Content creation as writing: Exploring the work of YouTube video essayists
Lafond, Bri
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125680
Description
Title
Content creation as writing: Exploring the work of YouTube video essayists
Author(s)
Lafond, Bri
Issue Date
2024-06-28
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Moussawi, Ghassan
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Mortensen, Peter L
Committee Member(s)
McKinney, Charlesia
Beauchamp, Toby
Department of Study
English
Discipline
English
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Social Media
Multimodality
Content Creation
Social Media Platforms
Composition
Language
eng
Abstract
Many scholars (Turkle, 1984; Haraway, 1991) have characterized Web 1.0—the early age of the internet, spanning roughly the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s—as a virtual playground for creative self-expression beyond the limits of embodied reality. In contrast, Web 2.0—marked by the introduction of social media platforms in the mid-2000s to today—has seemingly recast that creative expression as “user-generated content” circulated through social media. Creative labor (Duffy, 2017) is increasingly commodified through this “platformization” (Helmond, 2015) of the internet, leading to normativized forms of expression that are “advertiser-friendly.” Further, creators are encouraged to market themselves in “authentic” ways that will make them legible to potential audiences, including non-human audiences like algorithms. Drawing from writing, media, and queer studies, my dissertation examines these evolving writing practices and dynamics. Through interviews and content analysis, I focus on YouTube video essayists as a case study to explore how creators shape their self-presentation for audience consumption, navigate algorithmic surveillance mechanisms, and perceive their relationality to both corporate power and audiences. I argue that writing studies must expand its scope to consider the impact of social media platforms on creators' composing practices, acknowledging how creators negotiate corporate imperatives and their own ideals. I explore how creators navigate platform-driven ecologies, both conforming to and challenging corporate pressures, to assert their individual agency and foster queer possibilities in multimedia texts.
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