Reputation Economy and Effectiveness of YouTube: Analytical Essay

YouTube has been a long-standing platform where people filmed everyday lifestyle videos. However, it is no longer enough to produce engaging content that satisfies oneself. With increasing pressure to stand out by feeding the algorithm that promotes a video’s popularity, it has become common for modern-day Youtubers to seek professional help in their video content production. Consequently, a new layer of jobs has emerged, one that people do not intuitively regard – farming out professional video editing to third parties. In the context of YouTube, I will be investigating the repercussions of the Reputation Economy and the responsibilities of platforms, as well as providing my evaluation and recommendations.

Reputation Economy of YouTube and how it encourages self-promotion

The landscape of YouTube is drastically different from when it first started years back. Today, the number of subscribers, likes, and comments generated from posting a video has become strongly correlated with the success of a Youtuber, which can be explained by the “Reputation Economy”. The Reputation Economy is a cultural and economic system that has come to prioritize the online reputation as a form of capital, giving rise to efforts of self-promotion. With a Youtuber’s online reputation built into a system whereby his number of subscribers and likes for a particular video is prominently displayed and represented qualitatively, viewers can easily compare a Youtuber’s popularity and perceived competence. Views, likes, and comment count eventually influence the decisions of users when viewing or sharing videos (Shifman, 2013). A YouTuber’s visibility is equated to his credibility, which encourages self-promotion, and the active managing of his metrics, and visibility. To build a strong online reputation, these Youtubers have to regularly produce high-quality content in order to promote themselves.

YouTubers need to constantly keep up with the algorithm to maintain their reputation

Once these Youtubers have garnered a reputation, they need to exercise consistency in content creation or risk losing favor with the algorithm. Top Youtubers feel compelled to make nonstop videos for an ever-growing audience. Some creators even clock 80- to 100- hour workweeks just to maintain their status. Since the algorithm dictates where talent ranks, creators are deterred from taking breaks due to the fear that they will face a drop in their ranking. (Spangler, 2018). As such, to keep up with the frequency of video production, it has become a norm for many Youtubers to seek professional help in their content creation. (Walker, 2019).

The burnout Youtubers face as a result of trying to maintain their reputation

“It’s toxic: the point at which you are breaking down is the point at which the algorithm loves you the most”, said top Youtuber, Matt Lees. Other prominent YouTubers such as Michelle Phan explained her fatigue and eventual burnout from maintaining her YouTube channel, even with production assistance. Burnout is a problem that has affected hundreds of Youtubers. Numerous prominent Youtubers have taken breaks, but the rate of creators who mentally burn out is drastically higher. (Dodgson, 2019).

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Evaluating YouTube’s effectiveness in addressing burnout & why it should do more

YouTube operates under a gig economy whereby most of the cost is offloaded to the worker, except in this case, at the expense of a YouTuber’s mental health. Currently, YouTube addresses this issue by posting a series of short introductory videos where licensed therapists discuss burnout. Yet, this is clearly not enough as many YouTubers continue to burn out. As YouTubers are the main value drivers of the platform, YouTube should do more to take care of their well-being. Not doing so eventually drives out talented Youtubers from the platform and replaces them with new creators who ride on the metric-driven Reputation Economy of YouTube. Instead, YouTube should treat all YouTubers as valued workers who are unique and irreplaceable, as not doing so may also cause fans who are viewers of their favored YouTubers to leave the platform, which is detrimental to the sustainability of the platform as a whole.

Are the algorithms to blame or the people behind it?

At a glance, it seems like the constantly changing algorithms are indeed fuelling the burnout as YouTubers frequently fret over how to display their content accordingly. (Walker, 2018). However, it may not be reasonable to attribute full blame to the algorithms. As Youtubers get bigger, they start to get overly caught up with extracting value out of the creator-subscriber relationship. Instead of focusing on what value they can provide to their viewers and reaping rewards as a by-product, they are obsessed with producing content that maximizes their rewards. What initially started off as a platform to connect passionate creators to viewers might have evolved into one whereby YouTubers are more caught up with the monetary value that can be extracted from their content. For instance, popular YouTubers such as Alisha Marie claimed that her reason for taking breaks was that she no longer had pride in her content. As such, the people behind the algorithms have larger blame for the situation.

Evaluating whether the Reputation Economy of YouTube results in gain or exploitation

The user metrics of YouTube skyrocket over time coupled with the constantly changing fuels of the Reputation Economy and self-promotion. Arguably, this led to an economic gain in the form of a new layer of jobs being created. However, upon deeper analysis, there is more exploitation than gain. Firstly, in order to suit the changing algorithms, creators have to put in substantial hours behind the scenes doing editing, and script writing for their videos. The hours put in are substantial, but the payoff is usually uncertain since YouTubers cannot ascertain for sure how much they will make. YouTube pays YouTubers on a pay-per-view basis, and sometimes, YouTubers get fewer views than expected due to factors such as people not being online at the time the video was posted and the algorithm not showing the videos on subscription feeds. Collectively, there is the exploitation of YouTubers since their efforts are not commensurate to their payoff, even though they contribute to the platform with content.

Secondly, it leads to a “winner-take-all market” – Only the top Youtubers with a strong reputation capture a large share of the “rewards”, while budding YouTubers have expressed their discontent that the platform protects a handful of stars, promoting them at the expense of the masses struggling to break out. YouTube’s search and recommendation algorithms accelerate the convergence of views towards a few content providers. (Kim, 2012). Only very few can enter the top 3% most viewed channel, which fetch $16,800 in advertising revenue per year. (Bartl, 2018). Popular Youtubers with a strong online reputation and thus high channel traffic garner more views, which is equivalent to their “wages”. Conversely, those with weaker reputations may get fewer views as the algorithm favors them less, regardless of their effort and production of quality content, leading to the exploitation of those with a weaker reputation.

How YouTube and the community (viewers and creators) can improve the situation

Perhaps YouTube can ease the problem of burnout by blocking YouTuber’s access to hyper-specific metrics such as when and where people stop watching videos, which makes it easy for YouTubers to obsess over the numbers in an effort to improve their likes and subscribers. Instead, this potentially encourages YouTubers to channel their energy into producing the best possible work. Additionally, it is necessary to inculcate heightened awareness and thus empathy for viewers and creators, that people on the platform are real people who have feelings, make mistakes, and need time to themselves just like any other human being. For creators, it is essential to take a step back whenever they feel that their effort outpaces the reward. For viewers, it is pertinent to manage expectations rather than harbor unrealistic expectations for Youtubers, because they are just any other human being at the end of the day.