Over the last few years, Web 2.0 genres have contributed to radically revolutionizing the ways in which brands market their products online as well as the ways in which consumers discover and purchase them. The rise of genres used to communicate about makeup and cosmetics has had a dramatic impact on the makeup industry. As a consequence, a very dynamic digital community of makeup lovers has originated and spread worldwide. Members participate by sharing information and tips, doing products’ reviews, announcing new collections, tutorials and how-to’s (Kedveš 2013). Even though makeup companies have realized the potential of Web 2.0 genres and have adopted them relatively quickly, most users bypass their social media accounts as they find amateurs’ accounts more appealing and trustworthy. The convergence of electronic word of mouth (Phelps et al. 2004), personal narrative, and audience engagement which characterizes these online profiles (often referred to as “beauty vlogs” ) results in entertaining as well as informative content which may receive as many as ten times the visits as those of the major beauty brands (cf. Pixability 2014). While differentiating between unaffiliated amateurs and users who are more or less officially sponsored by cosmetic corporations is not easy and maybe not even desirable (Burgess/Green 2009: 57), the amateurial discourse arguably dominates the online makeup domain. A plethora of makeup lovers have become so well-known and influential that the expression “makeup gurus” has been coined to designate them. According to the traditional definition, “gurus” are people gifted with wisdom as well as leadership abilities who consequently emerge as spiritual guides to be trusted. On Youtube a guru is someone who has a “guru account” and posts videos to educate people about something (YouTube, 2010; Anarbaeva 2011). Since YouTube is free and everybody can open a channel (provided with the same identical template and functions) on the platform, it can be hypothesized that the most popular makeup gurus distinguish themselves from the others and stand out thanks to, among various factors, their ability to utilize the genre (Spyer 2013). Consequently, those videos which receive the most hits and enjoy the widest circulation seem to be more representative of the genre while, at the same time, proving more likely to affect it. Starting from these premises, this study sets out to investigate the generic, rhetorical and linguistic practices of online amateur makeup lovers and focuses its analysis on the language of the so-called “makeup gurus”, i.e. those people who dominate Web 2.0 “makeupsphere”. The analytical framework adopted in this research is discourse analysis and is rooted in a constructivistic view of discourse. According to this view, the latter participates in “the social construction of reality” (cf. Berger/Luckmann 1976). As a consequence, social labeling and identities are arguably best investigated through a discourse analytical approach. In order to examine labeling and identities in the online makeup domain, a corpus consisting of fifteen videos posted on the three of the most subscribed Youtube How to & Style channels (which interestingly also rank within the top 300 most subscribed channels of the whole Youtube platform) has been selected. More specifically, makeup tutorials realized by Michelle Phan (USA), Tanya Burr (England), and Lauren Curtis (Australia) have been collected over the course of seven months and examined in order to identify their prevailing discursive features. The analysis focuses on the discursive representation of beauty and makeup as well as on the identity of makeup gurus. As regards the latter, special attention is devoted to the construction of the public and private sphere of the guru in YouTube’s context collapse (cf. Lange 2008/ Wensch 2008). Additionally, in the analysis of gurus’ identities account is taken of the fact that, in spite of representing themselves as amateurs and unaffiliated, these vloggers are surreptitiously heavily sponsored by cosmetic companies. Preliminary results seem to indicate that popular beauty vloggers utilize rhetorical, discursive and language strategies aimed at promoting their channel by making their videos easily distinguishable from the plentiful similar ones featured on the YouTube platform. This translates, for instance, into the adoption of formulaic expressions which are repeated in all videos and which acquire the status of a linguistic trademark. Moreover, although with significant individual differences, makeup gurus tend to hybridize online makeup with other discourses and to represent cosmetics as products which can help improve not only users’ physical appearance but also their quality of life, too. This may further attest the blending between that corporate/marketing discourse, which tends to add symbolic values to products, and online makeup discourse. Keywords: Web 2.0, beauty discourse, webgenres, makeup tutorials, corporate discourse References Anarbaeva, Samara 2011. YouTubing Difference: Performing Identity In Online Do-It-Yourself Communities. Unpublished PhD Dissertation <https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/10?0::NO:10:P10_ETD_SUBID:49688>, last accessed in Jan 2015. Berger, Peter L. / Luckmann Thomas 1976. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Pengiun Books (1966¹). Burgess, Jean / Green Joshua 2009. YouTube’s Popular Culture. In Burgess, Jean / Green Joshua (eds.) Youtube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press, 38-57. Kedveš, Ana 2013. Beauty Is (Beyond) Make Up? Critical Discourse Analysis of UK Beauty Community. Conference Presentation. 6es Rencontres de Sémantique et Pragmatique 2 July 2013, Orléans. <https://www.academia.edu/3850386/Beauty_is_Beyond_Make-Up_Critical_Discourse_Analysis_of_UK_Beauty_Community>. last accessed in Jan 2015. Lange, Patricia 2008. Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 13, 361-380. Phelps, Joseph E. / Lewis, Regina / Mobilio, Lynne / Perry, David / Raman, Niranjan 2004. Viral Marketing or Electronic Word-of-Mouth Advertising: Examining Consumer Responses and Motivations to Pass Along Email. Journal of Advertising Research. 44, 333-348. Spyer, Juliano 2013. The Fame of Vloggers: Value Production and Spatiotemporal Expansion Among YouTube Beauty Gurus. Academia.edu <http://www.academia.edu/2526400/THE_FAME_OF_VLOGGERS_Value_Production_and_Spatiotemporal_Expansion_Among_YouTube_Beauty_Gurus>, last accessed in Jan 2015. Wensch, Michael 2008. An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. YouTube Broadcast Yourself. Library of Congress, USA, 26 June 2008 <http://youtu.be/TPAO--‐lZ4_hU>, last accessed in Jan 2015. “Beauty on YouTube. How YouTube Is Radically Transforming The Beauty Industry and What It Means for Brands”, Pixability Inc, 2014, <http://www.pixability.com/youtubes-radical-transformation-beauty-study/>, last accessed in Jan 2015.
Beauty discourse and Web 2.0: the case of makeup Gurus / G. Riboni. ((Intervento presentato al 8. convegno Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise tenutosi a Napoli nel 2015.
Beauty discourse and Web 2.0: the case of makeup Gurus
G. RiboniPrimo
2015
Abstract
Over the last few years, Web 2.0 genres have contributed to radically revolutionizing the ways in which brands market their products online as well as the ways in which consumers discover and purchase them. The rise of genres used to communicate about makeup and cosmetics has had a dramatic impact on the makeup industry. As a consequence, a very dynamic digital community of makeup lovers has originated and spread worldwide. Members participate by sharing information and tips, doing products’ reviews, announcing new collections, tutorials and how-to’s (Kedveš 2013). Even though makeup companies have realized the potential of Web 2.0 genres and have adopted them relatively quickly, most users bypass their social media accounts as they find amateurs’ accounts more appealing and trustworthy. The convergence of electronic word of mouth (Phelps et al. 2004), personal narrative, and audience engagement which characterizes these online profiles (often referred to as “beauty vlogs” ) results in entertaining as well as informative content which may receive as many as ten times the visits as those of the major beauty brands (cf. Pixability 2014). While differentiating between unaffiliated amateurs and users who are more or less officially sponsored by cosmetic corporations is not easy and maybe not even desirable (Burgess/Green 2009: 57), the amateurial discourse arguably dominates the online makeup domain. A plethora of makeup lovers have become so well-known and influential that the expression “makeup gurus” has been coined to designate them. According to the traditional definition, “gurus” are people gifted with wisdom as well as leadership abilities who consequently emerge as spiritual guides to be trusted. On Youtube a guru is someone who has a “guru account” and posts videos to educate people about something (YouTube, 2010; Anarbaeva 2011). Since YouTube is free and everybody can open a channel (provided with the same identical template and functions) on the platform, it can be hypothesized that the most popular makeup gurus distinguish themselves from the others and stand out thanks to, among various factors, their ability to utilize the genre (Spyer 2013). Consequently, those videos which receive the most hits and enjoy the widest circulation seem to be more representative of the genre while, at the same time, proving more likely to affect it. Starting from these premises, this study sets out to investigate the generic, rhetorical and linguistic practices of online amateur makeup lovers and focuses its analysis on the language of the so-called “makeup gurus”, i.e. those people who dominate Web 2.0 “makeupsphere”. The analytical framework adopted in this research is discourse analysis and is rooted in a constructivistic view of discourse. According to this view, the latter participates in “the social construction of reality” (cf. Berger/Luckmann 1976). As a consequence, social labeling and identities are arguably best investigated through a discourse analytical approach. In order to examine labeling and identities in the online makeup domain, a corpus consisting of fifteen videos posted on the three of the most subscribed Youtube How to & Style channels (which interestingly also rank within the top 300 most subscribed channels of the whole Youtube platform) has been selected. More specifically, makeup tutorials realized by Michelle Phan (USA), Tanya Burr (England), and Lauren Curtis (Australia) have been collected over the course of seven months and examined in order to identify their prevailing discursive features. The analysis focuses on the discursive representation of beauty and makeup as well as on the identity of makeup gurus. As regards the latter, special attention is devoted to the construction of the public and private sphere of the guru in YouTube’s context collapse (cf. Lange 2008/ Wensch 2008). Additionally, in the analysis of gurus’ identities account is taken of the fact that, in spite of representing themselves as amateurs and unaffiliated, these vloggers are surreptitiously heavily sponsored by cosmetic companies. Preliminary results seem to indicate that popular beauty vloggers utilize rhetorical, discursive and language strategies aimed at promoting their channel by making their videos easily distinguishable from the plentiful similar ones featured on the YouTube platform. This translates, for instance, into the adoption of formulaic expressions which are repeated in all videos and which acquire the status of a linguistic trademark. Moreover, although with significant individual differences, makeup gurus tend to hybridize online makeup with other discourses and to represent cosmetics as products which can help improve not only users’ physical appearance but also their quality of life, too. This may further attest the blending between that corporate/marketing discourse, which tends to add symbolic values to products, and online makeup discourse. Keywords: Web 2.0, beauty discourse, webgenres, makeup tutorials, corporate discourse References Anarbaeva, Samara 2011. YouTubing Difference: Performing Identity In Online Do-It-Yourself Communities. Unpublished PhD Dissertation
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