Making sense of YouTubers: how Swedish children construct and negotiate the YouTuber Misslisibell as a girl celebrity

Abstract

When children use the Internet, they commonly choose to watch their favorite YouTubers. In this article, we aim to deepen the understanding of how children make sense of YouTubers as a phenomenon, and the role of microcelebrities in children's everyday life. The study is based on group interviews with 9-and 12-year-old Swedish children, and pays specific attention to how they make sense of the video "♥Pin up tutorial (JFR.SE)♥," produced by the YouTuber Misslisibell. In the analysis, we explore how the children construct and negotiate Misslisibell as celebrity, celebrity endorser, and young girl. Particularly salient were children's negotiations around the YouTuber's celebrity status, children's normative discussions around Misslisibell's YouTube practices related to her young age, and children's various interpretations of the video as advertising, "tips," and as a space for learning. These multifaceted and sometimes contradictive ways of making sense show the multiplicity of meanings YouTubers have for children.

The effect of influencer marketing of food and a “protective” advertising disclosure on children's food intake

“…At the time of testing, Zoella had approximately 12.1 million subscribers and PointlessBlog 4.1 million. Children respond differently to male and female celebrity endorsers and choose to watch YouTube vloggers who they view as being appropriate for their own gender . For these reasons, girls were shown videos of the female influencer and boys videos of the male.…”

“…39 and choose to watch YouTube vloggers who they view as being appropriate for their own gender. 40 For these reasons, girls were shown videos of the female influencer and boys videos of the male. Videos were obtained from influencers' YouTube channels using the download software KeepVid (https://keepvid.com) and edited using VideoPad video editor (http://www.nchsoftware.com/ videopad/index.html).…”

“It’s Just Addictive People That Make Addictive Videos”: Children’s Understanding of and Attitudes towards Influencer Marketing of Food and Beverages by YouTube Video Bloggers

“…Alternatively, source credibility theory asserts that if an endorser is perceived to be a credible source of information then consumers will likely develop a positive attitude towards the promoted product [29][30][31]. Source credibility is determined by several factors, including the perceived fit between the marketed product and the endorser, the likeability of the endorser, and the level of risk associated with adopting the endorser's behavior [32,33].Studies have yet to fully understand the extent to which children view influencers as role models or as credible sources of information.Although children's perception of influencer marketing of HFSS products specifically has not been explored, qualitative research has focused on their understanding of influencer marketing of non-food products [34][35][36]. Findings from these studies demonstrate that compared with other forms of digital marketing (e.g., YouTube pop-up advertisements), children (9 and 12 years) find influencer marketing via YouTubers to be less irritating because it does not interrupt media content, and provides useful product information (e.g., price) [36].…”

“…Although children's perception of influencer marketing of HFSS products specifically has not been explored, qualitative research has focused on their understanding of influencer marketing of non-food products [34][35][36]. Findings from these studies demonstrate that compared with other forms of digital marketing (e.g., YouTube pop-up advertisements), children (9 and 12 years) find influencer marketing via YouTubers to be less irritating because it does not interrupt media content, and provides useful product information (e.g., price) [36].…”

Urban Influencers: An Analysis of Urban Identity in YouTube Content of Local Social Media Influencers in a Super-Diverse City

“…These influencers are users of social media who have accumulated a large following online, often to such an extent that it has become (part of) their career (Abidin, 2017). Research shows that they are perceived as (micro-)celebrities and play an important role as media idols (Gleason et al, 2017;Martínez and Olsson, 2019). As social media platforms focused on user-generated content (e.g., YouTube and Instagram) have become increasingly popular, so have their content creators.…”