Mark E. Baran ’10
RR: What do you think about Google buying YouTube?
MB: I think it’s what Google is going to do cause Google video like sucked for so long.
RR: It sucked—how did it suck?
MB: It didn’t have the content YouTube had. So they’re going to buy YouTube so they can get like the great content.
RR: 1.65 billion. Fair?
MB: Google has the money to spend.
RR: Do you think this will change the media landscape?
MB: I never knew there was a media landscape, but I guess it will change it if it is there.
RR: You’re really not an expert on this at all, are you?
MB: I know how to use YouTube but I don’t think I’ve ever done
like an in-depth study of the media landscape at-large which will be
changed buy this monumental purchase of YouTube.
RR: You don’t have cable in your dorm right so you might have to use YouTube more now?
MB: Actually I have used YouTube more since I’ve been in my dorm.
RR: What do you think about that no cable thing?
MB: It’s made me a lot more productive, but I don’t think I wanted to be this productive before.
RR: Has it affected your sex life?
MB: The cable? I don’t think the cable has had any effect on my sex life.
Talisa B. Friedman ’10
RR: Are you aware that Google just bought YouTube?
TF: I had no idea.
RR: But you don’t have cable so in order to watch a lot of TV shows you have to use YouTube right?
TF: No, I sneak into upperclass houses.
RR: What upperclass house has cable? I want to go there.
TF: I watch like Project Runway in Quincy House and stuff.
RR: Quincy has cable?
TF: Yeah, I mean the common rooms have cable too here. Like Canaday has cable.
RR: Oh, the common rooms…wait, so you’re sneaking into upperclass house common rooms? Doesn’t your swipe card work there?
TF: Well I guess technically I don’t really live there, but I
don’t mean to implicate myself in anything…you’re not going to put this
is in are you?
RR: This is good stuff. Guess how much Google paid for YouTube.
TF: Um, I dunno, $100,000,000?
RR: Nope, go up.
TF: A billion?
RR: Nope, more.
TF: Seriously? $3 billion?
RR: No, too much now. $1.65 billion. So you think these idiots at Google overpaid?
TF: I guess they did a good job.
RR: What’s your major?
TF: I want to be an English major.
RR: Ahh, that explains a lot.
John M. Mistovich ’09
RR: Did you know that Google just bought YouTube?
JM: No, I didn’t.
RR: You didn’t know that?
JM: No.
RR: Where do you get your news from?
JM: Usually The Crimson…I’m going to look like such an idiot.
RR: Great, we found the one kid who gets his news from The Crimson. But you’re familiar with Google and YouTube right?
JM: Yeah, but I’m in a Harvard bubble right now and I just don’t know what’s going on in the outside world.
RR: Have you ever used YouTube?
JM: I haven’t, no.
RR: So you probably don’t really care that Google just bought it?
JM: No.
RR: Would you watch video online?
JM: I’d watch video online, yeah.
RR: So you do.
JM: I haven’t, but I would.
RR: What kind of videos would you watch?
JM: I don’t know…isn’t YouTube like the funny stuff?
RR: Guess how much Google paid for YouTube.
JM: $250 million.
RR: So you think YouTube is worth roughly $250 million.
JM: I really don’t know much on this subject, I was just throwing it out there.
Ravi B. Parikh ’09
RR: Did you know that Google just bought YouTube?
RP: I heard about it in the news.
RR: How do you think this is going to affect the media landscape and the future of digital media?
RP: I think it’s going to become a lot more centralized and you’re going to see a lot more censoring…
RR: Ok, this is not your senior thesis, let’s make it snappy here.
RP: I think it’s going to suck. It’s just going to be horrible for the media industry.
RR: So you think Google is kind of an evil company?
RP: Yeah, very evil.
RR: But their motto is “do no evil.”
RP: They don’t follow their motto at all.
RR: What kind of videos make you laugh?
RP: Stupid things, you know, like dancing half-naked Japanese people.
RR: Half-naked Japanese people? So you watch porn. You’re downloading porn through the FAS network.
RP: It’s not porn.
RR: If it’s not porn then what would you call half-naked Japanese people dancing?
RP: It’s a representation. It’s a very funny video. A very funny, crude video.
RR: Please tell me this is for your lit and arts core or something.
RP: It’s for my history of science class…history of…I don’t know where this interview is going!
Heather O’Neil (Harvard Extension School)
RR: So Google just bought YouTube, what do you think about that?
HO: Great.
RR: Guess how much they paid for it.
HO: I have no idea.
RR: Take a guess.
HO: $1.6 billion? I might have made that up.
RR: Wow, 1.65. You just beat out every Harvard undergrad we
asked by about a billion. Extension school students must be superior to
undergrads.
HO: That’s what you get for a Northeastern education.
RR: Trash on Harvard undergrads a little, it’s making me feel good.
HO: Hey, they try. They try.
RR: What kind of videos do you watch on YouTube?
HO: There’s a lot of good ones on pharma reps, a couple of really funny videos on them.
RR: Yes, videos on pharma reps. That’s what everybody uses YouTube for.
HO: I actually was a drug rep for a little while so it’s a nice crack on the industry.
RR: These are supposed to be funny?
HO: Yeah.
RR: Can you act out one really quickly?
HO: I think you kind of have to know the industry.
RR: Do you think in 20 years everybody is going to watch YouTube instead of television?
HO: No, no.
RR: You watch “Grey’s Anatomy,” I bet.
HO: No, but I do watch “House.”
RR: I don’t even know what that is.
HO: Ugh.
Roving Reporter: Google Buys YouTube
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