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.

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