Chris Stokel-Walker

Chris Stokel-Walker

YouTube Investigator

Biography

Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist whose work regularly appears in WIRED, The Economist and Newsweek. Editors and peers say he knows YouTube better than YouTube know YouTube.

He’s known for breaking major news about YouTube and often reports on the site for television, radio and podcasts. For his first book, YouTubers, which documents YouTube’s rise, its troubled present and its rocky future, he has travelled around the world, attending events and speaking to behind-the-camera producers and powerbrokers.

In 14 short years, YouTube has transformed from a place to host home videos to a modern media monolith, with close to two million monthly users worldwide. But how did it get there? And what are its responsibilities to users and society as a whole? Why do YouTubers stop traffic in city centres and will they eclipse normal TV?

 

Talk Title: “How YouTube overthrew the media and changed society”

Approaching its terrible teenage years, YouTube has shifted almost imperceptibly into our lives. But how did it get here? And do we pay it enough attention? Author of new book YouTubers, Chris Stokel-Walker charts the past, present and future of the world’s biggest video sharing website – and asks what its impact on society has been and will be.