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Abstract
There may be a new wave of media globalisation based on what may appear to be the virtually frictionless, near-global reach of major digital content delivery platforms, pre-eminently YouTube. This article looks at the scale and significance of this new screen ecology, considering its continuities and discontinuities with established understandings of media globalisation, arguing against the notion that it provides a platform for new forms of cultural hegemony. Focusing on the periphery rather than the centre, it uses Australia as a case study in asking the question: in what ways does it make sense to talk about a nationally demarked YouTube space?
Acknowledgements
This paper has arisen from research conducted as part of a Fulbright Senior Scholarship awarded by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission for 2014–2015 based at University of California Santa Barbara and University of Southern California. I wish to thank the Commission and its excellent staff led by Dr Tangerine Holt and the host universities, as well as the lead hosts and most supportive colleagues, Professor Michael Curtin and Professor Henry Jenkins.
Notes
1. Online data aggregator SocialBlade lists 100 (http://socialblade.com/youtube/top/networks/mostviewed), while an estimation by Powell (Citation2014) puts the number closer to 200.
3. Data on these matters vary; however, Google posts traffic disruptions to their site: http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/disruptions/#expand=Y2015,Y2014,Y2013,Y2012.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Stuart Cunningham
Stuart Cunningham AM is Distinguished Professor of Media and Communications, Queensland University of Technology. His most recent books are Digital Disruption: Cinema Moves Online (edited with Dina Iordanova, 2012), Key Concepts in Creative Industries (with John Hartley, Jason Potts, Terry Flew, John Banks and Michael Keane, 2013), Hidden Innovation: Policy, Industry and the Creative Sector (2013), Screen Distribution and the New King Kongs of the Online World (with Jon Silver, 2013), The Media and Communications in Australia (edited with Sue Turnbull) and Media Economics (with Terry Flew and Adam Swift, 2015).