Research Ideas

1.) YouTube has become a hub for informal learning on the web. There are countless how-to tutorials that teach you everything from learning how to play the solo on Jimi Hendrix's Wind Cries Mary to affixing your headlight properly on your car. In the last couple years I've noticed that a number of small electronics companies, film gear producers, as well as thought leaders of communities have been releasing tutorials on how to use their products. There is certainly a learning component within these videos as audiences learn how the product works, how to use it and also within the comments as people form an ad-hoc community around the video that affords opportunities to ask and answer questions about the product. But a second layer to this is I am proposing is that these tutorials videos are seamless advertisements that not only help educate audiences, but also make it easier for them to purchase products on their sites.

I propose the following research questions.

• How are different types of companies utilizing YouTube's platform for informal learning as a way to advertise their products? 
• How do audiences interact with these videos: as ads or as tutorials or both? 

2.) As Pew's State of the News Media reports, relatively new media companies such as Vice, Buzzfeed, and Quartz are expanding their international news coverage as newspapers have been cutting back on their foreign coverage. I'm particularly intrigued by Vice Media's video content model by which they have forged partnerships with traditional media (HBO show) and also by releasing video content on YouTube, a digital platform. Additionally Vice offers high quality, long form content that resonates with viewers, often takes a stance/position, and seemingly gets access to people and places other media cannot. 

I propose the following research questions: 

• Is Vice Media's digital content strategy successful as compared with traditional media publications?