Vlogging conventions

• Vlogging conventions


  The construction of everyday celebrity superstars
• The traditional appeal of conventional advertising is often produced through the construction of aspirational narratives that invite audiences to desire lifestyle ideals
• Alfie Deyes and Zoella's on-screen romance offers their respective audiences a romantic ideal, whilst their high energy vlogging lifestyle yields material wealth that audiences might similarly aspire to
• The appeal of YouTubers is far more complex than the simple construction of aspirational story structure
• Vloggers talk openly about their intention to create media that feels authentic to their audiences
• YouTubers invite audiences into their lives – their homes become studios, whilst single camera perspectives create an intimate confessional tone
• For relief, the camera might become hand-held for a moment, eliciting the host's point of view – placing spectators in the shoes of their YouTube icons in a bid to create identification and relatability
• The success of YouTube stars such as Alfie Deyes and Zoella is driven in part by the authenticity of their on-screen personas
• In a world of polished media, a world in which the mainstream media saturate us with ideal imagery, YouTubers construct products that appear unmediated to their post-millennial target market
• Jump cut editing provides narrative energy and is coupled with a direct address presentation style to construct a deliberately amateur aesthetic
• Relatability is constructed through the use of everyday mise-en-scène, through costume and make-up that appears deliberately natural to affect an effortless and understated aesthetic
• The clichéd bedroom setting reinforces codes of realism and takes audiences into the private space of the YouTuber, where their seemingly unscripted narratives generate a sense of spontaneity
• The inclusion of presenter mistakes and retakes in final edits further augments the idea that we are being given an authentic insight into the personal worlds of Alfie and Zoella
• Zoella's simple charm is to present herself as a best friend character – to enable what Katz and Lazarsfeld would call personal identity
• YouTubers make human connections with their youth audiences; they offer narratives that deal in honesty
• Zoella's struggle with anxiety, her self-confessed character fallibility, makes her more human. It also suggests an understanding of issues faced by her audience within their own lives
• Zoella and Alfie have also crafted a deliberately innocent presenter style with cheery high-key lighting used to underscore the jaunty tone of their output
• The wholesome values of Zoella and Alfie mean those mums and dads casting a careful eye over their children's internet viewing habits will leave the WIFI switched on
• Vloggers have to be increasingly careful to avoid any potentially offensive story content that might be picked up by YouTube algorithms designed to police vlogging content
• The squeaky clean brand identities of Zoella and Alfie, and their complete lack of offensiveness, have enabled them to maintain and nurture their commercial success where others have failed
• YouTubers also take advantage of technology to create content that conveys a sense of immediacy – posting material on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, to satisfy the voyeuristic needs of their target audiences
• Because YouTube content is assembled quickly, it can react instantaneously to fan dislikes and likes, producing content that is always up to date, and the use of satellite social media provides opportunities to connect audiences with their on-screen icons in real time too
• YouTube commentary provides audience feedback whilst also satisfying user interactivity needs
• Zoella and Alfie's post-millennial target audience demands to be active rather than passive media consumers – Instagram, Twitter and Facebook facilitate that need to engage, to be a participatory culture player
• Vloggers use technology to create consumption uplift. YouTube annotations are an endemic feature in vlogs and point users to archived content. More views leads directly to larger advertising revenue streams in YouTube's pay-per-view advertising deals
• Personalised content and star connectivity are reinforced by Twitter feeds and Instagram uploads – both of which give widespread access to intimate candid snapshots and the thoughts and reflections of Alfie and Zoella
• YouTubers translate all this viewer interaction into advertising opportunities. They are market influencers – using their fan bases and trusted content to create advertising opportunities through product placement
• YouTubers need their audiences to share their stories, to virally distribute their vlogs through audience led networks. Without traditional media distribution, they have to rely upon these mediated distribution systems to engage new fans, and their page set ups are designed to assist content sharing
• To develop their audience reach further, YouTubers also produce collaborative content to create subscription uplifts via content made available on fellow YouTube channels
• Zoella creates at least one collaborative vlog every month – indeed, some commentators view Alfie's relationship with Zoella as a commercially expedient marketing opportunity
• These collaborations provide more than commercial synergies. They suggest a sense of community; an integrated vlogging community to which the audience are invited to become a part
• With every new subscriber who signs up, the task of persuading their audience of their vlogging authenticity becomes increasingly difficult
• Alfie and Zoella have, undoubtedly, been elevated to the status of celebrity superstar by their fans. As a result, it becomes much harder for them to persuade us of their connection to the everyday
• Perhaps Alfie and Zoella have already abandoned their pretense to be authentic. Perhaps they were always nothing more than ideal versions of their target audience. Perhaps they were just good looking people who skillfully seized the opportunities that YouTube presented in 2007
• Extension reading


  • http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2016/11/18/girl-online-what-zoella-has-taught-us-about-successful-influencer-marketing
  • https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/03/why-youtube-stars-popular-zoella