To This Day Analysis

For this assignment, I chose to contextualize the YouTube video “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan. This centerpiece of the video is a spoken word poem written and recited by Shane, himself. The audio is accompanied by a variety of animations, created by individuals from around the world, in order to illustrate the narrative in a relatable and emotionally driven way. The poem, itself, describes Shane and his accounts of bullying from his childhood. With all of this in conjunction, the video makes the argument that bullies do not get to define who you are, “They were wrong” as stated by Shane in the video, but most importantly, those who have been affected in some way by bullying are not alone (3).

This video in itself is one of many dialogues in an ongoing discussion in our society surrounding bullying. Bullying has been an overwhelming area of social concern in

It is through this media that we are allowed such immersive interactivity between producers, participants, and viewers. Anyone is then able to share the video through different platforms such as email and other social media networks to a whole new audience—expanding the reach of this video immensely. This immersive interactivity and connectivity between people around the world is a clear example of how media technology has transformed our society into what can be termed as a global village—as referenced by Kovarik in the textbook. “Today, with instant, global, full spectrum communication possible through dozens of media, we are indeed a global village. . .” (4). Instead of our communication being hindered due to being separated by physical boundaries, in today’s society with the technology we have developed, we are now able to be constantly connected with others, no matter where we are. This is new the social environment we all inhabit. This is what Shane took advantage of upon telling his