DIY Media and Peertube

2021-09-11

Andrew Roach's Post About DIY Media

>We are constantly bombarded with entertainment and news media from these five companies, to the point that it is nigh inescapable. Even if the companies that feed us our news and entertainment were benign (and, don't kid yourself, they aren't), it would be nearly impossible to keep their biases out of our media. Simply put, we cannot afford to have such a vital part of our society controled by so few.

>If we're ever going to actually effect social change, we're going to need to provide home grown, community alternatives to the media produced by the entrenched power structures represented by these mega-corporations. We need to hit them at their bottom line, which means creating (and consuming) compelling community TV, Film, Games, Prose, Music, and other art.

>Many are already working towards these goals, and we should support them. Others are considering embarking on path towards DIY media. We must encourage and support them. As consumers, we must actively support the creators who choose to work independently.

Andrew makes some excellent points about the state of Media in our culture and why DIY media is important and I agree wholeheartedly. In the years since that post Peertube has appeared on the scene adding yet another example of how it is easier now than it ever has been to create and retain control over your own media. Video in this case and even live streaming was added earlier this year.

My feeling is that I care about the importance of creating DIY media and also consuming, sharing it and supporting those who create it. Be that financially, through watching, listening, playing these DIY creations or providing friendly feedback and encouragement. So what have I done to move further in the direction of living these values? For starters I've been (surprise surpise) playing homebrew video games, telling the creators that I love what they are doing when I really enjoy a game and I've even bought a couple homebrew games from the creators recently. Another thing I've done is make an effort to consume more DIY media specifically through Peertube because I like the platform and feel like it is the most suitable way forward to breaking away from the Youtube behemoth.

I prefer to watch videos and shows from the comfort of my recliner or couch in front of the big nice living room TV so I was happy to see that development is once again active on a Peertube Kodi addon. Unfortunately, it is not yet fully functional on the latest version of Kodi so the best solution for this is still a little ways away. In the meantime since Peertube provides RSS feeds for users and channels it was quite easy to knock together a bash script that downloads the latest videos from whatever channels I want directly to my media server. So for now I can just browse a folder in Kodi with the recently downloaded videos.

Wrapping up, I have a request for my readers. What Peertube channels do you like? Please share the good ones you know of with me! You can hit me up at kelbot@retro.social on the fediverse or email me at kel (at) cyberbot.space. If I get a good list of channels compiled I may do a follow up post with a list. Cheers!

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