The meanings of the youtuber identity: the identity suturations of content producers in a digital platform

• Grant number: 18/01718-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2018
• End date: February 28, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Maria da Gloria Bonelli
• Grantee: Wellington Luiz Siqueira
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

YouTube is one of the largest platforms on the internet. The platform has about one billion active users and its contents are produced by the users themselves, who became known as youtubers. They are the focus of this research. Between the years 2006 and 2019, what meanings do subjects attribute to the youtuber identity and in what moments do they identify and mobilize it in their trajectories? What identity dynamics emerge from this mobilization, how do they suture it, and what centers of power do such people recognize? The hypothesis is that this identity, due to the time the subjects devote and the income they receive, gradually became a profession for its practitioners, who are constantly in competition with each other for visibility in this dynamic platform of media and publicity, being able to assume the centrality of the subjects' experience, especially for those who invest the most time in this occupation. The objective of the research is to understand, from the identifications of these subjects, to what extent they approach or move away from this specific point of identification. In the fieldwork, which will be carried out between 2018 and early 2019 in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, mixed methodological resources will be used, combining observations from the interactionist method with the aid of in-depth interviews. In addition, quantitative data provided by the platform will be used to visualize the growth trends of youtubers who participate in the research. The data generated will be analyzed from the conceptual construction models proposed by the grounded theory.