- Hello, my dudes.
My name is Tiffany.
Welcome back to my
series Internet Analysis,
where I like to research
and discuss things
relevant to social issues and media.
Today, I couldn't be
bother to fix my bangs.
I'm wearing a burrito blanket,
and we're continuing with
part two of my discussions
about commentary and drama channels.
In part one, I focused
on commentary channels
and kind of explained the spectrum
between commentary and
drama channels on YouTube,
as well as sharing many, many
of my favorite channels on YouTube.
In this video, I focus more
on "drammentary" channels
and drama channels and
how they cover drama,
and how that affects the YouTube
community and other issues.
So I hope that you enjoy it.
Here we go.
So I am about to start my senior year
of my media studies degree, hell yeah,
and obviously my media studies
classes inform my videos
and often inspire my topics
that I like to cover.
But something that's been
really important to me
specifically is the
concept of media literacy,
and to me, that is all about
what we get out of media,
and the importance of being skeptical
and critical of all media,
whether it's created
by people that we like and trust or not.
It's always important to
have that critical thinking
and question what we're
seeing and hearing.
So, I am gonna use a current
situation as an example,
the Nikocado Avocado and
Stephanie Soo situation.
I'm not gonna summarize the drama,
but there are tons of videos about it
if you are inclined to hear about it.
But I think that there's a typical pattern
that this situation has
definitely followed.
First thing, tea is spilled.
There is a dramatic reveal video.
And this happened with Stephanie's
Why I Am Scared of Nikocado Avocado video.
I watched this 47 minute-long video
despite, previous to this,
not knowing who Stephanie was.
I don't watch mukbang content,
and I had only known about Nik
from his drama from
quitting veganism years ago
and also his recently
drama with Trisha Paytas.
Anyway, though, I was compelled
by Stephanie's stories,
and the video honestly
did make me dislike Nik.
Overall, I believed her,
and I didn't respond
to this situation publicly in any way,
but I was just absorbing the information.
Step two, audience reactions
and response videos.
On one hand, this is good,
because you can show support for someone.
In this situation,
if it appears that
someone has been harmed,
the audience can show their support.
By the way,
for this whole segment
about the pattern of drama,
I'm using this situation as an example,
but I have only seen
Stephanie's first video
and none of the follow-up
videos or response videos after,
because this is not actually
about my opinion on this situation.
I'm just using it
because it does largely
follow this pattern,
though I must admit, my
immediate bias was and is
to distrust Nik, because
he's just the type of person
who's always involved in drama,
and I just naturally think that people
who find themselves in
all of these scandals
and who are constantly exposing
other people with receipts,
it kinda seems like they like drama.
So I'm not gonna take them too seriously,
'cause that seems a bit toxic.
Anyway, continuing.
But remember that we've only heard
one side of the story so far,
but already, most people
have picked that one side.
We immediately believe that
all the stories are true.
We assume that all the receipts are real.
Again, this applies not
just to this situation,
but also when Nik exposed Trisha
or when Tati exposed James Charles.
Most of us have the kind of instinct
to immediately trust and
believe these nature right away.
Any sociologists out there
wanna tell us why that is?
Maybe psychologists, I don't know.
- And also because drama channels
want to talk about hot tea
as soon as it is fresh and
relevant, that makes them
have to try to make a video
as quickly as possible.
Like, immediately.
Which doesn't leave
much time for processing
or additional research or trying to verify
if any of these claims are true.
So then, potentially misinformation
could be getting boosted
by these drama channels
who are spreading it to all of
the viewers of their videos.
Step three, tea channels post
the clips and receipts of the situation.
So this is an easy way
to catch up on drama
if you are not willing to watch
a 47 minute-long video about it,
and it's also good if you want
to see the clips and receipts
without watching the original videos.
Like, maybe you don't wanna support
the quote-unquote bad
person in the situation.
You don't wanna give them the views.
But we have to remember
that the clips are being taken
out of their full context,
and the way that it's edited
could potentially be misleading.
Step four, you get a response
from person number two.
Whoever else is involved in this scandal
will make their own video,
in this situation, Nik.
I refuse to call him
Nikocado Avocado every time.
Can I just say how obnoxious it is
to make an hour and a half-long
response video to drama?
Clearly, you know it'll get views,
and you're counting on people
to watch the whole thing
to get all the tea, so it's monetized.
You've got ad breaks all throughout it.
You're trying to max out
the AdSense money, I get it.
But seriously, who has the time?
Aside from dedicated people
who are willing to watch the whole thing,
I hope that the average
watch time is four minutes.
If you have something to say,
you should be able to say it
in a more concise way that
does not necessarily take
an hour and a half of you rambling.
So another side of the story is told,
more receipts are shown.
The situation obviously gets more complex,
and it's possible maybe
person number one lied
or maybe they didn't tell the whole story.
Step five, more reactions,
more response videos,
more drama recaps.
By the way, can I just
say, I get so bored when,
I used to watch a lot
of drama kind of videos,
and the same channels
would consistently cover
the exact same topics every day.
And I'm just not gonna watch five channels
cover the same small situation.
There's just not enough to be said.
It gets very stale, it
gets very repetitive,
and that's my beef with
daily drama content.
It's not fulfilling to me.
Anyway, as more and more videos
and reactions get posted,
obviously things are
complicated, but still,
can we truly believe wholeheartedly
either or any of the
people in these situations?
Can we trust the receipts?
We might still support person number one,
despite the new information that came out,
or maybe we are flip-flopping,
and we don't know who to
believe or what to believe.
It gets complicated.
Drama is messy, any of us know.
Even in drama in your personal life,
it is so hard to convince
outsiders of what is the truth,
let alone revealing it all
on the internet in this way.
So, a lot YouTube drama tends to be
kind of he said, she said,
so it can be kind of
hard to know who's right,
or maybe both people are
in the wrong somehow.
And also, those situations tend
to be the less serious ones.
But then there are situations
where it is very clear
who is in the wrong,
(Tiffany clears throat)
Onion Boy.
I'm really glad to see
all the coverage about him
and what he has done to people,
because that is a very
important, serious situation,
and he is a terrible
person, to say the least.
And importantly, the
allegations against him
have been corroborated
by many different people
in depth with receipts.
And again, this is a
situation where receipts
aren't just a petty thing,
but they're a serious way
to build an actual case against him.
Is YouTube the new judicial system?
I hope not, because he
deserves an actual trial,
and to go to actual prison.
But anyway, this is where it's important
to make a huge distinction
between manufactured drama
for the clout, as in
what Trisha does always,
versus actual, serious problems
that are not just a quick grab for views.
I think YouTube is a good
platform to potentially
come out and say something
about a serious issue,
and sometimes it is important to bring it
to a public platform
for a number of reasons.
There are benefits to it.
But also clearly, we have
people who take advantage
of YouTube for their own personal gain.
So yeah.
Step number six involves people
continuing to make videos back and forth,
giving new content for
drama channels to recap,
feeding the cycle,
and then sometimes random
other creators get involved,
like Trisha, in this situation,
with Nik and Stephanie.
Step seven.
By this point, most people either gave up
and don't care about the drama anymore,
or they're completely lost,
because there's too much going on.
But still, drama channels pump out videos,
and dedicated viewers will still watch.
People live for drama.
It's intense, it's juicy.
So that's what I think is a summary
of the typical drama cycle on YouTube,
and it is very easy to get caught up
in kind of the excitement of the drama,
the juiciness of all the fresh tea.
Again, even those of us who
don't always enjoy this drama,
we can sometimes get wrapped up in it too.
It's human nature.
But dude, this is real life.
This is somebody's real life.
Or maybe it's all fake, we don't know.
And that's why it's so
important for us to reexamine
how we interact with this drama,
and if we're even going
to interact with it.
Are we gonna watch it?
Are we gonna support it?
Are we going to talk about it?
The wild thing is, good or bad,
drama is good for business.
Whether you're involved in it directly
or you're just making videos about it,
you're probably gonna get some views.
Is this me being a hypocrite again,
because here I am making a
video about drama videos?
On one hand, I can say
I think it's important
to acknowledge some of these situations
and some of these larger issues.
Like with the Stephanie and Nik thing,
I think that brings up an
important point about consent
and communication and the importance
of voicing your concerns
when they're happening.
The point being not to beat yourself up
or blame yourself after
something has happened
because you didn't speak
up or leave in the moment.
Beating yourself up is
not gonna do any good,
but having that time to reflect and know
that in future situations
you should probably
remove yourself from that situation
or find other strategies
to try to prophet yourself.
As always, there's an element
of personal responsibility
and the things that we can do
to protect or defend ourselves
versus the importance of other people
not being shitty people.
But you can't always count on that.
Nik was wrong to pressure
her and guilt trip here.
So anyway, yes, this drama does have
some actual important takeaways,
things that people can learn
from watching this video.
So in some ways, I think
we can make larger points
about the drama that happens online.
We can boost things that need attention,
and as a commentary channel,
I definitely think that it's
important to interact with
and to discuss other
things that happen online.
YouTube and social media are not vacuums.
I think it's very important
to have this feedback system
and to respond not just in comments,
but for those of us who
make videos or blogs
or any other kind of responses,
it's important for us
to discuss these things.
They are relevant.
But again, that's why I personally
like to use some drama situations
as jumping off points,
but then focus on larger discussions.
Make a bigger point about it
rather than just hyper-analyzing it,
digging deep into two people's drama.
There is just so much going on
on the internet and on YouTube.
There is endless stuff to discuss
that I think it's just
a little boring and lazy
to focus on these tiny
little dramatic cat fights.
I mean, again, some drama
is more serious than others.
Typically, a lot of this
drama is really dumb
and should not be covered
as extensively as it is.
Also, if you're not trying
to make daily recap videos
as soon as there's fresh, hot tea,
then we can wait for the
whole situation to settle,
to get all the information
out, to hear all the sides,
and then with can make
kind of a deep dive video
with all of the
information that is present
rather than jumping the gun
and trying to make a video right away.
For example, I can admit I messed up
when I joined in on the James
Charles Dramageddon situation.
I knew it was be a good thing,
and honestly, I was like, hey,
I'll make a video about this.
It's a hot topic.
So I rushed the video,
which I usually do not do,
and I tried to just
throw something up there,
and then guess what?
A few days later, more
information came out.
I was wrong about a few things,
and I no longer agreed with the video.
So I took it down, and I had
to admit that I was wrong
to even make it in the first place.
By the end of the whole James
Charles Dramageddon scandal,
everything was flipped,
everything we thought was
true in the beginning.
We had different information,
and that just goes to prove
that we cannot take everything
at face value as it comes out.
We can't accept everything as truth
and perfectly fair and balanced.
Even when we do hear all
the sides of the story,
we still are probably just more confused
about what actually happened
than we were in the first place.
But anyway, as commentary
or drama channels,
I think we have a responsibility
to admit when we are wrong.
And believe me, we are wrong.
It definitely happens.
And also, delete those videos.
It doesn't make sense to keep
up blatant misinformation
and have that still be monetized.
Quickly, I wanna touch on
the concept of journalism,
because sometimes I hear drama channels
say that they report the news,
and I think we need to be very careful
about comparing drama videos,
tea videos, to journalism.
I mean, technically, they
could fall under the umbrella
of what is considered journalism,
but journalism implies a
kind of level of legitimacy
and fairness that I don't
think is necessarily present
in all drama or even commentary videos.
I am saying this as someone
who is not a journalist.
I haven't even taken a journalism course,
though I would like to,
but I know that journalism
has a code of ethics,
and I know that journalists
have studied and trained
and practiced because they know
that there is a major responsibility
in reporting on and spreading
information to the masses.
That is not something that
we should take lightly,
though on social media,
it happens all the time.
Any journalists or journalist
students out there,
please correct me, but I found
these five core principles
of journalism from the
Ethical Journalism Network
that I think is important to consider
in the context of online content,
especially drama and commentary.
First, truth and accuracy.
Second, independence,
as in not being influenced
by special interests,
or there's a rumor going around
that some tea or drama channels
are paid by certain creators
to cover things in a certain way.
I don't know, that's
alleged, but it's possible.
Three, fairness and impartiality.
Everybody has a bias, of course,
but it's important to
try to put that aside
and look at things as
objectively as possible,
if you're trying to present
an objective, unbiased perspective.
Four, humanity.
Journalists should do no harm.
What we publish or
broadcast may be hurtful,
but we should be aware of the impact
of our words and images
on the lives of others.
That's very relevant.
Five, accountability, hold
ourselves accountable.
Drama and commentary
channels talk all day long
about holding other people accountable,
but holding ourselves accountable
is equally as important.
When we commit errors,
we must correct them,
and our expressions of regret
must be sincere, not cynical.
So if we really wanna go
there and compare drama
and commentary channels
to actual news media,
you know, I don't think
it would be a stretch
to call most drama content
similar to gossip magazines
or entertainment news or tabloids.
Speaking of, some people were asking me
how I would classify
Philip DeFranco's channel,
and initially, I wanted to be like,
hot take, he's a drama channel,
because he does cover
a lot of YouTube drama.
But, he doesn't just cover YouTube drama.
He covers YouTube news, internet news.
So I would actually classify him
as more of an entertainment news channel.
Sometimes, though, he does
cover even more serious topics
that aren't about entertainment at all.
I don't watch a ton of Philip DeFranco,
but occasionally, I will
watch one of his videos,
and I think that he is
one of the best YouTube
news channels that we have.
I'm sure some drama channels
aim to be accurate and fair
and spread as much truth as possible,
but also, there are
definitely some drama channels
that will do anything to get clicks.
And then I think it's easy
to say that commentary videos
generally just fall under
the opinion umbrella,
and I think commentary videos are best
when people make it
clear what are the facts,
or at least the alleged facts,
the truth as far as we know it,
and then make a clear
distinction and make it obvious
when they're talking
about their own opinions on the subject.
Again, though, I don't expect YouTubers
to act like trained journalists,
because most of us are
not, and we shouldn't be.
That's not the point of
YouTube as a platform.
But we should be clear and careful
in how we present
ourselves and our content.
Though we are not formal
news organizations,
if you have viewers, you have influence,
and influence has great responsibility.
Quickly, let's touch on
bullying and canceling,
because sometimes, I hear,
especially in regards to drama channels
or commentary channels,
there are a lot of bigger
creators that get targeted,
and they'll tend to
say that this criticism
or coverage of their drama
is hate or it's bullying.
- [Man] However, there
is one side of YouTube
that I don't quite understand
and I'm not really quite sure
I will ever understand it.
There are people out there on YouTube
who make videos tearing
other YouTubers down.
They don't know these people in real life.
They've never met these
people in real life.
- And I don't think that is true.
I don't think that criticism
is automatically hateful.
But if there is a line that
can be crossed, where is it?
Do you guys remember when Jake Paul
accused Cody Ko of being a bully?
- This guy, Cody Ko, is a bully.
He's a cyber bully.
You cyberbully these kids, bro.
- Kids?
- He bullies kids, bro, I don't like that.
- Which kids?
- I don't like cyberbullies,
and you're a cyberbully.
- I'm sorry.
- That was some cringey shit.
Cody doesn't do that's cringe
videos in a mean-spirited way.
But still, let's entertain that question.
Even when content, the
content that he makes fun of,
was posted publicly, it's fair game,
is it wrong to make fun of
or laugh at that content
and kind of put it on blast
when you know that millions
of people are gonna see it?
Is that bullying?
When we as content creators of any size
post content, we never post
it expecting it to randomly
go viral or blow up or be
put on blast by Cody Ko,
though maybe you hope so.
But that is the risk in
putting content up publicly.
My heaters are starting to hiss,
so I'm just gonna try to rush
through the rest of the video
before the audio gets unbearable.
The thing is, I definitely
enjoy That's Cringe.
I love that series.
And I think usually, Cody
tries to befriend the subjects
afterward and make sure
there's no hard feelings,
and from what I've seen,
a lot of the people
who've been featured haven't
necessarily felt hurt
or been offended by his reactions.
But it is still something to consider
when we're making reaction-type content.
You might be making it at
the expense of that person.
But I have a question.
Do we consider That's
Cringe to not be bullying
just because we like Cody and Noel?
What if we didn't like them?
Then would we see it as bullying?
I don't know.
Though there definitely
are some reaction channels
and content that definitely
is more mean-spirited
and does intend to hurt people.
So that would definitely
be considered bullying.
One of my friends
actually recently asked me
if I felt bad for calling out a YouTuber
and mentioning their
drama in one of my videos,
and that really hit me,
because I really tried
to not be mean or attack
people in my videos.
But yes, I am critical.
Still, though, the
thought of hurting someone
really does upset me.
I was emo for the rest of the
day after they asked me that,
because that's not what
I want my content to do.
I don't want that to be
the purpose of my content.
But at the same time, should
I sacrifice my content
and avoid talking about
any of those topics
or talking about any specific
creators for the sake
of never potentially
hurting someone's feelings?
I don't think I could do that.
So that's why I think
overall it's important
to make sure that we're not
attacking people as people,
because I don't think we
can make that judgment.
You don't know these creators online.
But I think it is fair
to judge and criticize
someone's content and
their online behavior,
because that's what we see.
Again, though, I think we
need to be very careful
about the conclusions that we make.
And last thing, I know
we're tired of talking about
and hearing about so-called
cancel culture, but quickly,
I recommend ContraPoints's
new video on canceling.
It's actually more like a film,
because it's literally feature-length.
I love that video.
I watched it on a plane,
and it was one hour and 40
minutes of pure entertainment,
and it really, really
is a nice, nuanced take
and a very, very deep dive
on canceling and the process,
how the whole thing can evolve.
Again, I am all for criticism
and personal accountability
and people apologizing when necessary,
but we need to stop jumping the
gun to try to cancel people.
Canceling people usually
does not do anything good.
It doesn't really leave any
room for genuine apologies
or growth, and it's just exhausting.
And also, let's please stop rejoicing in,
let's stop enjoying and having
fun with scandals and drama.
I'm guilty of this too,
but we need to work on this
and check ourselves and realize
that's not something to celebrate about.
Now that the hissing is really going,
it's like my outro music
is just shitty audio.
Anyway, that's my video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Please remember that you can
like something and be critical.
We love critical thinking, baby.
Just try to make your constructive
criticism constructive.
Duh.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
I hope the drama channels
don't come for me.
If you wanna check out more of my content,
you can watch my vlog channel,
my second channel for other things.
You can find my podcast,
Previously Gifted.
I'm gonna try to make
more episodes in 2020,
but no promises.
(Tiffany coughs)
There's always a point
in the end of the video
where my voice is gone
and I can speak no more.
Follow me on Instagram
for some mediocre pics
and occasionally some nice pics,
like I got this photo
shoot with my boyfriend,
and we have cute pictures now.
You can follow me on Twitter
for some political tweets.
Bernie 2020.
Hell yeah.
That's it, thanks so much, subscribe.
I can't believe we're gonna hit 500,000.
That makes me actually wanna
throw up with excitement.
Kthxbai!
(hokey MIDI music)
