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Openness “Thus, rather than drawing As Gladwell (2000) Those that have a high ” The YouTubers who “This is “Content By idealizing and ” Results showed on a heteronormative suggested, the people level of trust within a were studied in this demonstrated in popularity counts mystifying that agentic model of ‘authentic that can convince others group are able to research showed the audience are often related consumption traits (β = .39, p masculinity’ (Payne, 2007), to take actions that they accomplish a lot more through themes that participation to other experiences, bloggers < .01), but not McCormack (2011a: 93) recommend have very than those who are they do take their theme, audience quantities, like can conceal daily communal (β = defines authenticity as strong personalities. deemed audiences into reference theme, click-through rates challenges thus .07, ns) or ‘the presentation of a People that he calls untrustworthy by the consideration and conversational of linked enabling followers creativity traits “truthful” and “honest” salesman are able to get group. (pg. 13) they want their speech style advertisements some escape from (β = .05, ns) self’, which, alongside their listener to feedback theme, and and number of their own lived predicted emotional openness and empathize with them and (participatory culture) audience comments the realties when they status.” (sec. 4.1) support for sexual start agreeing with their and they want them consideration content is read and fantasize minority peers, ‘is a valued opinions in this way. to know about their theme. This is part expected to about bloggers’ lives. Agentic, or attribute for boys’. (pg.22) lives through sharing of what makes generate on the By manipulating leadership, traits Supporting McCormack’s of personal life and viewers connect community site. ” back stage and front often correlate typology of adolescent conversational speech with YouTubers.” (pg.85) stage selves, bloggers with higher social popularity in a context of style (culture of (pg. 51) Advertisements can instill different status. declining homohysteria, connectivity).” (pg. can increase or cultural meanings research shows that a 52) Youtubers with a decrease the into their online performer’s authenticity Viewers react most considerate or an popularity of a persona.” (pg. 148) appears to be a key positively to empathetic-seemi video depending determinant of esteem Youtubers who ng personality on the original Successful online among young online include them into towards their popularity of the celebrities weave audiences. “ (pg 1205) their own daily lives, viewers tend to be content. their content with and try to interact more successful. personal truths and A sense of openness of with them. product consumption emotions is preferred in to keep the follower male Youtubers, which hooked and goes against the general connected. male stereotype. Publicity Publics that are “Typically, the “Therefore, “We performed By glorifying their “For liking, noticed and their ideas presences of rating outcomes of experiments merchandise creativity (β = discussed are those burst occur in the parasocial showing that once experience and their .24, p < .05) and that participate in early life span of a interaction content is exposed own life the online communal traits public life. (pg. 8) video, and later experiences to a wide celebrities allow their (β = .21, p = .05) restrict to the classic should be similar audience, the followers to escape had an influence, preferential to those of “real” social network from their own lives but agentic traits popularity increase interpersonal provided by the and become attached did not (β = .08, mechanism.” (par. 1) relationships. This service does not to the shrouded ns).” (sec. 4.1) Early on, a video’s is demonstrated in affect which users version of life that is popularity has little to the video will tend to look at online. (Arsel, 2011, More popular do with the topic or production theme, the content, and pg. 148) people were the creator. Not until the sharing of social networks more creative the initial views are personal life are thus not and done, does the actual theme, the build effective “people-persons” popularity of the trust theme, and promoting . video emerge. in the downloads on a self-promotion large scale. ” (pg. theme. ” (pg. 51) 88) A successful Viewers will watch Youtuber is open the videos that with his or her they are interested viewers and in watching, and makes them feel the social network included in the provided by the Youtubers life. media site does little to affect which videos are being watched.

Viewers will be Viewers Our findings indicate “For YouTube, this “Consumers often that the dynamics of effect is less seek connections to online video relevant, since people possessing popularity are video views are fame characterized by the spread over more based on heredity, burst behaviors (i.e. time, as in Figure ” rather than on far exceed (pg. 83) deeds” (pg. 149) preferential Youtube video popularity increase). popularity is not Fame isn’t always Typically, the strongly tied to worked for, certain presences of burst upload date or people just receive behaviors occur in the time since Youtube people’s attention early life span of videos do not without actually videos, and later disappear over working for it. restrict to the classic time, and the site preferential set up doesn’t give popularity increase a lot of attention mechanism. (par. 4) to the general High popularity in “recently newer media content uploaded” videos. does not always mean that the content will remain popular. After the initial burst of popularity a video will increase in popularity because of the video composition, and not the date of its release.

Personal Lives of Parasocial “Specifically, Youtubers Interaction Theory perceivers is the connection ascribed a high between two status to targets people where only who scored high one is actively on agentic traits, connecting to the whereas targets other. This allows high on creativity the viewer to feel or communal connected to the traits were liked Youtuber if the more.” (sec. 5) Youtuber is good at allowing his or Those with a high her viewer to feel status in the eyes included. (Head, are their peers 2015, pg. 11) are often not the most liked unless they also are highly creative or communal as well.

Conceptual Category 5 “which indicates the “Audience videos are released members see earlier, their these YouTubers popularity are more as role models, likely to keep stably” but also as friends. (par. 3.2) Through these themes they form New viral videos do bonds. The only not keep their difference is that popularity as well as the person behind popular videos that the camera can’t became popular over return that to time, these “classic” each individual videos are more likely person, which is to have a stable why it is a popularity. parasocial interaction.” (pg. 51) By sharing personal stories and giving advice Youtubers make their viewers feel a friend and role model connection when watching their videos.

PewDiePie, HolaSoyGerman, and Smosh are currently the top three Youtubers (other than VEVO or the Youtube channel).

My research question focuses on these three to see what their personalities have in common, which help them be such popular figures in the Youtube community, and how these traits attract viewers. I have chosen these eight sources because they refer to online personalities, or personality traits in general, which attract people to us. Youtube is an online friend community alongside being a platform to share creativity. Long-term subscribers feel a connection to the Youtuber which parallels a friendship. I decided to not use sources that were specific to network positions because that implies that their popularity is possibly stemming from their connection with other popular people, and not their own personality. Networking is a way to climb up the social ladder by connecting with others that are in a higher social position, although this most likely means that the person likes your personality, this is not an independent way of gaining popularity, which could bias my findings. I chose to also use sources that referred to previously popular Youtubers to see why they were popular at the time, and possibly see why they fell from popularity. I wanted to analyze Youtubers purely in a numeral sense to see the factors that occur outside of the influence of personality.

Creating my conceptual categories was heavily focused on having a contrast between personality and outside factors that influence personality. Having a category that showed the pure influence of personality was also important. The conceptual category

“Openness” was created to show how an open persona attracts people. This allows for a diversity of personalities, since a lot of people can be open, but this trait helps viewers to connect with the Youtuber. “Publicity” was created to show that sharing your personal life with others helps others trust them more. Although this closely parallels the “openness” category, being public with your life, is a different form of openness. One can be open with their feelings or opinions, but being public with your life (such as your relationship with others, or life plans) leads to a different level of being open which some are not able to do. “Viewers will be viewers” was the source of the contrasting idea that some Youtuber fame stems purely from viewer decisions due to interests or types of videos, and not with the Youtuber themself. “Personal lives of Youtubers” involves Youtubers involving their viewers in their personal lives, this has to do with them participating in activities together. The other two quotations that I wish to use didn’t truly apply to any of the other four categories, but also couldn’t be categorized together. I have decided to create subcategories for them, rather than lumping them together. One involves the popularity of videos when they’re new, when compared to old ones. While the other involves viewers looking up to the Youtubers as role models, this creates a sense of lust for the Youtubers lifestyle or personality.

My sources have revealed that Youtubers that are more open with the public and are more willing to share their lives with their viewers are more trusted and better liked. All three of the most popular Youtubers are currently males, and it’s seen to go against gender norms to be open with your feelings for male, however, all three of these Youtubers are open which feeds into their personality. (Morris, 2015) It’s also important for these Youtubers to be open and empathetic with their viewers feelings, this allows for a level of trust since the viewers feel connected with the Youtubers on a personal level. (Head, 2015) Youtubers that hold events and interact with their subscribers outside of their videos are more noticed in the public sphere.

(Sommerfeldt, 2013) This interaction allows for a stronger connection between just a virtual person on the other side of the screen, to the realization of a real connection between viewer and creator. Those that were viewed as more popular and liked, are seen to be by their viewers as creative. (Stopfer, 2013) Although this referred to people in general, this shows why Youtubers are seen as

“mini-celebrities”, and the more creative the Youtuber is the more likely they are to be followed. All three of the Youtubers have very different channels, which shows that their popularity doesn’t stem from a specific genre being popular.

Most videos receive the bulk of their views as soon as they’re posted, this doesn’t show an accurate projection of their popularity. After the initial burst of views passes, the video’s popularity is truly revealed through the content. (Li, 2016) Even popular

Youtubers have a varying viewership depending on the video contents. Certain videos get more views when they’re deemed more creative. Certain Youtubers receive popularity that is completely unrelated to their content or personality. (Arsel, 2011) They can receive this popularity due to attractiveness, popularity unrelated to their videos, or other outside influences.

Allowing the viewer to feel included creates a larger popularity for the Youtuber. (Head, 2015) This feeling is created by having Q&As with viewers, responding to letters, or meeting up with viewers during events. The viewers feel more connected to the

Youtuber, which makes them like the Youtuber more. High status does not always equate to popularity. In fact, those who are more seen as socially high in status that are not seen as creative or open are often not well-liked. (Stopfer, 2013) Popularity through Youtube is most directly correlated to trust and openness between the viewer and creator. Youtubers are publically involved with their subscribers and create an online family, this creates a deeper feeling of trust which allows for their followership to grow.