Vlogging and the discursive co-construction of ethnicity and beauty

Abstract

Taking as its data set beauty tutorials on YouTube, considered to be audio-visual discursive products that combine speech, body performance, and text (posted comments) to relay specific meanings (Bhatia, 2018), this paper investigates both production of text on part of the sender (vlogger) and interpretation of the text on part of the recipient (viewers) in the joint creation of identity. I analyze the data by employing van Dijk's (2015) socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis, which emphasizes that the relationship between discourse and society is ‘cognitively mediated’ (p. 64), and aspects of Gee and Green's (1998) MASS System in treatment of discourse as social practice. More specifically, this paper focuses on how British-Indian vlogger Kaushal discursively constructs the role of expert YouTuber and Indian diaspora in her tutorials to attract a niche viewership within the mass audience of beauty consumers to boost both her unique and conforming identities.