Text, metatext, hypertext and subtext - YouTube in the culture of re-mediation and remix: a new media study
Text, metatext, hypertext and subtext. YouTube in the culture of re-mediation and remix: a new media study

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to discuss new media culture and the influences which new media objects exert on social acts, media and popular culture in their traditional sense. Following the theoretical works such as those of Lev Manovich, Manuel Castells and Albert Barabasi regarding virtual spaces, cultural interfaces, the network society and complex networks, but also those in the traditional media critical apparatus, essential and significant aspects of popular new media objects can be analyzed given their major importance in the emerging new media society. The paper describes an analysis model for complex new media systems and objects hosted by the World Wide Web conceived on four levels: text, metatext, hypertext and subtext. The case study aims to analyze the YouTube video-sharing portal as a new media object, according to the latest theories in the field, using traditional sociological methods as well as automated data collection and analysis methods specific to the new media. Managing to outline several characteristics of this object we could better understand the phenomenon generated around it, the penetration of materials from YouTube towards television, and the status of a veritable anthropologic document the site has.

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