Negative Stigmas Against Parkour Continue Despite Professional Athlete Effort. Viral Media. Emily Abernathy. University of Texas at Dallas

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1 Negative Stigmas Against Parkour Continue Despite Professional Athlete Effort Viral Media Emily Abernathy University of Texas at Dallas Literal and figurative obstacles face everyone, parkour is the mental and physical practice of overcoming obstacles. Parkour is primarily a physical activity including the process of moving as efficiently as possible using only the human body ( Ortuzar, 2009). Negative stigmas against parkour have kept it an alternative or extreme sport, keeping it out of mainstream culture in the United States. Mainstream internet culture has primarily accepted parkour for its fail videos or the most talented athletes showing off their skill. While the spotlight is on the extreme failures and successes, parkour practitioners are making an effort to educate the public about its practical uses for the everyday person. Parkour Reality Versus Media Ecology Different parkour videos include tutorials, showreels, progression videos, documentaries, interviews, professional or amateur stunt attempts, bloopers, and fail videos. For parkour to flourish in mainstream culture, interest must grow. Steadily parkour has gained popularity as a normal activity primarily in major cities. However, a mass amount of the population still does not have access or knows they have access to professional instructions or instructors. With fail compilations and show cases of the best athletes dominating the web, it can be difficult for the public to understand that parkour is not an adrenaline junkie sport if practiced correctly. Despite

2 professional parkour athletes making educational tutorials explaining safe practice a negative stigma of parkour is easily found in online comments. It is important that we have media literacy to properly navigate and digest parkour media because telling the difference between a professional's tutorial on how to practice parkour safely versus an amateur's perspective of how to learn parkour could mean reducing injury and risk of those who would practice or copy parkour. Recognizing the difference between a professional stunt and a daredevil attempting a stunt can sometimes be difficult to see. This is where media literacy or knowledge of parkour is key to understand the video. Whether adrenaline junkie, adventurous, or showing off for friends, improper practice is unsafe and unsustainable to practice long term. The public tends to view the practice of parkour all under one blanket, they see one reckless person, the whole activity is shamed. There is a gray area, meaning there are professional athletes that do you have an adrenaline junkie mentality and do participate in delinquent practices while also partially practicing safe training methods. Like any sport, athletes accept a certain amount of risk. Two types of parkour videos to demonstrate the differences and intent we will use fail videos in comparison with parkour tutorials.for each video type I will refer to two videos two fail videos and two tutorials. To understand the importance of media literacy in regards to differentiating between parkour videos that reinforce or dismantle the negative stigma in mainstream sports culture, discovering the intent behind the video s creation is crucial. Analyzing the editing style, video length, who is filming versus who is in the video, and the video influence on getting viewers to interact whether by rating (Like or Dislike) or commenting.

3 Failure Versus Blooper Intent determines whether the clip in the fail video is a blooper from training athletes or the failure of a stunt. When referencing fail videos, I m not focusing on one video of one individual clip of one accident, I m referring to compilations of multiple individual, but separate fail clips. Most compilation fail videos are edited together with comedy in mind. One of the oldest jokes in the book is watching someone trip, fall or get injured. However, most fail videos are productions of expectations of a successful maneuver gone wrong. Rarely do people decide to go out and harm themselves for video views besides the Jackass copycats. Fail compilations are a typical video format for parkour fail clips. Compilations are usually fast cut and have multiple clips from and of different people, often edited together by someone who was not involved in the initial production of any of the clips they pull together. Compilation video time lengths can vary, on YouTube they average between 5 7 minutes. Compilations can tend to have a dozen or couple dozen separate clips all strung together back to back in one video. Parkour fail videos, especially the compilations done by non parkour practitioners often bring together videos from daredevils, amateurs, and professionals, quickly blurring the lines between a professional who has made a mistake and an immature or non practitioner just attempting a stunt. The person filming fail videos can be a spectator, a friend or anyone in attendance to witness the action. Sometimes the person filming does not get any permission to film at all and is simply an observer waiting for something good or bad to happen. Amateurs attempting stunts

4 they are not ready for can be easily picked out when an it is vertically oriented as if taken from a mobile device. Even beginning (serious) parkour athletes know to film horizontally. The subject of a fail video can also prop the camera against something or utilize a tripod so no one is actually filming. Professionals and amateur daredevils are both usually in compilations, telling the difference between the two can be difficult. People who train for or try parkour are not always just a professional and /or just a daredevil, they can be both, one or the other, or neither. Being able to tell the difference usually requires a high media literacy or an understanding of what parkour is and how it is usually practiced. With athletes who are not professional but not a beginner either, their bloopers than end up as fail video clips. Usually, only heavy parkour practitioners are able to spot a professional s accident. With improper practice and accidents comes fail videos. Why parkour fail videos are so enjoyable can be connected to schadenfreude. Schadenfreude is a pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune according to The Google definition. People who practice parkour and those who do not are both members of the audience is that enjoy schadenfreude. Seeing someone else fail at a maneuver weather difficult or not, is like watching a train wreck or a car crash. Seeing as schadenfreude is a common reason for parkour fail videos that is one major reason fail videos are almost equally if not more easily found online. It is easier to fail and post that failure online then to take the time to progress and parkour safely. Since it is so easy to fail and people often can try parkour simply because they want to be recognize online or use parkour as a social currency, creating a fail video is much easier than a progression or professional reel.

5 Parkour Tutorials Another type of parkour videos are tutorials for people to learn how to do parkour on their own or with the videos as a supplement. Beginner, intermediate, and expert athletes have taken the time to produce tutorials specifically for other people like them, meaning: people who want to learn but don t have access to a professional teacher or gym or simply want to teach themselves. It is commonplace for people to learn parkour via the internet or YouTube, even if there is a gym or instructor nearby, with the negative stigma family and friends can discourage one to seek out professional help. It is well known amongst parkour community that many people are self starters who resorted to using the Internet when they could not find other people to support them in person. Plus the people have already taken the time to train themselves know what it feels like to be lost in the feeling of despair of not knowing how to practice and not knowing where to start, with there being a vacuum of information athletes have been quick to jump onto the ability to produce content and generate views and possibly income from people watching their videos. A parkour norm is to have basic film and video editing skills to best capture whatever movement the practitioner desires. Tutorials for parkour are almost exclusively online videos with intermediate to professional athletes sharing their perspective and or advice for the benefit of beginners or anyone wanting more information on parkour. While fail videos are often made by chance and accident, tutorials are almost always planned out to some extent. Editing style can very from a single take of someone explaining and or demonstrating what the tutorial is about. Sometimes it's multiple takes with jump cuts. Tutorials can be the same length, longer or shorter than fail

6 compilations depending on what they are about and who puts the video together. Tutorials are more likely to be longer than compilations and are usually not a compilation format. Fail VS Tutorial Comments People are more likely to move to action, a.k.a. like or dislike a video, if the video is a progression, show real, or tutorial video. Genuine effort encourages interaction. Discussions can occur but comments of fear and doubt more often than not add Fail videos can often conjure up more views but less action to rate the videos. While most viewers enjoy schadenfreude in someway they are less likely to show to others that they are affected by schadenfreude. One comment found on a video by FailArmy captures a common theme of schadenfreude amongst fail compilations. Whether a fail compilation or tutorial, a commonality between videos are people commenting about their own ability, whether joking or serious. Tutorials are more likely to have a serious commenter, fail compilations usually get the jokesters.

7 The Bigger Picture I argue that the youth of America utilize the Internet to find alternative ways of thrill and enjoyment. Despite the 2008 recession, I argue that while we are developed nation that encourages material wealth, this has not change the reality of young people be able to afford or better yet not afford enjoyment or thrill as previous generations have. With was such a hyperfocus on the Internet and owning a mobile phone, getting people away from their phones and involved in a sport is a huge influence to have as online content. Mainstream sports can often very intricate and have a lot of competition. The idea of physical activity being linked it to sport and competition can depress some young people, simply because there is a straight line between athletes and nonathletes in this country. If you claim to be an athlete, people ask you what sport you practice. This is where standardization of sport comes in handy, it is easy to reference competition as if it is a merit badge simply for participation. And for those that have not given into competition but have resorted to using modern gyms, touting one s membership to a gym or other is another source of merit badge for culture and communication exchange. It is easy to record and put online as a legitimate activity.

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