The Discourse of YouTube: Multimodal Text in a Global Context (Routledge Studies in Multimodality) by Phil Benson

Author:Phil Benson [Benson, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781138182424
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

Module 1. Site Management

Module 1 forms a horizontal bar across the top of the video page, which is anchored to the top of the browser so that it remains in view as the user scrolls down the page. The text on this bar consists of tools used to manage the user’s activity on the site, independently of activities related to the main video on the page, which are managed in Modules 2–5. This text is divided into four clusters. From left to right, these are: (1) an icon made up of three horizontal bars, which opens a menu, which YouTube calls ‘The Guide’; (2) the YouTube logo, accompanied by two superscript letters representing the content location (e.g.,AU for Australia); (3) a search box consisting of a white text entry box and a magnifying glass icon that submits the search when clicked; and (4) a cluster of items used to manage the channel activity of the user who is viewing the page, which is represented by an ‘upload’ button and a channel icon that opens up a menu of channel-related items.

The text of Module 1 is highly condensed and consists entirely of icons, buttons and boxes, with very little visible written text. The multimodal composition of the bar gives the impression of a control panel that is designed to be ‘operated’ rather than ‘read’. Elsewhere on the page, when users hold the cursor over an interactive item, a hover box appears with a written text explanation of the item’s function. However, there are no hover boxes in this module, which implies that it is mainly intended for the use of experienced users.

The text of Module 1 appears in the same form on all YouTube pages, other than information and help pages. It is mostly produced by YouTube, but varies depending on the channel that the user has signed in with. This affects the items that appear on the ‘Guide’ menu (which are sensitive to viewing history and channel activity), the channel icon displayed on the right hand side of the bar, and the contents of the menu box that it leads to. The channel icon is composed of an image uploaded by the account holder and is the only user-generated text item in Module 1 (if no user is logged in, this icon is replaced by a ‘sign in’ button). Apart from providing a link to the YouTube home page, the YouTube logo has the function of branding the page as belonging to the YouTube site (it also appears in the same position at the bottom of the page in Cluster 7), although the page is also co-branded by the viewer’s channel icon, which represents a point of access to areas of the site of which they have some ownership.

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