (2014). Celebrity and power: fame in contemporary culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 4, 2019 at 8:36 AM

    It is interesting to see how there are YouTubers whose purpose is not just about being famous and generating profit for themselves. This can be understood as another methods of standing out from other YouTubers since he is differentiating himself from other YouTubers that focus on creating sensational contents to attract more audience. A number of YouTubers do subscriber giveaways, but they are different in essence because in most of the cases, the products are sponsored. Some of them do so since they desire to build intimate relationships with their subscribers; however, it cannot be compared to that of Yoo Jungho where he focuses purely on philanthropy. Some people criticize Yoo arguing how his contents are all constructed and not genuine. The contents might be constructed but he is touching upon the sensitive topics of Korean society such as school violence, voice phishing, and gender inequality. He is attempting to raise awareness about otherwise neglected social issues through his videos. This can be considered as an example of culture jamming, or even laughtivism. Yoo is exposing mainstream culture and media institutions using relatively approachable means of communication, his YouTube channel in this case. His approach might be unconventional and radical but in a society where access to means of communication is determined by commercial power, it qualifies as an effective means of media activism.
    - Roy Lee

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