YouTube-Lonelygirl conspiracy theory
About a month ago, YouTube's popular Lonelygirl15 video blogger was exposed as an actress portraying a character created by three behind-the-scenes guys. Many said they had suspected that this was the case. But Lonelygirl's popularity and the revelation that it was, in fact, a hoax, may have weakened an assumption of many people that enthusiastic amateurs of greater or lesser talent can create product that is as compellingly watchable as those created by professionals.
There had been numerous stories of Hollywood being concerned about losing part of their audience to places like YouTube. So could the Lonelygirl15 mystery have been a subtle, psychological ploy to chip away at the belief systems of these drifting consumers? The ploy would have been to set up the drifters with the beguiling Lonelygirl decoy videos, make them identify with her as one of their own, then weaken their identity through the revelation of the hoax.
And this was not a hoax by just anyone, but by people with connections to Hollywood's powerful Creative Artists Agency, a symbol of the establishment forces whose product the drifters may have believed could be challenged by the great unwashed product of the unruly irreverent amateurs. CAA didn't officially become a part of Lonelygirl until several months after it had begun, but one of the behind-the-scenes guys had a friend at CAA, so there was still a previous connection.
The Lonelygirl videos may have been more slickly produced than most amateur videos because the goal was not just to undermine the drifters' identity, but to get them to drift back to the more slickly produced Hollywood product.
About a month after the Lonelygirl revelation, YouTube, itself, was sold for the very professional price of 1.6 billion American dollars.
So first came the weakening of drifter identity in the form of the Lonelygirl15 revelation, then came the takeover in the form of the sale of YouTube to Google, a big corporate owner. (Though YouTube had previous deals with NBC Universal and Warner Music Group to avoid copyright lawsuits. These 2 big media companies might also be good places to look for possible conspiracy connections.)
YouTube could have been diminished (or co-opted) with its mere purchase and subsequent corruption through the placement of ubiquitous ads and Hollywood-sanctioned product, but the drifters would have just drifted off to a new Internet playground. By first infiltrating their minds and desires through the Lonelygirl videos, then weakening their belief systems through the revelation of the Lonelygirl hoax, the drifters might now be less likely to drift and more likely to drift back to the products created by the Hollywood establishment, now prominently advertised on YouTube.
Something similar was done to the independent film movement, I believe. The big studios began buying up the independent film companies, the established talent began appearing in and creating so-called indie films and suddenly, everyone was just one big, happy family again. However, the amateur Internet video movement is much larger and more diverse than the independent film movement, so it would be much harder to co-opt. *
footnote
* I enjoy watching the Lonelygirl videos from time to time as well as Hollywood product and YouTube videos, if anyone cares. This blog is also hosted by Blogger, a subsidiary of Google.
And this theory doesn't mean that all interest in amateur videos by established companies is bad. A number of companies are apparently helping amateurs start their professional careers in a positive manner. And most amateur video creators would probably like to be discovered one day.
originally posted: thursday, october 12, 2006, 3:58 AM ET
deleted: thursday, october 12, 2006, 12:41 PM ET
updated and re-posted: friday, october 13, 2006, 11:12 AM ET
update: thursday, october 26, 2006, 7:39 PM ET
There had been numerous stories of Hollywood being concerned about losing part of their audience to places like YouTube. So could the Lonelygirl15 mystery have been a subtle, psychological ploy to chip away at the belief systems of these drifting consumers? The ploy would have been to set up the drifters with the beguiling Lonelygirl decoy videos, make them identify with her as one of their own, then weaken their identity through the revelation of the hoax.
And this was not a hoax by just anyone, but by people with connections to Hollywood's powerful Creative Artists Agency, a symbol of the establishment forces whose product the drifters may have believed could be challenged by the great unwashed product of the unruly irreverent amateurs. CAA didn't officially become a part of Lonelygirl until several months after it had begun, but one of the behind-the-scenes guys had a friend at CAA, so there was still a previous connection.
The Lonelygirl videos may have been more slickly produced than most amateur videos because the goal was not just to undermine the drifters' identity, but to get them to drift back to the more slickly produced Hollywood product.
About a month after the Lonelygirl revelation, YouTube, itself, was sold for the very professional price of 1.6 billion American dollars.
So first came the weakening of drifter identity in the form of the Lonelygirl15 revelation, then came the takeover in the form of the sale of YouTube to Google, a big corporate owner. (Though YouTube had previous deals with NBC Universal and Warner Music Group to avoid copyright lawsuits. These 2 big media companies might also be good places to look for possible conspiracy connections.)
YouTube could have been diminished (or co-opted) with its mere purchase and subsequent corruption through the placement of ubiquitous ads and Hollywood-sanctioned product, but the drifters would have just drifted off to a new Internet playground. By first infiltrating their minds and desires through the Lonelygirl videos, then weakening their belief systems through the revelation of the Lonelygirl hoax, the drifters might now be less likely to drift and more likely to drift back to the products created by the Hollywood establishment, now prominently advertised on YouTube.
Something similar was done to the independent film movement, I believe. The big studios began buying up the independent film companies, the established talent began appearing in and creating so-called indie films and suddenly, everyone was just one big, happy family again. However, the amateur Internet video movement is much larger and more diverse than the independent film movement, so it would be much harder to co-opt. *
footnote
* I enjoy watching the Lonelygirl videos from time to time as well as Hollywood product and YouTube videos, if anyone cares. This blog is also hosted by Blogger, a subsidiary of Google.
And this theory doesn't mean that all interest in amateur videos by established companies is bad. A number of companies are apparently helping amateurs start their professional careers in a positive manner. And most amateur video creators would probably like to be discovered one day.
originally posted: thursday, october 12, 2006, 3:58 AM ET
deleted: thursday, october 12, 2006, 12:41 PM ET
updated and re-posted: friday, october 13, 2006, 11:12 AM ET
update: thursday, october 26, 2006, 7:39 PM ET
posted by eric at 9:51 AM
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