''Doing' YouTube': Information Creating in the Context of Serious Beauty and Lifestyle YouTube
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Thomson, Leslie Elizabeth Anne
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Wildemuth, Barbara M.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
369 p.
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Body granting the degree
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This dissertation uses constructivist grounded theory to illuminate the practices and activities-namely, those tied to the information creating and the informal information provider roles-of serious YouTubers, specifically serious beauty and lifestyle YouTubers. A "serious YouTuber" is defined as an individual who regularly uploads original content to the video-hosting website YouTube as a part- or full-time venture, thereby attempting to rally viewers into a sub-community. In their videos, beauty and lifestyle YouTubers cover such varied terrain as makeup, fashion, décor, relationships, and daily life. Sensitized by the frameworks of practice theory, everyday life information practices, serious leisure, and creativity forms, this investigation suggests that the information creating done in the mixed serious leisure beauty and lifestyle YouTube pursuit is unique, distinct from the information creating done in strictly professional, educational, hobbyist, or domestic contexts. Documentary research (seven monographs, ten magazine issues, over thirty podcast episodes, and upwards of one hundred YouTube videos were read, listened to, or watched), and semi-structured interviews (twenty-four total, with a sample of twelve serious beauty and lifestyle YouTubers) produced a data record that was analyzed using constant comparison. Findings of this investigation and analysis fall into three main areas. First, serious beauty and lifestyle YouTubers embark upon career trajectories consisting of six periods that span observation, experimentation, and ownership of their creating. Second, serious beauty and lifestyle YouTubers operate and interact within an expansive social world of primary and secondary actors that include YouTube itself, viewers, brands, managers, and more, forming relationships that affect their creating. Third, serious beauty and lifestyle YouTubers carry out ten-step episodes of creating, each step an information activity that utilizes different information resources and tools. One overarching thematic thread weaves throughout these findings-affect-and the original concept internal sensibility is introduced and exemplified. These findings have significance for practice, theory, and research. Among other contributions, they supply an understanding of public information institutions' roles in promoting serious-level creative projects, an empirically grounded update to the existing everyday life information practices model that accounts for creating, and suggestions for refining the current findings through research with other creative groups.