(Self)-representations on youtube

This paper examines forms of self-representation on YouTube with specific focus on Vlogs (Video blogs). The analytical scope of the paper is on how User-generated Content on YouTube initiates a certain kind of audiovisual representation and a particular interpretation of reality that can be distinguished within Vlogs. This will be analysed through selected case studies taken from a representative sample of empirically based observations of YouTube videos. The analysis includes a focus on how certain forms of representation can be identified as representations of the self (Turkle 1995, Scannell 1996, Walker 2005) and further how these forms must be comprehended within a context of technological constrains, institutional structures and social as well as economical practices on YouTube (Burgess and Green 2009, Van Dijck 2009). It is argued that these different contexts play a vital part in generating the formation of audiovisual self-representation, which can be characterised somewhat differently from other modes of audiovisual self-representations e.g. home movies (Chalfen 1987) or documentary representations (Nichols 1991). Through this, the paper, drawing on my forthcoming dissertation, provides knowledge about various forms of audiovisual representations of the self on YouTube and how these can exemplify the communicative characteristics of YouTube as a medium platform.