Interdiscursive performance in digital professions: The case of YouTube tutorials

Vlogging and the discursive co‐construction of ethnicity and beauty

“…These comments provide a reasonable indication of the rapport that Kaushal shares with her viewers, and their perceptions of her expertise and YouTube savvy. Similar to Bhatia's () observations, YouTube, as a participant‐driven, interdiscursive space, encourages users to shift between multiple identities. Even within the limited role of the viewer, constrained purely by textual responses, we see the audiences shift their roles between learner ( I've learned so much ; everything was just so easy step by step) ; admirer (love your Indian tutorials ; love your videos ; a great role model ; you are a Goddess ; we all love you ); well‐wisher (I hope you have a bright future ; wishing for all the best things to happen to you) ; and trusted friend ( Can you recommend ; I swear by your suggestion ; would you recommend ) among other roles (critic, mentor, mediator).…”

“…And lastly, we also see her indulge in a form of self‐celebritification, quite typical of social media discourse, whereby she requests viewers to subscribe and boost the popularity of her channel, thereby translating to greater individual revenue ( please don't forget to … it's totally free and the button is down there ). What is interesting here is that such blatant self‐promotion, unlike typical face‐to‐face interaction, is not ‘considered impolite, but necessary to present oneself as a confident and experienced participant of the community’ (Bhatia, , p. 111).…”

“…This focuses on what van Dijk () refers to as the ‘ideological structures of discourse’, such as polarizing pronouns, identity markers (labels and names), positive and negative group descriptions, stereotypes, modals and instructives about group activities, norms and values (statements of evaluation and judgement), and interests, all conveyed through various linguistic and semiotic features. This paper, which regards video‐blogs as ‘audio‐visual discursive products that combine speech, body performance, text in the form of posted comments to relay specific meanings’ (Bhatia, , p. 109), will focus on ideological structures of discourse, realized through various linguistic and semiotic means, to construct ethnic identity. In addition, this paper also draws on aspects of Gee and Green's () M(aterial) A(ctivity) S(emiotic) S(ociocultural) System which lays out the different aspects of discourse that need to be considered when considering discourse as social practice.…”

“…Kaushal is among the most prominent Indian beauty gurus on YouTube, featured in Elle Magazine as a superblogger, a L'oreal Company Ambassador, and ‘one of the world's leading vloggers’ (Verve Magazine) . Ongoing analysis, as part of the larger project, reveals that Kaushal's beauty‐how‐to tutorials are fairly representative of those typically perceived as ‘expert’ beauty tutorials on YouTube (see Bhatia [] for a more detailed discussion on what constitutes expertise in this genre), drawing largely on mainstream beauty discourse in terms of typical tutorial structure, use of jargon, demonstration of disciplinary knowledge, discursive competence and professional practice, but also included more specific instances of intercultural behavior, so that Kaushal negotiated two interdiscursive identities – expert YouTuber and diaspora Indian. For this particular paper, a total of 40 videos (with lengths varying from five to 25 minutes) were analyzed; however, while all examples informed the analysis, not all could be included in the paper due to word limitations.…”

“…Similarly, there have also been studies into the teaching classroom shifting online, and into the hands of amateur participants (Burgess & Green, ) since YouTube provides a space ‘with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, [and] strong support for creating and sharing creations’ (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, & Robison, , p. xi). For example, Bhatia's () work focuses on the interdiscursive construction of expertise on YouTube as beauty vloggers exploit the boundaries between expert and layperson by drawing on their discursive competence, disciplinary knowledge and professional practice in how‐to tutorials. Similarly, Tolson (, p. 282) focuses on comparisons between pedagogical entertainment and traditional forms of broadcast talk, indicating a resurgence in the ‘pedagogical monologue’ in YouTube tutorials, as opposed to more formal instruction traditionally associated with expertise.…”