How are civic cultures achieved through youth social-change-oriented vlogging ?

A multimodal case study

Published date : August, 22nd 2018

Co-authors:
Caroline Caron
Rebecca Raby
Claudia Mitchell
Sophie Théwissen-LeBlanc
Jessica Prioletta

The abstract and link to the article are here:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1354856518795094

To cite this article:

Caron, Caroline, Raby, Rebecca, Mitchell, Claudia, Théwissen-LeBlanc, Sophie and Jessica
Prioletta (2018). How are civic cultures achieved through youth social-change-oriented vlogging ?
A multimodal case study. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media
Technologies. 1-20.

ABSTRACT

Debate over conceptual definitions is prominent within the body of literature dealing with emerging
patterns of civic engagement and political participation among youth ICTs-enabled politics. This
article contends that advancing new knowledge in this field is also dependent upon fine-grained
empirical analysis of digital traces of youth participation. Drawing on a close analysis of two youth-
produced vlogs, we show that adolescents’ commitment to social change can be creatively achieved
through video-making. Informed by a socio-semiotic approach to multimodal analysis and by Peter
Dahlgren’s concept of online civic cultures, our qualitative analysis highlights two main patterns we
found in young people’s vlogs aimed at raising awareness about social issues. First, we found that
to impact their intended audiences, vloggers presented themselves as creative choice-makers and as
savvy insiders of youth civic cultures on YouTube. Second, we found that vloggers successfully
managed the risk of being the target of online hostility by using rhetorical devices and tactics that
smoothed counter-positions. Overall, our multimodal case study shows that contrary to traditional
approaches to successful communication based on textual coherence, a mix of consistency,
disruption and contradiction can be used purposefully in public speech in order to manage difficult,
risky topics. As we demonstrate that visual-based communication on social network sites (SNS)
such as vlogs posted on YouTube is not neat and tidy, we illuminate the vloggers’ shifting
identities, opinions and concerns. This evidence-based observation calls for more in-depth small
case qualitative analyses for investigating the multiple affordances of civic talk online and its
democratic potential. This article contributes to the ongoing conceptual redefinition of youth civic
engagement and political participation in the face of fast-evolving socio-technical change.