Faces + Spaces: NU’s Content Creators Control The New Age of Academia
I was a high school senior when the pandemic first hit. And with no ability to travel to prospective schools due to pandemic-related cancellations of admitted student days, I relied heavily on online content to inform my college commitment decision. In the digital age, this has become very common, as many ideas of academia are informed by internet culture. From videos like “what I wear to fashion school in New York City” blowing up on TikTok, to the rise in “day in the life at *insert popular university name here*” videos on YouTube, there seems to be a growing interest in, and supply of, college-related content. There is a certain level of clout and prestige associated with higher education as a whole, but more specifically when it comes to Top 10 schools like Northwestern.
On campus, there are many students using Northwestern's big name and reputation to their advantage in order to increase their viewership, especially on YouTube.
Joan Gwak, a Northwestern senior, started regularly uploading videos to her YouTube channel when the pandemic first hit and she was sent home to Korea. She uploaded videos so her friends and family could see what she was up to due to the large time difference. Now, with over 1,000 subscribers, she posts videos ranging from dance routines to day-in-the-life vlogs.
Although Gwak started uploading videos “to keep [her] friends humored,” she said she’s always had a love for creating and editing videos. It’s a skill that’s become second nature ever since learning iMovie in secondary school. But it’s a hobby that takes dedication — Gwak spends an average of two hours editing each video.
Gwak enjoys creating and uploading college-related videos, partially for the traffic they generate. “It’s a good way to hop onto that trend and grab a few subscribers while you’re at it,” she says.
“I will be honest, I think my day-in-the-life videos haven’t been super informative about the school,” Gwak says. She believes her viewer base mainly cares about her dance cover content and is not concerned as much with her daily vlog videos.
Despite this, Gwak receives a steady number of streams for her academia-related content as well. She looks to content creators from all different sides of YouTube for inspiration. “I really like the way Kelly Wakasa and Elliot Choy do their editing. It’s very fast-paced and it keeps me glued to the screen,” she says. “I have a fun time watching it.”
While Gwak focuses more on the dance and lifestyle sides of Northwestern content creation, there are lots of other Northwestern YouTubers that present different narratives to the campus experience. Take School of Communication senior Jay Towns, who’s famous on campus for his dorm vlogs.
Similar to Gwak, Towns started creating YouTube videos to show his hometown friends what he was up to while away at college. Taking a viewer-centered approach to his content, Towns would make videos based on the suggestions he’d get in the comment section. This is how he started his dorm tour series.
Since COVID-19 canceled admitted student days and tours, many incoming first-years with no prior knowledge of the ins-and-outs of Northwestern’s campus would look to YouTube. Towns’ videos proved to be helpful for many students when filling out their housing preferences. His most popular dorm tour video of Lincoln Hall amassed over 20,000 views, with several other videos in his dorm tour series closely following in streaming numbers. Towns continued posting to maintain momentum, uploading other college-related content such as day-in-the-life vlogs.
Towns says he enjoys the entrepreneurial aspect of college videos.
“I just had to figure out how to make it digestible,” he says.
As a theatre major, he enjoys performing and being on camera, so YouTube was an outlet to combine all of these interests. More importantly, it means he has control of his own brand. As a Black man, Towns said having a YouTube platform is a way to control his own narrative and demonstrate a Black experience that breaks stereotypes.
Towns says he’s lucky enough to have had a pretty positive experience with Northwestern, but his experience is just that: his own. “It can be misleading,” Towns says, to look only to one person or platform to be informed on the Northwestern college experience.
“There’s such a wide variety of Northwestern experiences,” he says. “I just try to be true to my experience at Northwestern. It’s not everybody all the time doing homework and being super-nerds… Actually, there’s fun that can be had.”
The American college experience has long been romanticized in the media world. The stereotypes around academia often center around a lifestyle of basement parties, red solo cups and fraternities. Now, in the age of social media and streaming platforms, content creators have presented new perceptions of college life, allowing prospective students a glimpse into more realistic depictions of college through new avenues.
“I like making those videos because I feel like there has been a growing number of these types of YouTubers being produced by students at these universities. … Also, for me, just because my parents don’t really know what it’s like here,” Gwak says. “They weren’t a part of the American higher education system. I think it’s fun for them to watch so I do it for them — also for prospective students who maybe want to know a little bit more about Northwestern.”