What does it take to be a Corporate Ethnographer for Youtube?
Hello! My name is Joseph Homa and I’m currently a junior at the University of Maryland Baltimore County majoring in Media and Communications with a minor in Sociology.
I transferred to UMBC two years ago from a community college in Tucson, Arizona where I originally studied business but then switched to communications realizing business administration wasn’t my passion. Trying to study economics, working on a financial accounting sheets, or practicing calculus problems was never my cup of tea!
Ever since I was young I’ve always been fascinated by the mediums of communication whether that was reading the newspaper or watching the local news. Growing up in the 90’s the first medium I ever joined was AOL instant messenger. It allowed registered users to communicate with other users in real time. After several years later a new and popular medium came out, Youtube, a public video-sharing website that allows users to share videos. What had peaked my interest out of all the content Youtube had was that some Youtubers were video bloggers, some who had podcasts, and even some users had how-to-tutorial videos. This is the ideal career path in which I would strive for. I love helping people even if there is no compensation or recognition. It’s a little extreme but I love studying the behaviors, habits and mannerisms of individuals on a day to day basis. I participate in this activity on the sole purpose of learning to answer a problem in today's society.
In order to achieve this career goal I need to start practicing my sales skills. In the article, Anthropologist in practice: An Interview with Design Anthropologist Armonia Alvarade,
Armonia states, “Practice your sales skills! Having the capacity to communicate properly what you do, convince others of your value, and learning how to negotiate with clients is key.” (Amysantee, 2014). This would definitely increase my networking skills as a corporate ethnographer because put it simply effective communication and reasoning is key. I do confess of having little experience with the ethnography field but have a strong understandings of all of the medium platforms that aim to study the current trends or themes. I believe I would be a qualified candidate because my field of study amalgamates all the mediums to display individuals likes or cultural tendencies. Through this method of video blogging, participant observation and interviewing potential individuals I will be able to identify current social behaviors, problems in the communities, find key solutions and relay the information through Youtube.
If I were to be accepted into the position I would need to immerse myself in the community either online or in person and interview people as much as possible. I’d would need to eventually collaborate with others and expand our network to a broader audience to listen and take notes on today's current problems.
#Ethnography #Media #Video #Blogging #Analyzing
