YouTube Celebrities' Influence

For my IML 201 – The Languages of Digital Media class, we had to create a digital argument by transforming found video and sound footage into a new expression. Interested in new media, my goal with my remix video was to start an in-class conversation about YouTube celebrities, their sense of authenticity and how they shape today’s youth.
YouTube videos have a sense of authenticity, which is what ultimately asks us to see ourselves within them and within YouTubers. It is because vloggers seem real that we see ourselves in them. Looking at YouTube celebrities of the particular subgenre of beauty channels, my video looks at the duality in YouTube performance that constructs authenticity to ask how it might be influencing youth.

I chose to look at the beauty genre not only because it is very popular at the moment, but also because these videos explicitly teach viewers how to behave, how to perform and put on femininity, displaying their influence more evidently.

The view count of each video that shows up on screen is from March 14, 2017. The videos with a + next to their view counts are videos that were reposted on other channels and their original view counts could not be found.

Rather than proposing a single interpretation of this world in the new media, my desire with this remix video was to spark questioning, something that we are not used to doing when watching YouTube videos since vloggers feel so authentic, like they are our friends.

Some questions that came up in developing the project were: how is a YouTuber celebrity’s authenticity constructed? Does crying on camera spontaneously balance more polished videos? Are these vulnerable videos completely authentic? How are YouTube celebrities/beauty gurus influencing youth? Is this community solidifying a stereotypical femininity or evolving it towards fluidity?