The YouTube star: exploring the potential democratisation of stardom in the digital landscape through convergence

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the concept of the YouTube star, their development, and how their presence in the digital landscape potentially disrupts as well as restructures understandings about stardom. Looking at early YouTube before Google’s acquisition through the channel Smosh, YouTube after monetisation through Lilly Singh, the subsequent tension after this monetisation between corporate media and its grassroots creators through PewDiePie, later opulent wealth thanks to this monetisation through MrBeast, and liveness in the context of COVID-19 through Valkyrae and CORPSE HUSBAND, this thesis follows YouTube’s development largely chronologically. I argue that YouTube stars both mimic and go against traditional star ideals in several ways, converging the ideas of new media stardom and old media stardom. In the early years of the platform, YouTubers presented themselves as ordinary, grassroots, and authentic. Anyone had the potential to not only create content on YouTube but also gain a returning audience. No longer were stars manufactured by the media industry to be an ideal for certain dominant societal values (such as capitalism and patriarchy); instead, they were chosen by the audience and self-made. This led, potentially, to the democratisation of the star. However, after Google’s acquisition, these stars slowly were able to rise in wealth, leading to more professional equipment and teams around themselves such as writers, makeup artists, hairstylists, personal assistants and managers, granting them the potential to present themselves as more professional and glamourous, furthering the bridge between the audience and the star in question. Moreover, these same ordinary stars were beginning to be seen in traditional media spaces, such as films, red-carpets, late-night talk shows and magazine articles. I also question who amongst these YouTubers are being uplifted to such points of fame. Although anyone can upload to the platform, some creators are promoted on the site more than others, be that on the YouTube homepage, YouTube’s Twitter/X account, or in real life, such as in their 2018 billboard campaign. Furthermore, traditional stars, that is film and television stars, are themselves engaging on these same sites, bringing their persona back down to earth so to relate to their audience and appear more authentic.

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ORCID for Michael Williams: orcid.org/0000-0001-5386-5567

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