Vlog: YouTube – LonelyGirl15

www.youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15


lonelygirl15 is an interactive web-based video serial centering around the life of a fictional teenage girl named Bree, whose YouTube username is the eponymous "lonelygirl15". The series is presented through short, regularly-updated video blogs posted by the fictional characters, as well as through an optional alternate reality game. lonelygirl15 came to international attention ostensibly as a real video blogger who achieved massive popularity on YouTube, a popular video sharing website, but was eventually outed by suspicious viewers as a hoax featuring a fictitious character played by American-New Zealand actress Jessica Rose. Many believed that lonelygirl15 was a real person, but now word is out that she is played by an actress.
A story in The New York Times entitled "‘Lonely Girl’ (and Friends) Just Wanted Movie Deal" revealed the series' creators: Ramesh Flinders, a screenwriter and filmmaker from Marin County, California, and Miles Beckett, a surgical residency dropout turned filmmaker.
The series, which began June 16, 2006 is still running, with new videos appearing regularly on YouTube and Revver.
YouTube is popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated, and the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published. The use of YouTube by everyday people posting all kinds of posts, whether a home-made music video, a video blog or holiday snap-shots has become a global obsession. The wide variety of site content includes movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos and the company was named TIME magazine's "Invention of the Year" for 2006. The site is praised as one the most user friendly sites on the Internet. Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site while registered users have the ability to upload an unlimited number of videos. Related videos, determined by the title and tags, appear to the right of the video. During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest-growing websites on the internet, and was ranked as the 5th most popular website on Alexa, far outpacing even Myspace's growth. One hundred million clips are viewed daily on YouTube, with an additional 65,000 new videos uploaded per 24 hours, and the site has almost 20 million visitors each month. Of the views of the website, 44% are female, 56% male, and the 12- to 17-year-old age group is dominant. YouTube also commands up to 64% of the UK online video market. It is here where Lonelygirl15 was created and became a worldwide obsession, with hundreds of 'hits' a day.


Here is an example of one on Lonelygirl15's video blogs.This kind of Video Blogging is an extremely new media technology, with YouTube only being created in February 2005 (it has been running for just over 2 years), but already become a huge part in many people's lives, and spawning off many copycat video websites, such as Google Videos and Myspace Movies. It is revolutionary because it allows everyday members of the public to become film directors in their own right, and display simple features of their day in a video blog. Users can also exhibit skills they have, or immitations of favourite television programmes.

Lonelygirl15 is a particularly interesting case as it has attracted so many views and fans despite being a simple video blog about a girl's normal life, which has turned out to be fake even so!