Thinking on Monday: YouTubers – How YouTube shook up TV and Created a New Generation of Stars

Only now are many people waking up to YouTube’s immense power over a new generation. Its stars can sell out stadiums, make millions, and bring city centres to a stand-still, before they even reach their twenties. Yet we still know almost as little about these creators as we do about their managers and agents.

Chris Stokel-Walker interviewed more than 100 of YouTube’s biggest names in front of and behind the camera. He investigates the past, present and future of the world’s most popular video sharing website and its impact on society.

Stokel-Walker is one of the world’s most respected and best connected journalists in the world of YouTube. He has been reporting on YouTube for more than five years, breaking news of multi-million-dollar business deals and writing agenda leading stories on the site’s latest trends and controversies. He has spent more than two years meticulously researching and writing his book YouTubers: How YouTube shook up TV and created a new generation of stars.

Chris embedded himself in the world of YouTube, travelling to conventions and training schools across the globe, winning the confidence of some of the biggest talent in front of the camera and the real powerbrokers who never step into the limelight. He’s broken news of big business deals, and carefully considered the impact of algorithms on us and our children. Chris examined what power YouTubers have over their audience and whether that’s a concern for us and them.

He reveals its workings and personalities, its pranks and its joyfulness, its extremism and its opportunities. He goes behind the cameras to meet superstar influencers, producers, advisors, marketers, advertisers, and child-training entrepreneurs.

His book is the first independent, in-depth look at the site, the people who dominate it, and how they live their lives and why not all of them are happy.

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Doors 7.15pm. Start 7.30pm.

Entry £8, £4 concessions (free to Conway Hall Ethical Society members, who should book these tickets in advance via the Book Now button)

Event is subject to capacity, without exceptions. Space will be reserved for ticket holders.

This event is in the Brockway Room on the ground floor (Ground floor – accessible. Induction loop audio). For accessibility info: conwayhall.org.uk/about/visiting-us