BCM322 Contextual Essay

Link to digital artefact – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yXmXKyaC6M

For the final assessment task, it was my intention to both and identify and highlight the importance of an issue that is prevalent throughout almost all hobby forums and communities on social media, thus being hate. The purpose of the video was to emphasise the capability for all users to express their thoughts and opinions freely with no moderation, regardless if the intent it may have been presented with. Throughout YouTube “Beauty videos represent a popular category of channels on YouTube, garnering millions of subscribers and lucrative sponsorship opportunities” (Choi & Behm-Morawitz, 2017). I focused predominantly on the beauty community as identifying how hate comments specifically operate in this space was unbelievably eye opening.

These videos published by beauty gurus on YouTube are designed to make them appear different to brands, “Guru’s will appear different to brands since [their work is not such much finished pieces but rather as improvised drafts] since brands usually upload polished, professional content” (Riboni, 2017). It is because of this there is wide room for error and critique, therefor the comment sections seem to be where users express their opinions, regardless of the intent.

The video I created is a collection of YouTubers’ reading out their reactions to hate comments. I decided to use the original audio to highlight the notion that these comments are being seen by real people, those in which the prejudiced comments are being directed at. The video begins with very basic level, petty comments which I thought I would include to show that these comments are very common on almost all videos and disregarded. Throughout the editing process, I remixed the comments I had sought out on YouTube to ensure they escalate. As the video progresses, the comments gradually become harsher and advance to become borderline hate speech. This decision was made to ensure the video told a story that highlighted the intensification of these comments as the video progresses.

I made the decision for the collective reading out of the comments to stand on their own and included no other material, the aim for this was to ensure the striking comments have the ability to shock the audience whilst also raising awareness. The video is arranged to almost be portrayed in a storytelling way, as my overall goal was to focus on highlighting the importance of the conversations taking place in these forums.

MediaSmarts outlines these conversations on the internet through “understand the internet to have become a place where “hate groups and movements have adapted, created websites, forums and social network profiles” that results in the way conversations operate and users interact with each other through prejudiced speech. Several YouTubers’ have expressed their opinions on mental health in the beauty community on YouTube, one of them being Manny Mua, who I have chosen to include in my video reading out these hate comments. Manny has previously discussed his struggle with anxiety and depression openly on his channel and therefor users are aware of the issue however he still receives hate throughout the comments on almost all videos posted.

I felt it was important to raise awareness that society should become aware of the necessary steps to be taken to ensure this type of conversation that is taking place in hobby forums throughout YouTube should be moderated in some way.

References:

Behm-Morawitz E & Choi G 2017, Giving a new makeover to STEAM: Establishing YouTube beauty gurus as digital literacy educators through messages and effects on viewers, Computers in Human Behaviour, Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217301917 [Accessed 26th October]

MediaSmarts 2019, Deconstructing hate online, Available at: http://mediasmarts.ca/online-hate/deconstructing-online-hate [Accessed 26th October]

Peraza L 2019, We Need to Talk: YouTube and Mental Health Within the Beauty Community, UC Riverside, Available at: https://escholarship.org/content/qt8fc0c5qn/qt8fc0c5qn.pdf [Accessed 26th October]

Riboni G 2017, Between professionalism and amateurshup: makeup discourse on YouTube, Language Cultures Journal, Available at: https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/1170/930 [Accessed 26th October]

Sands M 2019, Youtube’s ‘Borderline Content’ is a hate speech quagmire, Forbes, Available at :https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonsands/2019/06/09/youtubes-borderline-content-is-a-hate-speech-quagmire/#593d1b3a6299 [Accessed 26th October]