“I’m Coyote Peterson. Be Brave. Stay Wild. We’ll see you on the next adventure”.
The quote above is the signature catchphrase by the Youtube sensation Nathaniel Peterson, also known as Coyote Peterson by his online channel Brave Wilderness which has fourteen million subscribers and growing. He is known for being a wildlife educator which is exactly what he does twice a week when he uploads. Each episode begins with a little clip of what’s to come later to get the viewers interested, this a common technique used by youtubers. He then proceeds to show either the landscape of where the topic animal is from or a quick summary of the last episode to keep viewers caught up. Another technique of his and Youtube in general is to capitalize the title of the video to make it seem more urgent, and to exaggerate the thumbnail image to get people more intrigued. In each episode Coyote introduces a new animal and tells us interesting facts about it. These facts will include the scientific name of the creature, its diet, where and what kind of environment it lives in, and its predators. His most popular videos are the ones when he includes the segment the “sting zone”. This consists of his finding insects with the highest pain/sting index and stinging himself so that people know what it feels like.
The Convergence Era is the most modern phase in TV history; it is the era where people are able to watch TV online whenever or wherever, avoid commercials (for the most part), have access to millions of channels or apps, and lastly watch what specifically interests them like animals. That is exactly what Youtube and Brave Wilderness does. Nowadays you can watch TV in color, and you don’t have to worry about missing an episode and never finding out what happens. Now, it is most likely that you can get up to date by finding the episode you missed on Youtube, or better yet, on the network’s website. What is posted on Youtube is there forever (unless the owner decides to take it down) unlike old TV shows that depend on reruns that don’t always happen. What Coyote Peterson and others on Youtube do is a new creative way of making money, and the new and improved form of television.
–Gabby Vasquez