Hi all:

So this post comes from my ethnography of camp performers on YouTube. I wanted to share with you all one of my “interviews,” with a very funny and vivacious performer named Crazie Tracie. Crazie Tracie, after I sent her the interview questions she requested, decided to interview herself. Here’s the video she made and how I described it in my report.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBbpd6CX4ts&hl=en]

One interviewee interviewed herself. I sent Crazie Tracie a list of questions at her request – she did not want a live interview. She soon told me she was “working on the video” and “will load the video and send it tonight.” When this video was posted, Crazie Tracie had assumed the identity of Barbara Stalker of ABSee News – a play on Barbara Walters of ABC – to interview herself using my questions, more or less. Methodologically, this was an interesting example of how YouTubers – and new media users, in general – can take control of their own representations. Many of my interviewees do this every day in interesting ways. Her responses to my questions were good, but necessitated follow-up. More interesting, however, how she showed her own personality – her love of impersonation, assuming characters – she spent more time as Barbara Stalker in the video than Crazie Tracie, though both, I assume, are somewhat fictional.