YouTube Mania
Two weeks ago, for the Media Representations assignment, I chose farming/rural life as my phenomenon. Growing up on a farm, I lived in a community and family culture that was mistrusting of city life, its people, and its ways, including many misperceptions and stereotypes. Now living in the city, I find the converse is also true—many people living in towns, cities, and suburban areas have misconceptions and misunderstandings about farm/rural life.
In exploring a variety of YouTube clips using several different keyword searches, I was expecting—even looking for—videos full of stereotypes and vaudevillian representations of farming. I imagined there would be a long list of clips portraying farming as a redneck, unsophisticated way of life with overall-wearing, pitchfork-holding, poop-slinging hicks. In all the keyword searches I conducted, nothing like that appeared. I was surprised. I reluctantly started my YouTube search with fears that farming—a topic and a way of life very near and dear to me—would be horribly misrepresented. Instead, as my searches and viewing progressed, I actually had to use words like “hick� and “redneck� in the keyword search to get any video portrayals of those things. These clips epitomized the stereotypes of rednecks and hillbillies—banjo strumming in the background, people carrying around fishing poles or shotguns, and speech with a drawl. Hillbilly and redneck are not usually associated with farming, so I was not surprised that the clips had nothing to do with farming. I did marvel, however, that a search for “hick farmer� yielded little more than satiric, sardonic user-created clips on what it means to be a stereotypical hick—but none directly associated hick with farming.
What I found instead were a number of clips all focusing on different aspects of farming. These clips were not significant so much in the way farming/rural life was portrayed, but rather for the specific issues they raised about farming. In all the clips I viewed, a few different themes materialized:
ï?® general clips about the farm process or equipment used in farming;
ï?® opposition to animal cruelty and support for animal rescue operations;
ï?® the negative impact of factory farms on human and animal health; and
ï?® support for family farms and the disappearance of the family farm.
The first category of clips is very process-oriented—the farmer tills the soil, plants the seed, nurtures the plants, harvests the crop, and hauls the product to market at the local grain elevator. Some of the clips focused specifically on one aspect of farming, for example the equipment and implements used for crop farming, but generally clips like this showed a very linear progression from one stage to the next. The clips I viewed in this group were all user-created—mostly home videos or photo montages posted to YouTube. I picked the following video as an example of the process-oriented, demonstration-type clips I found on YouTube. There is not a lot of artistic license taken other than to add background music and a few written graphics as the footage rolls. The shots are mostly long shots or mid shots in order to capture the activity of the farm process. There is a slightly sentimental quality to the clip because of the choice of music—Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind�—followed by another song that lends a sense of pride in the work—Jerry Reed’s “Eastbound and Down� from Smokey and the Bandit. The sense of sentimentality and particularly the sense of pride were common in this group of clips—and even throughout some of the other groups of clips as well.
The second group of clips centered on the theme of animal welfare and opposition to animal cruelty. Most of these videos pointed directly to factory or commercial farms as the cause of suffering for animals, pointing out some of the horrible things done to animals such as clipping the beaks of poultry to prevent pecking and fighting and the force-feeding cattle to make them gain weight more quickly. Other practices were also examined, particularly the slaughter of animals. A number of clips mentioned that animals are often not killed prior to slaughter—they are only stunned or paralyzed—so live animals are commonly slaughtered while still alive and able to feel pain. These clips were a combination of user-created media and media derived from documentaries, organizations, or TV productions. The clip below went on to criticize all farm practices, whether family or corporate, for the purported abuse and degradation of all farm animals through the practices of castration, tail docking, and de-horning. This clip also criticizes the living conditions of most farm animals—particularly commercially raised animals—for the confinement and lack of socialization afforded the livestock. The video is mostly close-ups of a group of rescued chickens and shows them in terrible health—feathers have fallen out, beaks are clipped, many are too traumatized to eat, and yet they are so accustomed to laying eggs—forced to lay eggs in a corporate hen house—that many continue to lay eggs even though they are barely alive. The camera work alone paints a gruesome picture. Accompanied by the narration, it is heart-wrenching.
The third group of clips is very closely related to the second, in that the filmmakers tackle issues of corporate farming. In the previous group of clips, animal welfare, rescue, and humane conditions are the primary focus of the films, whereas in this third group, economic issues are explored as well as the impact of corporate farms on animal and human health. Most of the clips in this category were not user-generated content, but rather postings or excerpts from larger documentaries. Several of the clips were affiliated with the Humane Farming Association or at least referenced material from there. Unlike the previous group of clips, which were concerned primarily with rescuing animals and advocating for humane animal treatment, this group of clips actually examines specific practices of corporate farming and how animals are raised. This was the most difficult group of films to succinctly categorize, so I have included two different clips to give a better idea about the breadth of topics examined. The first clip is the final part in a 3-part series about farming in America. (Copyright 2002 by JW Creative Solutions.) It contains interviews of farmers, economists, sociologists, and agribusiness workers in an exploration of corporate farming and its impact on the food supply, the economy, and politics. It is a documentary-style film and consists mostly of close-up interviews with a few long shots of farms and animals.
The next clip is difficult to watch. It contains disturbing images of ill and dying animals being carted off to slaughter, forced to eat, or taken to slaughter alive. It contrasts the corporate, commercial farm with the pastoral lifestyle of animals on a family-owned organic farm. The images of commercially raised animals are dark, dreary, and violent, which are contrasted by the colorful, peaceful images of animals in pastures eating grass under blue skies.
The fourth and final category I observed in my YouTube viewing focused on the family farm—its importance to the American economy in days of yore, the present-day struggles to make it work, and the steady disappearance of small family farms. One clip also emphasized the decreasing awareness in America of where food comes from and what it takes to produce it—as our nation has become more urbanized, it has moved away from its agrarian roots and many people have lost connection with the sense of where food originates. These clips showed a respect and warm admiration of the work and lifestyle of farmers and a sadness at the decline in the number of family farms in this country. None of the clips I viewed were user-generated—they all originated from documentaries, promotional materials for organizations, or TV shows. I chose the following clip because it addressed something that few of the other clips did—the government. This clip is an interview with a husband and wife team who own and operate a small organic farm in Florida. They speak openly of their struggles to make it work, the financial strains of farming, and their frustrations with government regulation and lack of government support. It is basically an interview format that has been edited for sound bytes. There are a few medium and long shots of buildings or animals on the farm, but mostly the camera focuses on the farmers. The content of the clip took precedence over creativity.
I’d like to end with two amusing clips I found in all my YouTube searching—just to lighten the mood a little bit.