Strategic and tactical uses of internet design and infrastructure: the case of YouTube

Abstract This article aims to provide insight into the nature of the ongoing negotiation of power and control between the controllers (owners, designers, editors) and “prosumers” (consumers who are at the same time producers of content) of the YouTube™ Social Networking Site. The study is theoretically inspired by Michel de Certeau’s (1984) ideas of utilization as a productive activity involving strategic and tactical behavior. We examine the steering mechanisms embodied in the YouTube™ infrastructure as well as its distinct “practices of utilization.” Web sites communicate cultural indicators through a complex interplay of words, pictures, design features, and navigational or narrative strategies. We analyzed this complex multi modal cultural discourse using the “Hybrid Media Analysis Model” (Pauwels, 2005) on YouTube™ topics, including a four-week period during the 2007 American pre-election campaign. The analysis shows that—while YouTube™ actively participates in constructing the image of users being on an equal footing with the platform producers—premolded personal space, the presented (and “significantly missing”) options, and embedded steering mechanisms call into question the notion of user empowerment. The study also highlights areas for future cultural and multi modal research into Social Networking Sites, such as SNS strategies, the authenticity of video posting, YouTube™ as a News source, and Web site design related to meaning construction.