Foster, Josephine (2014) Like, comment, subscribe! An interpretive phenomenological analysis of identity construction and the individual experiences of content creators on YouTube. University of Gloucestershire. (Unpublished)
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Abstract
YouTube encourages their users to ‘Broadcast Yourself’, and many do just that. YouTube is the most popular video sharing website at the moment (Wen et al., 2010) and is a platform for the ever popular vlog. Vlogs (video blogs) evolved from the text based blog, and facilitate another form of online communication, self-expression and creation of community. This study aimed to explore the individual experiences of content creators on YouTube to gain an understanding of how they make sense of their identity and reconcile their online and offline worlds. A purposive sample of 5 vloggers on YouTube were chosen for individual semi-structured interviews. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data and 3 master themes were identified: ‘constructing identity’, ‘the journey of creating content on YouTube’ and ‘positioning of others’. Participants were found to use vlogs as a way to express important aspects of their inner selves, reminisce and as a creative outlet. Vlogging is a relatively modern phenomenon therefore the research around it not yet extensive. This study presents potential areas of interest for future research.
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