Discourses of Authenticity on YouTube

From the Personal to the Professional

Giorgia Riboni

• Publisher: LED Edizioni Universitarie
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9788855130141
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book explores the discourse of authenticity on the popular social media platform YouTube. It investigates how popular users negotiate their identity and discursively portray themselves as authentic in their videos. In so doing, it adds to the development of new perspectives on social media communication and offers an outlook on issues concerning the complexities of contemporary identity practices. Starting from the premise that authenticity is a discursive construction, the study adopts a linguistics-based approach and relies on a hybrid methodological toolkit that draws on the analytical tools provided by Social Media Critical Discourse Studies (SM-CDS), a newly-introduced framework comprised of different but interconnected levels of description. The volume presents three case studies which investigate the discursive and rhetorical strategies used by well-known users in order to come across as authentic. Videos produced by popular content creators belonging to different communities of practice (scientists, stay-at-home mothers, and makeup artists) are explored. The analysis reveals that they share a common set of identity characteristics, a common core of authentic traits famous YouTubers conventionally display to discursively depict themselves as genuine and credible.

1.
Background

This chapter sets the stage for the book by introducing the main notions around which it is organized and by providing some basic knowledge on youtubing as an emerging profession. It starts with an exploration of the multifaceted relation among authenticity, social media, and self-branding, together with an account of the various ways in which YouTubers generate affiliation and built rapport with their audience, thus successfully promoting themselves. The chapter continues with an elucidation of YouTube’s business model and the strategies and tools that allow content creators to generate revenue from their videos. The final sections contain an overview of the history and a definition of the term “authenticity”, as well as an explanation of the expression “emergent authenticity”. More specifically, the concluding part of the chapter illustrates what “emergent authenticity” means in the field of Tourism Studies, where it originates, and argues that this concept can be repurposed for the categorization of YouTube communication practices.

1.1.AUTHENTICITY AND SELF-BRANDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

A salient aspect of late-modern societies is the endless display of the self. Willing or not, we are constantly exposed to the world’s gaze and, as a result, we are continually engaged in identity construction practices. Issues regarding identity have certainly not emerged in the current historical period: people have always offered performances of the self for the benefit of others, who become their audience. In the same vein, scholars and thinkers have always been preoccupied with identifying “the real self”, a blurry construct difficult to pinpoint because of its mediated nature. However, what has possibly changed over the last few decades is the degree to which the display of the self has permeated the Western world, the ways in which this seemingly market-free phenomenon has been increasingly hybridized with marketing and (self-)branding values, and the technological advancements that have concurred in producing these effects. Since its very beginning, hegemonic Net discourse has portrayed the new electronic medium as a tool for individual self-expression: social media researcher Alice Marwick notes that one of the earliest webgenres to celebrate the latter, the “e-zine” (which appeared in the 1990s), was deeply affected by the DYI (Do It Yourself) culture, which encouraged people to make their own culture and stop consuming what was already made by others (Marwick 2013a). The DYI ethos was typical of the punk and zine culture from which e-zines originated, but the migration of the genre of the printed zine into the digital sphere progressively eroded some of the principles of the anti-capitalist philosophy and rhetoric around “selling out”:

The ethic of “doing it yourself”, of learning from others without a profit motive, of self-expression, and of focusing on obscure interests and sharing personal experiences, became part of the creative fabric of Web 2.0 at the same time that it was depoliticized. (Marwick 2013a, 41)

The Web 2.0 boom, which dates back to the mid 2000s and represents another milestone in the history of the Net, took place in the Silicon Valley area, whose political sensibility “of a decidedly libertarian bent, espousing self-improvement, meritocracy, and ‘work-life balance’ left visible traces in Internet culture” (ibid., 50). As a consequence, social media discourses seem to have absorbed “a peculiar mix of entrepreneurial capitalism, technological determinism, and digital exceptionalism, which frames everything from photo-sharing websites to casual gaming as potential ‘game-changers’” which is rooted in Northern Californian libertarianism (ibid., 5). The outcomes of this ideological stance include a fierce competition for social benefits by gaining visibility and attention: to increase their social status, users have to craft a successful online persona to present to their virtual audience thus efficiently marketing themselves, not dissimilarly from brands and celebrities (ibid.)¹.

Since “[t]he technical mechanisms of social media reflect the values of where they were produced: a culture dominated by commercial interest” (ibid.), the digital performances of the self realized by content creators cannot but include a heavily commodified component which may, however, compromise their credibility. In other words, in order to acquire fame, social media users constantly display their self, a process which requires carefully monitoring and is everything but spontaneous; at the same time, they have to make sure that their persona appears sincere so as to be able to attract public recognition. The issue of how to obtain this difficult balance calls into question other issues, including that of authenticity, which, in this context, seems to be a key notion.

Authenticity may represent an elusive concept but it is also a crucial value that significantly influences human relations, online as well as offline². Whereas establishing whether authenticity is something that exists within or outside commercial spaces such as YouTube is up for debate and will be investigated in the remainder of the book, there seems to be general agreement on the fact that appearing authentic is of remarkable importance in the “study and practice of strategic or integrated communication and its specialized fields” (Molleda 2009, 90) in the domains of social media, as well as advertising, marketing/branding and self-branding.

As regards social media and more specifically YouTube, a plethora of scholars belonging to different disciplines have highlighted that the authentic is possibly the most sought for value on the platform; according to anthropologist (and YouTube academic celebrity) Michael Wensch, “if you could name a core value on YouTube it’s authenticity” (2008; cf. also Young 2007; Kennedy 2019). YouTube scholar Michael Strangelove adds that

Claims that YouTube offers a more authentic experience abound on the Internet. Although these claims raise a host of largely unsolved epistemological issues about the nature of the ‘real’, they nonetheless represent significant social facts. (Strangelove 2010, 65)

Communication Studies specialist Brooke Duffy stresses the bond between authenticity and ordinariness (cf. also Tolson 2001; Lagerwey 2017, 118):

The shifting technologies and economies of media in the early 21^st century have ostensibly given rise to a new instantiation of authenticity: the incorporation of ‘real’ people as agents in the mediated public sphere. […] Meanwhile, digital technologies have made it possible for ordinary individuals to become cultural producers who participate in – and increasingly create – media and advertising campaigns. (Duffy 2013, 135)

Maybe paradoxically, though, the construction of authenticity which characterizes the communication practices of ordinary people who become successful on the Internet are rather similar to those featured in celebrity discourse (Marshall 2010). Global Studies expert Theresa Senft coined the expression “microcelebrity” precisely to refer to those strategies users resort to in order to present themselves as a coherent, commodified packages to online audiences, thus acquiring remarkable popularity and followship (2008). Expanding Senft’s inquiry into micro-celebrity techniques, Marwick notes that “even in online environments saturated with celebrity culture and marketing rhetoric […]authenticity becomes a way for individuals to differentiate themselves not only from each other but from other forms of media” (2013a; cf. also 2013b). It is important to note that both ordinariness (cf. Tolson 2001) and microcelebrity are something that have to be worked at and performed, not a pre-requisite of the individual. The interplay of these two apparently dichotomous statuses seems strategic in arising interest and attracting attention.

In this context, the strict interrelation between authenticity, online success and (self-)branding strategies should not come as a surprise. Marketing and branding scholarship focuses on the tension between authenticity and inauthenticity (Brown 2001) and identifies the former as an important “selling point” (van Nuenen 2015, 15) as well as a “driver of source credibility” (Tran and Strutton 2014; Chapple and Cownie 2017). Moreover, branding theory dictates “that the basis for contemporary branding is transparency and authenticity, that marketers should ‘never try to trick the consumer’” (Banet-Weiser 2012, 213). As a consequence, brand managers are advised to rely on authenticity because it shapes a unique brand identity and may provide a favourable association (Gundlach and Neville 2011, 486; cf. also Keller 1993). In this regard, Murtola and Fleming observe that

[a]n important element of this business version of authenticity is the way in which it is structured by a fundamental absence […] the assumption that all is presently not authentic and that something is missing and needs to be addressed. The same is discernible in the endless range of authentic commodities available on the market, ready to respond to consumers’ cravings for an authentic experience. (Murtola and Fleming 2011, 2)

As previously pointed out, authenticity is crucial not only as far as branding is concerned, but also when it comes to self-branding. Self-branding can be described as an activity involving “the construction of a metanarrative and meta-image of self through the use of cultural meanings and images drawn from the narrative and visual codes of the mainstream cultural industries. The function of the branded self is purely rhetorical, its goal is to produce profit” (Hearn 2008, 194). This “persona produced for public consumption” expresses a “self, which continually produces itself for competitive circulation” (Wernick 1991, 192). Against the current backdrop of marketization and commodification, “the self today is an entrepreneurial self, a self that’s packaged to be sold” (Deresiewicz 2011). As a consequence, the spreading of self-branding practices on social media is unsurprisingly conspicuous. As Khamis et al. write:

This phenomenon is fuelled by at least three interrelated forces: the extent to which social media proceeds without the gamut of gatekeepers that otherwise determines and limits content flows; audiences increasingly predisposed to ‘ordinary’ people in the spotlight; and a cultural economy that contours almost everything (including conceptions of the self) along consumerist lines. (Khamis et al. 2017, 7)

Self-branding on social media “significantly extends the potential for fame and celebrity” because it enables the person/brand to be “consolidated as audiences/followers, fans embed it within their own individualized media flows through likes, shares and comments” (ibid., 6). This type of practice involves a “particular emphasis on the construction of identity as a product to be consumed by others, and on interaction which treats the audience as an aggregated fan base to be developed and maintained in order to achieve social or economic benefit” (Page 2012, 182). Marwick uses the expression “edited self” to refer to this online identity which has to be both business-friendly and carefully monitored (2013a, 194-197). However, what determines the success of self-branding is the degree to which the individual is able to convey an image of authenticity (Kennedy 2019, 187; cf. also Duffy 2013; Marwick 2013a; McQuarrie et al. 2013; Genz 2014). Social media users who become online celebrities appear “to create engagement that feels authentic while still privileging market exchange” (Banet-Weiser 2012, 38).

In spite of the deeply commercial nature of the Net, Web 2.0 discourses have constructed social media as a genuine and credible alternative to corporate broadcasting media for decades. Mainstream media have been heavily criticized because of their vested political and economic interests, while disaffectionate publics have increasingly turned to Internet genres which appear more interactional (and therefore more democratic) as well as more authentic. Within online content, however, an additional discursive distinction is made between user-generated and professionally generated content. Although professionals can rely on advanced production skills and superior financial resources, what is created and shared by amateurs is generally regarded as more trustworthy and enjoys a comparable popularity. This accounts for the appreciation and concomitant spread of the low-fi aesthetic which dominates usergenerated video content on social media platforms. Amateurish YouTube posts (or, to be more exact, posts that aim at coming across as amateurish) are “uncut, coarse-grained, and without any intentional dramatic composition” (Reichert 2014, 104-105) because they have to appear as the product of a spontaneous effort, made by someone with possibly limited funds and technological means. This has led some to contend that “YouTube has created a new visual culture based on the original amateur aesthetics” (Léon and Bourk 2018, 4) which may be considered as “the dominant form of early twenty-first-century videography” (Lister et al. 2009, 227). In this respect, Michael Strangelove highlights the development of genres of movies as well as of TV program formats that attempt to mimic the realism of amateur videos:

Styles of representation are shared by both television and video, and increasingly so. Thus, we cannot simply declare that amateur video has a style, a set of practices, or an aesthetic, that better represents truth and reality than television does. Indeed, within YouTube it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish amateur from professional productions. The video industry is getting better at mimicking the amateur mode, while continual improvements in domestic video technology make it easier for amateurs to emulate professional production values. YouTube, television, and film all provide numerous examples of how difficult it can be to distinguish between amateur and commercial modes of video production. (Strangelove 2010, 173)

To conclude, this paragraph has provided insights into the crucial role that authenticity plays in social media discourses, especially with reference to the branding and self-branding domains. Ordinariness and amateurship markers contribute to the online construction of the authentic persona, and some of them seem to have been tactically adop...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• INTRODUCTION
• 1. BACKGROUND
• 2. COMPUTER-MEDIATED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND COMMUNICATING AUTHENTICITY ON YOUTUBE: A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE
• 3. SCIENCE YOUTUBERS
• 4. STAY-AT-HOME MOTHERS
• 5. MAKEUP ARTISTS
• CONCLUSIONS
• APPENDIX – VIDEO LIST
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS