Taking a look at YouTube’s unique, complex history
Alex Winter screened his new documentary at Wallis Annenberg Hall Monday.
By SOPHIA STEWART
Amid heated debates about artificial intelligence and the future of communication policy, Alex Winter’s new documentary “The YouTube Effect” brings a new voice to the fray. The Center on Communication Leadership and Policy screened the film at Annenberg Hall Monday evening, followed by a Q&A with the writer and director.
Winter, best known for his portrayal of Bill S. Preston in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), created the film to chronicle how YouTube grew in prevalence in the last 18 years since its launch in 2005. The documentary not only gave a brief history of YouTube, but also brought to light the complex conversations about algorithms’ potential ability to change minds.
The film features notable former YouTube employees, including co-founder Steve Chen and former CEO Susan Wojcicki. Other cast members included YouTubers Natalie Wynn, Brianna Wu and Anthony Padilla, who were pivotal in unpacking the cultural shifts as a result of YouTube becoming a major media source.
Owen Foster, a junior fellow at the CCLP, said the organization was excited for the opportunity to screen the film.
“Our center focuses a lot on policy communication, and we’re doing two studies on social media disinformation,” Foster said. “Due to the fact that [“The YouTube Effect”] was a great movie that talks about these issues, we’re really glad to have them. We were really pleased with the turnout.”
In a quick introduction before the screening, Winter said the film focuses on “the parasocial relationship between the user, which is you on one end of YouTube, looking into your webcam, and the person on the other end.”
The documentary addressed YouTube’s enduring power in today’s culture, spanning from issues on echo chambers to the average viewer’s experience with the rabbit hole effect. Winter helped contextualize the importance of considering how algorithms are used to monetize views and the chaos that can ensue when major news sources aren’t criticized.
“It’s pretty interesting how they depicted [YouTube] and how you can base your whole mindset off of watching just simply videos that everyone else posts,” said Jenna Gallaway, an undeclared freshman. “[YouTube is] trying to progress it in terms of making the algorithm better.”
(Jordan Renville / Daily Trojan)
During the Q&A, Winter addressed how the government has faced similar issues of writing legislation in order to create a safer environment for the consumer. Winter qualified his own beliefs on tech regulations, breaking down common misconceptions about his approach to consuming media.
“I’m actually tech agnostic,” Winter said. “I’m more of a pro-tech person, so a lot of the founders that I’m with are very pro-privacy, anti-surveillance, pro-citizens rights, and anti-too much regulation that would actually kill the internet.”
The film explores how Gen Z has turned to YouTube as a source of critical information. As generations of humans begin to use the information found on unregulated media platforms to form their beliefs, algorithms can become dangerous. Winter said he thinks that with the approaching 2024 presidential election, YouTube will once again play a pivotal role.
“The fact is that there’s a lot of room for freedom and privacy and safety online,” Winter said. “There’s a lot of reasons for that, and so the law is a free-for-all and [there is] a rise of anti-democratic governments around the world taking great advantage of the complete lack of basic standards and practices.”
Vishal Billa, a senior majoring in electrical and computer engineering who attended Monday’s screening, said he found the documentary “super interesting” from a technological perspective.
“I come at this from an engineering mindset, like there’s a solution to the problem,” Billa said. “It’s some technology that no one’s come up with yet … It was really interesting to see what sort of things contributed to this problem, like regulatory things, human issues and also engineering problems.”
The screening ended with an impactful Q&A session on Winter’s cinematic process. The audience gained insight into the multifaceted debate surrounding YouTube algorithms and restrictions and wrestled with the role legislation has in the development of media and influence. As YouTube becomes more important, the film concludes, the platform will become what we make of it.
“YouTube is a repository for basically all of recorded human history. It is essentially our library of Alexandria,” Winter said. “Every conceivable piece of recorded media that has ever existed can be found on YouTube.”
