UAC Reviews

UAC Reviews is a channel on YouTube of tech device reviews. The motto of the channel is "Made with the average consumer in mind". This channel has over 120 thousand subscribers. Unlike most tech review sites and YouTube channels that review everything that is the latest and greatest for those tech junkies that have to keep up with the newest things, UAC Reviews focuses on reviews on products that would be relevant the average consumer. He does not give reviews of the highest performance computers, per se, but he does highlight gadgets that "average" people would be interested in and could find a practical use for. There are a bunch of tech websites that also have similar content to UAC but are owned by CBS (CNet), Gizmodo and The Verge. Those are large companies and UAC is just one guy. His access to a vast amount of electronics is not that of the larger sites but the reviews are more insightful and real-world oriented than the others that merely highlight technical specs. Headphones seem to be the more popular item reviews he makes, with speakers and cell phones not too far behind. Giveaways to viewers are done often unlike the larger CNET reviews that could afford it as well, even on a larger scale. But even for a small-scale production like his, the video quality is amazing and does not ever feel cheap. The home office setting sets a personal feel to the video.
Most would be intimidated from doing tech reviews because it is an incredibly expensive field but big corporations do not have to be involved to do so. 

Mojang

Mojang is the video game developer that created the massively successful game Minecraft. One of the founders of Mojang created the company after he turned down an offer from Valve, one of the big game development and distribution companies. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, it became one of the largest independent game developing companies after the success of Minecraft. Minecraft has gone from a sandbox building game, sandbox is a mode in games when you are free to do whatever you want, to a game that helps in rebuilding parts of African cities with its “Block by Block” program. Aside from Minecraft, Mojang has other games available such as Scrolls and Cobalt. Because the developing team is not so big it takes a long time to develop new games on top of maintenance to Minecraft. Like the documentary “Indie Games” mentioned many times, independent games are made to be more personal to the creators than a larger company would make. Minecraft is not a high end graphics but it functions the way the creators wanted it to. With the freedom in creating these games, Mojang faces challenges in how to sell as many games it needs to in order to remain in business. But as it has grown it has developed a reputation and essentially tore down that barrier to entry themselves; Selling 33 million copies of Minecraft will do that for you. There is not much more information on their other games. The demographics for Minecraft are very wide, little kids like my brother are obsessed with the game and then theres grown adults who also spend hours on end working on a world in the game. The success of Mojang shows that it does not take a large company to make a game capable of being a profitable product or massive franchise, all you need are developers with a dream and patience to code an entire game.

Audiomack

Audiomack is a music site that makes music available to download and upload for free. Audiomack is a hip-hop oriented website. Audiomack claims to be made to not be a “pain in the ass” like other music hosting and distribution websites. Remixes to popular songs are always available here for free since artists release them for free. In hip-hop, artists release a bunch of new songs all the time for free. Albums and singles are the only paid material they release, mix tapes can be found for free in so many websites throughout the internet, website servers crash often when a mixtape is initially released. Audiomack offers an endless library of songs and mix tapes available for download with no account required. Although not as popular as “Datpiff”, audiomack does not have a download limit and does not require an account for any download. Datpiff offers certain downloads to guests but with limited bandwidth. Audiomack does not have any advertisements in its website or advertisement tags on its music files. Audiomack allows you to upload music, even if it is not yours, as long as it isn’t pirated. It is like a Soundcloud made for rap music specifically. Although the majority of the music is pretty bad, it is a great place for those interested in having all of the latest rap music from their favorite artists. Artists who want to upload their music to a rap based community like audiomack also benefit from this service. Since all of the music is released for free you can tell that it is unconnected to the major record labels. Audiomack is another great platform for distributing music from independent artists and signed artists who want to release some independent material.

Info Wars

Info Wars (infowars.com) is a website created by Alex Jones that is dedicated to finding out the truth about controversial topics in the world. His name is synonymous with conspiracy theories, radical thinking, and anti-government. His website and radio talk show covers topics vastly different than how major news networks do. Infowars is relentless when it comes to pointing out any hidden agenda the government may have. His website still qualifies as a news source but a very bias one that might not have any credibility depending on the reader. Jones considers himself an “aggressive constitutionalist”. The news stories themselves are probably not fabricated but the commentary and tone used do seem outlandish at times. Jones has a team of like-minded writers that cover a lot of stories because his website has grown. 
Jones, being independent, does not have any kind of filters to adhere to which gives him the freedom to publish anything his mind could think of. Major news networks do not have that kind of freedom because advertising is a large source of income and would not want to report things or ideas that would turn advertisers away. Info Wars does have a link to inquire about advertising on the website but the few ads on the website are just to promote Jones’s radio show. One of his other websites (infowars.net) is similar to his main site but this one calls itself “Info Wars Nightly News”, this website does have a bit more advertising. 

His radio show is broadcast on a lot of radio stations on the AM & FM spectrums but it isn’t owned by any large radio company. The audience that Jones caters to is those who do not approve or trust the government. “Truthers” and conspiracy theorists might consider Infowars their go-to source for news. 

Imgur

Imgur is an image hosting website where users upload their own pictures, usually for sharing funny or interesting pictures they find. A lot of memes have gone viral through initial posting on Imgur. Often times the comments section is the funniest place on the website. Imgur is the most popular image hosting server for pictures from popular blog/forum site Reddit. Everything is uploaded by users which creates the ultimate free media experience. Imgur features a lot of user photoshop, memes, animated gifs, photo albums and those cute cats. Although Imgur itself does not produce media, it acts as an exhibitor to the media that people produce or choose to distribute if they did not originally create it. It is like the photo equivalent to Soundcloud. Unlike other community type of sites, there is not a great deal of trolling, it is a very mature place and it does not lack in witty comments. 

Imgur is a free service that offers the option to choose a premium account that offers unlimited uploads, larger size images, animated gifs and it removes ads. Imgur is supported by advertising unless you have the "pro" account. A “pro” account could be somewhat accessed if you have an ad-blocking extension in your web browser. Recently there has been talks of Yahoo! purchasing the “biggest little site” on the internet. Imgur recently surpassed the 100 million user mark. Their audience is targeted at a wide range judging from the amount of people posting about finals and procrastination and others posting creative photography of their children, plural. Smart individuals seem to be the common basis. The growing interest in imgur could quickly remove its’ independent label. 

Kartemquin Films

Kartemquin Films is an independent film production company based in Chicago that specializes in making documentaries. Several of their movies are widely available through Netflix and one of them was even highlighted by ESPN as a part of their "30 for 30" series. The film is about former basketball star Allen Iverson's involvement in a racial altercation and how it affected the town and more specifically Iverson himself. Like most documentaries, Kartemquin's films have a strong message to get across. As Netflix labels some labels some of their films as "cerebral", it would be safe to say that the audience is intended to be smarter people. But they also appeal to those who are socially conscious and interested in sports. Other notable films are about the violence in Chicago, Muhammad Ali, stem cell research and two boys with basketball dreams. Most of these films appear in prominent film festivals like Big Sky and South by Southwest (SXSW) and are nominated for a bunch of awards. Although the majority of documentaries never attract large audiences that doesn't take away from their quality of production. 

On their website they state that they are a nonprofit organization, which is exactly the opposite of the larger media companies that basically operate to create profit. Kartemquin qualifies as an independent media outlet because they allow filmmakers with a story to tell an opportunity to document what they want the world to see. Their website details the social goals of their films. A main goal is to represent those who don't have a voice in the media, which happens to be a major disadvantage of mass communication. Kartemquin often collaborates with other independent filmmakers to create films that share the same goals "KTQ" have*. These type of collaborations are key to honoring the art of independent film making because if they do not take any outside help or contributions, they would not epitomize independent media and wouldn't be much different than the corporations at the top.

* http://kartemquin.com/involve/filmmakers/collaborate

Sergio Razta

Sergio Razta is a teenage kid from Chicago who makes videos on YouTube. Sergio’s first videos were strictly of him sitting in front of a camera ranting and raving about first world problems and teen issues. After attracting a large audience, Sergio began making skits and grew even larger on YouTube. He now has over 600,000 subscribers and travels the country to host concerts and meet fans. His audience started out being his friends and then his school, then Chicago and then it grew outwards to other cities in the United States thanks to social media. Sergio’s audience is primarily Hispanic teens since a lot of his videos have topics most relevant to Mexican-Americans and other Hispanic-Americans. Sergio’s videos are available exclusively through YouTube but Twitter is one of the main ways that his videos get shared. I found out about him on Twitter and ended up “binge watching” all of his videos one night. Sergio’s videos are reminiscent of Joel McHale’s “The Soup” where he just rants comically.

Sergio’s channel qualifies as independent media because he makes all of his videos on his own with just a camera and ideas. Although he is on YouTube, which is an extremely large outlet for media, he does not publish his videos under any large corporate ownership. Sergio started as a bored teen with a camera and turned into one of the most popular personalities on YouTube. The growth of his channel represents how successful independent media can still be. YouTube does have a knack for “mainstreaming” independent channels into the large media fields such as Timothy de la Ghetto who had a channel similar to Sergio’s and got a TV show and now appears regularly on MTV. While he does have some mainstream appeal because of his popularity, Sergio’s videos are great because they are something that anybody can make and there isn’t the barrier to entry to have a successful time doing it, that is the beautiful thing of independent media.


http://www.youtube.com/user/SergioRazta

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media is a Chicago-based website focused on alternative music and tough critical reviews. Pitchfork does highlight some mainstream music but for the most part indie music is the base for Pitchfork. Pitchfork does reviews, interviews and even videos for its Pitchfork.tv segments. They have their own music festivals in Chicago and Paris. Pitchfork is not owned by any larger media company. When you visit the website there are not even any advertisements.

Ryan Schreiber created Pitchfork back in 1995. Pitchfork has always been available online since its inception. Pitchfork has been a factor in the rise of many artists such as Bon Iver and Arcade Fire. A majority of blogs on indie music have striking similarities to Pitchfork such as content and audience. That audience would be hipsters. Hipsters are those people who are too cool for the mainstream and wear beanies in the summer. The audience is important because the music on Pitchfork is indie and a general assumption of hipsters is that they only listen to bands that are not famous because hipsters are counterculture and know everything before it is cool. That type of audience is what Schreiber wanted when he began Pitchfork. He created Pitchfork to write about underground music since newspaper music reviews often neglected anything that was not mainstream music.

Pitchfork qualifies as an independent media outlet because it not only features independent artists but also because there is an entire staff of journalists and critics that operate independently of any large media conglomerate. There are no restrictions or commercial interests in the writing. Pitchfork is like a zine, a specific publication with a specific audience. The album reviews give Pitchfork notoriety. Critics have been known to be tough and even gained attention from it. While Pitchfork is widely popular now and some might consider it “mainstream”, Pitchfork still does its own thing without any dependence or conformity to a larger parent company. Pitchfork created its own little empire without actually making one.