ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the impact of new theoretical avenues offered by contemporary amateur media circulations outside the domestic sphere. Since making home videos turned into ubiquitous practices intrinsic to daily life, we need to assess the deeply personal as well as highly intertwined social arrangements that define contemporary societies wherein the availability of media technologies and platforms play a constructive role. The chapter maps how amateur media making progressed from the home mode of practice and distribution to public, online and global platforms. While analysing lesser-known online home videos, as well as popular (family) vlogs (i.e. Shaytards, Casey Neistat), the chapter examines the social exchanges within family narratives once records of private lives are circulated on social media platforms such as YouTube. The variety of social, economic, cultural and material relationships that underlie these protocols also highlight the broader issue of the political economy of amateur media makers alongside whether the term ‘amateur media’ is still applicable to the study of this rapidly changing media practice.
