ACTION CAMERAS AS SOCIAL FACILITATORS: AN ANALYSIS OF AMATEUR EXTREME MOTORCYCLE VIDEOS

Özet

In diverse social situations, individuals may find themselves as either actors or observers. As actors,individuals may act alone or in the presence of others. Social facilitation theory focuses primarily onhow people react to being the focus of attention when performing a task. The theory proposes that thepresence of others may facilitate performance and vice versa. Advances in digital technologies point tonew recording and viewing options, such as action cameras and video sharing websites. This articleargues that for extreme actions performed without an audience, the presence of an action cameraallows for the controllable presence of potential future viewers. In order to show how action camerasmay function as a social facilitator, four extreme action videos on YouTube are analyzed in thisarticle. Video analyses show that action cameras are effective in drawing potential future viewers.Action cameras can therefore be thought of as social facilitators of extreme actions.