Lonleygirl15 Fake - New Art Form or Social Manipulation (Jessica Rose)
For anyone that missed it, a recent youtube starlett, Lonleygirl15, who was the epitome of a teenage angst ridden vlogger on youtube has been found out as a fake. She captured the hearts of many, and each of her videos were watched half a million times or so, she is also the second most subscribed to channel of all time on youtube. More interesting though was the “lost like” obsession of her fans that turned this into an investigation trying to find out who she was. Anyway LA Times reports Lonleygirl15 was a hollywood creation (or at least some film makers), and a viral sensation. Bob Garfield is happy, as he had proposed this, and it was a big topic of discussion on sundays edition of On The Media (which i highly recommend as a podcast). Lonleygirl15 though seems to have been more of an art experiment than any kind of nefarious marketing fakery. Think of it like a new kind of fiction, or art form.
Update: Great article in the New Yorker about Lonleygirl15
Also, Lonleygirl15 top search on technorati this morning
Here’s the message that was on the Lonelygirl15 formums “message from the creators”
Thank you so much for enjoying our show so far. We are amazed by the overwhelmingly positive response to our videos; it has exceeded our wildest expectations. With your help we believe we are witnessing the birth of a new art form. Our intention from the outset has been to tell a story– A story that could only be told using the medium of video blogs and the distribution power of the internet. A story that is interactive and constantly evolving with the audience.
Right now, the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is “who is she?” We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us. Regardless, there are deeper mysteries buried within the plot, dialogue, and background of the Lonelygirl15 videos, and many of our tireless and dedicated fans have unearthed some of these. There are many more to come.
To enhance the community experience of Lonelygirl15, which you have already helped to create, we are in the process of building a website centered around video and interactivity. This website will allow everyone to enjoy the full potential of this new medium. Unfortunately, we aren’t programmers. We are filmmakers. We are working furiously to complete the website, and hope to have it up and running shortly.
So, sit tight. You are the only reason for our success, and we appreciate your devotion. We want you to know that we aren’t a big corporation. We are just like you. A few people who love good stories. We hope that you will join us in the continuing story of Lonelygirl15, and help us usher in an era of interactive storytelling where the line between “fan” and “star” has been removed, and dedicated fans like yourselves are paid for their efforts. This is an incredible time for the creator inside all of us.
Thank you.
UPDATE: The New York Times writes today
Very interesting she is of New Zealand origin, I was recently thinking a couple of her pronunciations sounded Australian (forgive me kiwi’s that was my first thought, and it was a barely perceptible accent).
9 Comments, Comment or Ping
Arnie
New art or social manipulation? first of all, most the people that are going to be upset can’t eve spell manipulation, so I’m going with new art (easier, only six letters). Next, my question is the potential fallout for YouTube - there are going to be several YouTubers looking for “verification” of people submitting - so that may be the better story.
Sep 8th, 2006
Aaron
LonleyGirl15 isn’t bogus. The ‘press conference’ was a response to one of her videos several days ago. She has since posted 2 additional videos. The person posting the ‘press conference’ has a different account all together. He / she got the monkey puppet from Target for $8 and made a video response. There are 20 other video responses to the video she posted.
I saw this being reported as a possible hoax on national TV today. It seems people talking; blogging and reporting on YOUTUBE don’t understand how it works. If you read the comments you will see viewers are amused with the response but they don’t think it is real.
Sep 9th, 2006
Duke
it’s fake… it’s official now
Sep 12th, 2006
charlie hustle
Fake as all hell! thats how people create web traffic and manipulate the ignorace of others.
Got Fake profiles being made all over the web, You think 99.99% of the women in your area really want to hook up.
If so then go to amateurmatch.com or adultfriendfinder.com and find out….The reason people are hanging out at youtube and myspace is because people get to be real and express themself.
Myspace is the biggest game of social manipulation You have people going there and making fake profiles as well. Not to mention spamming the crap out of friends they added with some bot.
How to make a million dollars on the net….Make a fake myspace profile, add 1 million friends bulletin them all to an affiliate webcam site where they pay you between 2 dollars and 4dollars just to get them to join the free trial…. all you need is 50% of our friends to make a million.
As for Youtube! they are going to make it along way, they do very well at reviewing content befor publication….They will be good as long as they remain clean….
Sep 14th, 2006
Shannon
Who gives if its fake or not??? I stumbled across it one night bored….and I was hooked instantly. I say it better than most of the shit on tv. Why does anyone care if its fake or not…she or them (what ever you believe) didn’t say anything wrong didn’t try to hurt anyone. Gosh, get worked up over something else …something important.
I wish there where more people like her or her character (what ever), who didn’t force religion on people, and who where simply sweet, qurky, and intellegent.
So lonelygirl15 if your reading this, your show or your life whatever it is, keeping making those films….there interesting and would rather waste my time watching youre 1 min videos than any reality tv show, comedy, music video (with ass shaking), or especially that show sweet 16….that show should be condemed to hell!
Sep 16th, 2006
IPTV Evangelist
Your point about Lonleygirl15 being a “new kind of fiction, or art form” is rather progressive thinking and correct I think.
What these Indie filmmakers have done, perhaps inadvertently is to challenge the Hollywood and Advertising establishments as to what constitutes a viable product for consumption by a mass audience. With over 2-mil views, Lonleygirl15 certainly has to have agencies and advertisers salivating — witness their signing with Creative Artists Agency.
From my perspective, Lonleygirl15 is yet another form of innovation and creative storytelling using the technology of the day and not social manipulation. In 1999, The Blair Witch project (shot on Hi-8 and 16mm) for a cost of approximately $22k was promoted by the producers as real footage and some people believed it. My recollection of audience response was mostly positive even after the truth came out. I have never viewed YouTube or MySpace content solely as documentary content, but more like a docu-life drama. Perhaps if I were in her age range I would feel a bit put off as a boy as it would be nice to think of this attractive young woman as a geek like me. I guess I find very few on-line stories in life sufficient to suspend my disbelief.
P.S. I find your blog well done and always and interesting read.
Sep 17th, 2006
Dee
She mentions she’s lived in NZ in the actual vlogs — (probably to explain away any flaws in pronunciation).
Also, Australian accent is very different to kiwis! I’ll show you how to tell the difference. When she says “Australian’s call it the ‘wit’ (referring to the ‘wet’, in the same episode), it’s incorrect. “Wit” is how a NZealander would say it. They tend to pronounce “e” noises as “i” and “i” as “u”, and “a” as “e”
eg. ‘Lets get Fish and Chips’ in NZ would be “Lits git fush end chups.”
Australians pronounce it as “lehts geht Feesh and cheps”
Here is more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accents_of_English_speakers#Australia
Sep 23rd, 2006
karl long
I’m actually really good at identifying kiwis, aussies and a lot of other accents, I’m from England originally and I have a great deal of fun guessing peoples accents. In the post I noted that I had thought it was an aussie from just one word I had heard, so I copped to the fact i thought it was aus. Anyway, I do really appreciate the detail you’ve given around the differences, as i don’t think I could ever explain the difference so explicitly.
Cheers,
Karl
Sep 24th, 2006
mk
so many people watching the videos because they were so FAKE!
Mar 23rd, 2007
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