YouTube Awards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

YouTube Awards
Awarded for Best YouTube Videos
Presented by YouTube.com
Country United States
First awarded 2007
Last awarded 2008
Official website

The YouTube Awards are awards given out as formalized recognition of the best YouTube videos of the preceding year, as voted by the YouTube community. The awards were organized in 2007 to "call out some of the most popular videos and let the users choose which ones deserve some additional recognition".[1] The awards are the first time that videos would receive any formal recognition; previously, high-ranking videos were only recognized by dynamic lists of most-viewed videos.[1] The winners received a trophy, which was a stand with a large glass "play" button.[2] In addition, they received an invitation to an event to occur "later this year".[3]

Contents

[edit] Organization

The videos to vote upon are chosen by YouTube staff, while the winners are selected by YouTubers.[1] The Awards were first given in 2007—called the 2006 Awards—for the best videos of 2006. The awards comprised of seven categories: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Inspirational, Musician of the Year and Series.[1] Each category then comprised 10 videos which YouTubers ranked in order of preference.[4] For the 2007 Awards, five new categories were added: Eyewitness, Instructional, Short Film, Sports and Political; a general "Music" category replaced the "Musician of the Year" category of the previous year. In addition, each category held only six videos for which YouTubers could vote.[5]

[edit] 2006 Awards

Voting for the 2006 Awards commenced on March 18, 2007 and lasted a week, ending March 23.[1] The 2006 YouTube Awards came just a week after Viacom sued the parent company of YouTube, Google, for more than $1 billion for copyright infringement of television shows owned by Viacom.[6]

The Awards received criticism from New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan when first organized. She suggested that the Awards created too much of a formalized process on YouTube. YouTube, she argued, should not be about awards and individual recognition of merit. Rather, it should be a free place where one can post videos and express oneself free of judgment on quality.[7] Caroline McCarthy of CNET News commented on the 2007 awards in agreement with Heffernan: she argued that YouTube is "is a cultural hub rather than strictly a creative outpost."[3] She also commented many of the most popular videos are not high quality, or original content.[3]

Nominations for the 2006 Awards included noted YouTubers Peter Oakley (geriatric1927), LonelyGirl15, thewinekone, Renetto and Chad Vader.

Category Winning Video[4][7][8][9] Creating User
Adorable "Kiwi" Madyeti47
Comedy "Smosh Short 2: Stranded" smosh (article)
Commentary "Hotness Prevails/Worst Video Ever" thewinekone (article)
Creative "Here It Goes Again" (article) OkGo (article)
Inspirational "Free Hugs Campaign" (article) PeaceOnEarth123
Musician of the Year "Say It's Possible" (article) terranaomi (article)
Series "Ask A Ninja Question 1 "Ninja Mart Store""—first in "Ask a Ninja" series (article) digitalfilmmaker

[edit] 2007 Awards

The 2007 Awards began on March 13, 2008 and lasted for five days, until March 18. YouTubers could vote once per day, but could not change their vote once they voted.[10]

A notable entry in the 2008 Awards was a video of the University of Florida Taser incident, uploaded by The Gainesville Sun; it was entered in the new Eyewitness category.[11] One nomination in the Politics category was an interview with a candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination for the 2008 American presidential election, Ron Paul.[12] Also included in the Politics section was the I Got a Crush... on Obama video. Nominated in the Inspirational category was a stop motion video by Trevor Dougherty, entitled "Stand Up for World Peace."[13][14] The Leave Britney Alone! video by vlogger Chris Crocker was nominated in the Commentary category. Internet meme video Chocolate Rain by singer Tay Zonday was nominated in the Music section;[2] it won.[15]

Category Winning Video[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Creating User
Adorable "Laughing Baby" gsager1234
Comedy "Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" NeilCicierega (article)
Commentary "LonelyGirl15 is Dead!" WHATTHEBUCKSHOW (article)
Creative "The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond" notsonoisy
Eyewitness "Battle at Kruger" Jason275
Inspirational "Blind Painter" texascountryreporter
Instructional "How to solve a Rubik's Cube (Part One)" pogobat
Music "Chocolate Rain" (article) TayZonday (article)
Politics "Stop the Clash of Civilizations" AvaazOrg (article)
Series "The Guild - Episode 1: Wake-Up Call" — first in "The Guild" series (article) watchtheguild
Short Film "my name is lisa" sheltonfilms
Sports "balloon bowl" davetheknave (article)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Coyle, Jake. YouTube announces awards to recognize best user-created videos of the year. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  2. ^ a b Carlson, Erin (2008-03-20). Will the Obama Girl win a YouTube award?. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  3. ^ a b c McCarthy, Caroline (2008-03-21). YouTube Awards are a major yawn. CNET News.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  4. ^ a b Coyle, Jake (2007-03-26). YouTube announces award winners. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  5. ^ Thompson, Iain (March 14, 2008). YouTube seeks votes for best videos. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  6. ^ Auchard, Richard (2007-03-19). YouTube to present video awards. Reuters.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  7. ^ a b Heffernan, Virginia (March 27, 2007). YouTube Awards the Top of Its Heap. New York Times.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  8. ^ Goldsmith, Belinda (2007-03-26). YouTube presents awards to its first stars. Reuters.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  9. ^ YouTube names best video winners. BBC news (2007-03-27). Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  10. ^ YouTube Team (2008-03-13). The YouTube Awards Are Back!. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  11. ^ Stripling, Jack (2008-03-14). Taser video up for YouTube award. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  12. ^ Ron Paul video nominated for YouTube award (2008-03-13). Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  13. ^ YouTube Awards 2007 (2008-04-19).
  14. ^ Hibma, Maggie (2008-03-19). Local student's YouTube video nominated ‘Best of the Year'. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
  15. ^ Carlson, Erin (2008-03-20). Chocolate Rain' Claims a YouTube Award. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
  16. ^ Popkin, Helen (2008-03-21). Don't cry for Chris Crocker. MSNBC.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  17. ^ Leonard, Tom (2008-03-21). YouTube video award winners announced. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  18. ^ 'Stop the Clash of Civilizations' wins YouTube Award. Eux.tv (2008-03-21). Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  19. ^ People: Angela Bassett, Tony Kushner, Obama Girl. International Herald Tribune (2008-03-21). Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  20. ^ Keating, Gina (2008-03-21). "Harry Potter", "Chocolate Rain" win YouTube awards. Reuters.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  21. ^ Schor, Elana (2008-03-21). YouTube awards celebrate buffalo battles and bouncing baby. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
  22. ^ 2007 YouTube Awards: Chocolate Rain & Harry Potter. ABC News (2008-03-22). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  23. ^ YouTube Awards. The New York Times (2008-03-22). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.

[edit] External links