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Hollywood Goes Online
Clinging to Relevance in the Pandemic
With Hollywood in pandemic purgatory, actors have been turning to other mediums to maintain relevance — and what better way to achieve this goal than by invading the digital proletariat.
One of the more popular platforms celebrities have been flocking to is YouTube.
In its early days, YouTube was a space for making the invisible visible.
It was a digital refuge for amateur videographers, outcasts, social recluses, and other unseen voices to publish their raw, unvarnished videos for anyone to watch.
Today, the landscape looks a lot different.
Catering to the Affluent Few
YouTube is a space that no longer caters to the unseen majority, but the affluent few, though its shift towards pushing corporatized content isn’t new — and the pandemic has accelerated this shift.
Brie Larson, an Oscar winning actress with an estimated net worth of $10 million, is one of many celebrities who flocked to YouTube amid the pandemic. Larson’s channel was heavily promoted by the media, and she was verified and monetized — all before even posting her first video, a rare (and arguably, impossible) feat for YouTubers.
