A belated Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen of Saint Xavier, and welcome back to another semester!
We at the Xavierite staff hope that you all had a great start to your year, and that your semester goes smoothly as you work through your spring courses.
Unfortunately, a new year did not deter scandal from gracing a social media site that everyone is incredibly familiar with: YouTube.
By now, everyone should be familiar with the controversy surrounding former Vine star, Logan Paul, on his YouTube channel.
If not, a quick recap: on January 1, Paul posted a vlog that showed him and his crew venturing through Aokigahara, a forest in Japan famously dubbed ‘the Suicide Forest.’
In the video, Paul captured actual footage of a recent suicide victim in the forest, and he posted the video for the world to see.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he even depicted the victim in the thumbnail of his video.
This video sparked massive controversy and outrage against Paul, and rightfully so.
The Xavierite staff believes this act Paul committed to be extremely disrespectful and horrifying.
In the days following, Paul eventually removed the video from his channel.
However, YouTube’s lack of response to this scandal was worrisome for many content creators on that site, especially those owning smaller channels.
Likely in response to the Paul scandal, on January 16, YouTube announced in a blog post that it was making changes to their YouTube Partner Program, a program which allows creators to get their videos monetized.
The new policy states that the YouTube Partner Program has altered the threshold for monetization.
It will now display ads for monetization purposes only for creators whose videos have four-thousand watch hours over the last twelve months and have at least one-thousand subscribers.
This not only affects creators who wish to get paid for their original content, but massively affects smaller channels who are already struggling to get their videos seen by a mass public.
There are many college students and recent graduates out there that depend on this platform to get their work shown.
The Xavierite staff sympathizes with how much harder an already difficult task has become.
We at the Xavierite understand this policy may affect some of you as well regarding content you wish to share; perhaps your channel acts as a portfolio to offer future employers, or even as a general means to build an audience for your ideas.
The Xavierite staff encourages you all to share your voices.
If you are affected by this policy change, implore YouTube to think about the hurt they are causing their smaller channels.
We also hope that this won’t deter content creators from doing what they love on this platform, and that they won’t allow the actions of one big channel to influence their careers on the site.
Letter to the Editor Policy
Here at The Xavierite, we try to represent the thoughts and opinions of the student body and Saint Xavier community within our Viewpoints section. If you feel that there is a story that should have been covered and was not or if you have criticism or concerns about our coverage, the best way to voice your opinion directly is through a Letter to the Editor.
Please send an email with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line to thexavieritenewspaper@gmail.com
If you are a student be sure to include your name and major in the email. If you are a member of the staff or faculty be sure to provide your name and title/position.
We are always searching for feedback. All thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.
Letters may be edited for content if they contain profanity, libel or do not otherwise correspond with ethical practices in journalism.
Letters may also be printed at the editor’s discretion.
Written by: The Xavierite Editorial Board