YouTube, migrant rappers and the Early Cinema Aesthetics: Is There a Digital Public Sphere?

Cinema has been, at the beginning of the century, in the United States, a place in which women and migrant groups found representations of their identity: today YouTube shows many similarities to the early cinema, with his short length modular units, strong accent on voyeurism, actor centered performances influenced by the vaudeville aesthetic. Like vaudeville and early cinema staged cultural differences which shaped the immigrant experience, so YouTube is a product of globalization, showing spanish teenager dancing korean dance hits or chinese and american girls recording makeup tutorials using the same language and conventions. In her Babel and Babylon, Miriam Hansen states that the birth of the film spectator is deeply intertwined with the transformation of the public sphere, particularly since the appearance of the so-called institutional mode of representation. We will follow her invitation to reflect more carefully on the position of the film spectator in the public sphere, especially looking at the changes brought by the advent of electronic media, accepting the challenge to find which could be the characteristics of a "digital" public sphere, and if there is a chance to build a european digital public sphere. The speech will focus on an interesting case of migrant self representation on YouTube: the huge popularity gained by migrant rappers videos in Italy. Spitty Cash, romanian, Lil Angel$, second generation african immigrant, or Mc Fred Vinile, brasilian, became famous because they are, simply, bad, and their video are classified as trash. Their videoclips show a curious mix of american gangsta rap imagery and the will of impose themselves as migrant rappers in Italy with their stories, and represent a fruitful point of observation to understand a particular way to build a shared european identity through digital media.