Dusty Albums

edwardspoonhands: THIS. IS. INFURIATING. I know that Good...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:25:29 -0700

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

THIS. IS. INFURIATING.

I know that Good Morning America isn’t news, I know that they don’t matter, and I know that it doesn’t matter what they think about online video. But after watching this puffy hatchet job, I could not not post about it. Let’s just go through this point by point.

Jenna Marbles is the “Queen of Clicks.”
This is a seemingly innocuous phrase, but it’s indicative of the attitude here, making Jenna’s success not about the significance of what she does, but about a meaningless activity that other people do “clicking.” It removes all significance from the interaction people have with Jenna. This is what we call a backhanded compliment.

“So Many teens and tweens hanging on her every word.”
This is GMA’s attempt at attempting to make this story relevant to the people (moms) who watch their show. Except they miss the point that MOST OF THOSE MOMS WATCH JENNA MARBLES! They have no idea…NO IDEA of Jenna’s reach because (apparently) they have NEVER USED AN INTERNET.

Which is pretty insane considering that apparently she has “over a billion followers” on YouTube.
This is a fact that can be checked and found wanting with a very limited understanding of reality (never mind the internet) since only 750 million people in the world SPEAK ENGLISH. So unless /everyone/ who understands her “follows” her, your stat is deeply incorrect (which this is, she has a billion views, not a billion followers.)

“She may just be the most famous person you’ve never heard of.”
Another backhanded compliment.

Next we compare her facebook to JLaw and her instagram to Oprah…more attempts to connect with the issues moms in America really care about.

“And all for making videos about, well, nothing.”
REALLY?! DID YOU WATCH ANY OF THE VIDEOS?! First, comedy doesn’t have to be about something. But more importantly, Jenna’s videos aren’t about nothing, they’re about culture and sexism and growing up. Hiding in amongst all that “nothing” are often poignant insights.

And now we arrive at the interview portion, which is the most frustrating for me, and has to be much worse for Jenna. They intersperse Jenna’s comments with the most inane and out of context clips they can find, and then ask Jenna a total of TWO QUESTIONS.

1. What does it feel like to get a bunch of views? Which is innocuous.

…and the kicker…

2. Do you think you deserve to have as many fans as you do?

Which is just…makes me…on fire…flames!

The only way to ask that question is if you, as an interviewer, have made your mind up that the person does NOT deserve their success. And in the end, that’s how the entire segment feels to me, a bunch of people making fun of a creator who they are threatened by and who they do not understand. And of course they’re threatened by it, Jenna Marbles (on her own, with a cheap camera) can make a video that gets more viewed by more people than an episode of Good Morning America.

Instead of talking about anything interesting or criticizing Jenna for legitimate reasons (which they could have done) GMA spent five minutes making fun of one of the most influential creators that exists in the world right now. But what’s worse is they didn’t make fun of her for legitimate reasons, they made fun of her for NOT MATTERING…for not being important…for being a meaningless cultural blip that they’re certain will just disappear. You wanna talk about something ridiculous…it’s you GMA.

Again, I don’t care that GMA doesn’t care about online video. I’m happy flying under the cultural radar for another few years, doing interesting things without legacy media paying attention (or, even with them actively attempting to marginalize us.) But I couldn’t watch this load of BS without commenting on it.

So Jenna, while I don’t agree with everything you’ve ever said, you absolutely deserve your success. You are innovative, intelligent, and hilarious. GMA is acting like you’re the new girl in school that all the cute boys like better than them and, guess what, you are.

—-

TL;DR - GMA ran a mean-spirited, blatantly incorrect, five-minute hatchet job that completely misunderstands one one of the most influential and intelligent creators of media in America.

I have issues with Jenna Marbles (though I don’t necessarily totally dislike her content, even if some of it is seriously problematic) but I think this style of downplaying new media is really disheartening and, well, just inaccurate. The New York Times on the other hand did what I think is a really great piece on Jenna Marbles that touches on her success, difficulties and content without being demeaning or patronizing (except perhaps to 13 year old girls, but then, who isn’t /sigh).

Ugh people. I can't even

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 12:21:12 -0700

maryleong:

We’re talking about how First Nations people were considered minors/wards of the state, and some girl is all like “But so are children so what’s wrong with that?”

Unless she thought they meant only aboriginal children were considered wards. Or she misworded her statement….. One can only hope.

I will now be posting at infinite-pie.tumblr.com

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:20:00 -0700

tl;dr : Dusty Albums is now moving to http://infinite-pie.tumblr.com/ so follow infinite-pie if you want to keep following me.

It’ll be nice there, I promise.

(I love you)

———

The long version is that for a combination of nosy family members, a lack of understanding of tumblr and general confusion it came to be that I was using dustyalbums, a secondary tumblr, as my main tumblr. Which would be fine except 1) It makes reblogging things a pain and 2) Whenever I ask or reply to someone it shows up as infinite-pie rather than dustyalbums and people is confused. Even I’m confused. So to solve this dilemma I’m moving to (back to?) infinite-pie.tumblr.com. So if you like following me you should probably go follow me there. I like having you all follow me. It’s rather nice. I promise the new url will be nice too. <3

Photo

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:33:47 -0700

Photo

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:07:46 -0700

Photo

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:01:31 -0700

freckel: haven’t even finished it and it’s already my...

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:05:40 -0700

freckel:

haven’t even finished it and it’s already my favourite

edwardspoonhands: blast-endedskrewt: My project from the...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:22:56 -0700

edwardspoonhands:

blast-endedskrewt:

My project from the weekend! I’m pretty proud of them. My backpack is now totally awesome. (Taken with Instagram)

Well done!

I can has one too?

Photo

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:40:07 -0700

Photo

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:39:31 -0700

Spring Tea by ~jojobatanesi

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:37:43 -0700

Spring Tea by ~jojobatanesi

"That’s why I love spiders. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try..."

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:47:58 -0700

“That’s why I love spiders. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.’”

- Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

Currently Reading (Just Finished): Howl’s Moving Castle...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:37:02 -0700

Currently Reading (Just Finished): Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

six-fiftyeight: I made a John poster yesterday, so obviously...

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:10:37 -0700

six-fiftyeight:

I made a John poster yesterday, so obviously there should be a Hank poster too.

snooogums: “You can’t just sit there and put everybody’s lives...

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 15:51:25 -0700

snooogums:

“You can’t just sit there and put everybody’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can’t. You have to do things”

Currently Reading: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen...

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 15:49:00 -0700

Currently Reading: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Love Charlie by ~Nekopie

Photo

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:21:53 -0700

Photo

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:35:26 -0700

Photo

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:08:38 -0700

Photo

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:43:45 -0700

Garibaldi Lake

Fungus

Across the wasteland

Alpine Flowers

View from the Ice

The Tusk