Publication details
Attitude and Graduation as Masculinity Construction Resources
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The present study examines the role of Attitude and Graduation, two aspects of Appraisal framework, in the construction of branded masculinity on popular American YouTube vlog channels. The vlog is a relatively young new media genre, which has developed primarily in the context of YouTube - the second most visited website and the second highest ranking social media platform in the world. Watching online videos has been estimated the most popular online content activity in 2019 and vlogging today is thriving business, which makes YouTube vlogs a fertile context for branded identity construction since popular vloggers aim at creating a recognizable brand in order to achieve more popularity and gain more profit. The aim of this study is to analyse the discursive means of constructing branded masculine YouTube identities in terms of stance-taking in the framework of Appraisal Theory. The Appraisal analysis of 35 vlogs produced by 7 top American YouTube vloggers revealed that branded masculine identities predominantly rely on evaluative affectual stances (especially positive Appreciation) towards a number of stance targets indexical of traditional masculinity: markers of wealth and status such as expensive property and cars, technological devices as well as (extreme) sports and dangerous behaviours. At the same time, elements of inclusive masculinity such as instances of homosocial intimacy and positive affectual responses to such instances (especially positive Affect - Happiness and Inclination) construing ironic heterosexual recuperation also proved to be a consistent aspect of branded masculinities in YouTube vlogs. |
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