From how-to videos to retro television shows; music videos to parodies of movies. Anything captured on video can be uploaded almost instantaneously to YouTube and can turn the average person into a success.
According to Forbes’ list of YouTube statistics, more than 1 billion users visit YouTube each month. There are 100 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube each and every minute. Fresno City College students are tuning in.
In an ever-growing society, YouTube provides that readily available platform for anyone hoping to jumpstart the path to stardom.
Roman Porras, FCC student, has his own channel and is hoping to find success. He has been creating and posting videos for three months. His YouTube channel, “romanvex”, is described as a “comedy channel that has videos that are meant to be relatable to people.”
“I’ve always wanted to be an actor so I figured YouTube was a way to start out.” said Porras on why he chose to start his own channel.
Some of the themes included in Porras’s channel are videos of advice for the college-age student, personal experiences and things he notices, all expressed in a comical way.
“People can watch them and think ‘I say that’ or ‘I do that’,” said Porras.
Many well-known entertainers have a success story, thanks to YouTube.
Arnel Pineda, who is currently the singer of the band Journey, was discovered on YouTube in 2007. He started singing covers of bands such as Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles. By the end of 2007, he was asked to auditioned for the band Journey and after was named the new lead singer in place of Steve Perry.
Justin Bieber was also made famous because of YouTube. He was discovered by Scott “Scooter” Braun, who became his manager. Bieber would go on to consult and sign with popular musician, Usher and release four albums followed by a world tour.
YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18 to 34 compared to any cable network, according to Nielsen Holdings, the audience measurement system that determines the audience size and composition of television programming in the U.S.
Chris Gonzales, an English major at FCC, said he goes on YouTube to watch football highlights, funny videos, new music, or anything that goes viral.
Victoria Castañeda, a biology major at FCC, said she mainly visits YouTube to watch how-to apply makeup and style videos.
