The Power of Content Creators Social Campaigns on YouTube

Student Name: Bianca Andreea Banu

Supervisor: Dr. Alex Gekker Second reader: Amanda Wasielewski

Program: MA Media Studies Specialisation: New Media and Digital Culture Date: 26th of June, 2017

!ii !iii Abstract

For a long time now, spreading awareness about different social causes has been done by using different media channels such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television or social media. These channels were and are the fastest ways through which a message is able to reach a high number of people. Nowadays, the new generation gathers their everyday information and news mostly through Internet-based forms of communication. Consequently, one of the most successful ways for both transmitting and gathering information is via social media, specifically by making use of Social Network Websites (SNSs). Therefore, it is important to further analyse the potential of such platforms and how successful they are in not only spreading awareness, but also getting people involved. Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has developed and emerged into something rather different than its initial purpose - that of a video sharing platform. The content which can be found on YouTube nowadays ranges from low quality amateur clips to high quality, well- produced videos. The creators of those videos have various aims, from sharing content with friends and families, to motoring their content as a form of income. Moreover, each tool and functionality present on YouTube has developed overtime as well as the potential uses of the overall platform. Therefore, it is essential that new researches should address the new affordances of the platform, and the practices that emerged as a result of the platform’s growth. As (to some extent) YouTube creators had to work very hard to gain their online popularity and the status of ‘YouTubers’, they feel responsible to give back to the community and help other achieve their own dreams and objectives too. The aim of this thesis is to research the ways through which content creators make use of their YouTube platforms to develop communities, and to engage and enable their audience to get involved in helping with social causes, differently than mainstream celebrities do through other types of media. Moreover, it will examine how YouTube, as a social networking website, facilitates the development of social campaigns differently than other mediums due to the platform’s affordances. The conducted research used different perspectives, and an important aspect of it was to closely follow the development of the three case studies (1) The #GirlLove Campaign by IISuperwomanII, (2) The Cringemas Livestream by PewDiePie, (3) The Solvey Project by FunForLouis and Dave Erasmus !iv

Table of contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Purpose of the Study and Research Questions 1

1.2 YouTube and YouTubers 4

2. Literature Review 9

3. Methodology 15

4. Case Studies 19

4.1 The #GirlLove Challenge by IISuperwomanII 19

4.2 The Cringemas Livestream by PewDiePie 28

4.3 The Solvey Project by FunForLouis and Dave Erasmus 34

5. Discussion 40

6. Conclusion 45

Bibliography 46

Literature 46

YouTube Videos 48 !v Banu 1!

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the Study and Research Questions

For a long time now, spreading awareness about different social causes has been done by using different media channels such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television or social media. These channels were and are the fastest ways through which a message is able to reach a high number of people. Nowadays, the new generation gathers their everyday information and news mostly through Internet-based forms of communication. Consequently, one of the most successful ways for both transmitting and gathering information is via social media, specifically by making use of Social Network Websites (SNSs). Therefore, it is important to further analyse the potential of such platforms (i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and how successful they are in not only spreading awareness, but also getting people involved. YouTube (2005), as a social network platform, is becoming more and more popular among the young generation. In a study concerning YouTube’s social character and its affordances which facilitate participatory culture, Clement Chau argues that “44 percent of teens find YouTube to be a better source of video entertainment than other sources” (66). Moreover, Chau explains that “[t]he explosion of youth subscription to original content- media-sharing Web sites such as YouTube has confirmed their relevance and importance in the lives of today’s youth” (65). Hence, it can be argued that YouTube and social media platforms in general are becoming the main channel for information exchange among the young generation. General studies have been conducted within the field of social networks (Dijck “Engineering Sociality” 2013; Haythornthwaite 2007), and also specifically referring to YouTube as a social platform (Lange 2007; Van Dijck “YouTube Beyond Technology” 2013). However, these are either outdated or solely make reference to the platform’s potential without further development on the subject. The type of research conducted thus far no longer matches the possibilities offered by the platform. In a research conducted in 2016, Hector Postigo, explains how “YouTube is never absolutely a means of extracting value not it is always just creating community; it is doing all those things and some new things, none of which can be said to be the sole function for the platform” (336). Hence, new studies should have as focus those ‘new things’ (features/ Banu 2! practices) that make the platform what it is. Each tool and functionality present on YouTube has developed overtime as well as the potential uses of the overall platform. Therefore, it is essential that new researches should address the new affordances of the platform, and the practices that emerged as a result of the platform’s growth. Since its launch, YouTube has developed and emerged into something rather different than its initial purpose - that of a video sharing platform. Various practices have appeared, within the site, which have a great impact on both its users and the way it is being used. The content which can be found on YouTube nowadays ranges from low quality amateur clips to high quality, well-produced videos. The creators of those videos have various aims, from sharing content with friends and families, to motoring their content as a form of income. Therefore, focused research should be conducted in order to understand how these practices develop and whether or not they reach their goals. For instance, some of these practices include using the YouTube community to solve a social issue or spread awareness regarding different social causes. As (to some extent) YouTube creators had to work very hard to gain their online popularity and the status of ‘YouTubers’ (this term will be explained in more detail later on section 1.2), they feel responsible to give back to the community and help other achieve their own dreams and objectives too. The aim of this thesis is to fill in part of the above-mentioned research gap by analysing how YouTube creators (YouTubers) make use of the platform’s affordances in order to raise awareness regarding different social causes. Moreover, it will study the reasons why the YouTube stars have (seemingly) a higher chance than mainstream celebrities (such as singers, actors, TV stars) in getting their audience involved and persuading them to partake in helping a certain social cause due to platform-related practices. Regardless of whether they have a large or focused community - this referring to communities devoted to a niche of people rather than a larger and mixed audience - YouTubers’ messages (arguably) tend to have a higher impact on the viewers than any other message transmitted through other means of communication. According to a research conducted by Hye-Jin Paek et al. “a video produced by a peer rather than an expert will be more likely to match what individuals expect to see on a UGC [user generated content] website such as YouTube, and therefore more likely to get their acceptance” (165). Therefore, based on the idea that YouTubers are presumably to get the audience’s acceptance, I hypothesise that they are considered more reliable, Banu 3! trustworthy and credible; thus, the way they deal with social causes is different. For example, one of the main reasons for which YouTubers might have a high response rate from their viewers is due to the fact that “audiences probably expect to encounter videos produced by laypeople similar to themselves, and not by professionals and organisations who promote specific social causes and issues” (Paek et al. 179). Thus, it is arguable that YouTubers are more trustable and reliable (on platforms such as YouTube) than specialised people, due to the fact that the audience can identify with them more easily. Due to the increased popularity of both the platform and the number of communities developed within it, different practices have emerged among content creators. Some of these practices include using creators’ online popularity to raise awareness regarding different social issues (such as empowering women and fighting for gender equality) and ask for people’s help in raising money for charities or for access to resources in unprivileged countries. By looking at different creators and the projects developed, this paper will evaluate the outcome of their efforts to making a social change by using their YouTube platforms. Within this research, three projects will be used as case studies: (1) the #GirlLove campaign developed by the YouTuber Lilly Singh; (2) the Cringemas campaign organised by the YouTube creator Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg; and (3) the Solvey Project established by the YouTubers Louis Cole and Dave Erasmus. In order to evaluate the outcome of these projects, this research will look into how each of them was developed (i.e. the initial idea and the project’s progression), what was the end result, and most importantly, how the creators took advantage of the platform’s potential in order to make everything happen. To sum up, the aim of this thesis is to research the ways through which content creators make use of their YouTube platforms to develop communities, and to engage and enable their audience to get involved in helping with social causes, differently than mainstream celebrities do through other types of media. Moreover, it will examine how YouTube, as a social networking website, facilitates the development of social campaigns differently than other mediums due to the platform’s affordances. By looking at the three case studies mentioned above, this research will attempt to determine why and in what ways YouTubers deal with social causes differently. Banu 4!

1.2 YouTube and YouTubers

In their introduction of the YouTube Reader, Pelle Snickars and Patrick Vondreau, argue that YouTube is “the fastest-growing site in the history of the Web” (11). Only in its first year, the platform developed at a “rate of 75 percent a week, and by the summer of 2006 the site had 13 million unique visitors everyday that watched more than a hundred million video clips” (Snickars and Vondreau 10). Back in 2005, when the platform was launched, Youtube was intended to serve as an online video-sharing space. However, the platform has grown to be a social networking site (SNS). As argued by Chau, “YouTube is much more than an online platform for sharing and broadcasting. Its unique technical and social features support the formation of a participatory culture among the members of its community” (67). First of all, in order to be able to upload a video one must create an account; thus, becoming a user. By creating an account, one creates his own YouTube channel. This channel can be used to upload videos for others to watch, create public (this means that anyone visiting your channel can see them) or private (available only for you) playlists with your favourite videos, create a playlist with videos of other users that you like, or subscribe to other channels. Under each video uploaded, there is a countdown keeping track of how many views the video accumulated, and each channel has displayed a total number of views to all the videos uploaded. Additionally, each YouTube channel has a ‘subscribe’ button which allows other users to connect with each other and to keep up with any new videos that are uploaded onto that certain channel. Once you subscribe to a channel, you will be able to see in your subscribers feed each new video that is uploaded. As explained by Postigo, “[s]ubscribers are the central most common social currency on YouTube; happy viewers subscribe to channels, and unhappy ones unsubscribe or stop visiting the channel” (338). Moreover, the number of subscribers is publicly displayed on each channel; thus, other users might be influenced by the channels’ popularity. For example, if a channel is very popular (meaning that it has a high number of subscribers) one might be influenced to subscribe as well. Consequently, more subscribers imply a higher audience, resulting in more views for the videos uploaded. Due to the high amount of subscribes one might have (to multiple channels), YouTube has added yet another feature to the platform. Next to the ‘subscribe’ button there is now a small button, with a bell icon, which once you activate you will get a notification when new Banu 5! content is uploaded to the channel. The notification can be a ‘push’ notification, or an email notification - an instant email is sent to you the moment content is uploaded to the channel you are subscribed to. By allowing users to subscribe to other users’ channels, the platform enabled people to make new connections and ‘friends’; therefore, giving the platform a more social character. Like any other SNS, YouTube allows users to interact with each other. Chau presents such platforms (which support user interaction) as “an ideal place to create, connect, collaborate, and circulate novel and personally meaningful media” (65). However, until recently, communication between YouTube users was only possible in relation with a video. Once a user uploads a public video (it is also possible to upload a video and keep it private, for your own, or make it visible only to certain people), other users are then able to leave comments to it, and show weather they like or dislike it by pressing the ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ buttons. These buttons also represent just like the subscribers and number of views, a unit of measuring the audience’s opinion towards the content uploaded. The comments section of a video also allows users to like or dislike a comment, or reply to it. Therefore, people are able to communicate with each other in relation to a certain video. Such conversations are not only related to the video in cause, but can also be related to the person uploading the video, can offer feedback to the video or sometimes even lead to creating new friends. YouTube designers recognise the YouTubers as an important component; thus, they are continuously trying to improve the platform so that they offer creators the necessary tools to expand their communities, and communicate with their audience. Therefore, on 13th of September 2016, the Senior Product Manager of Youtube, Kiley McEvoy, has announced via a blog post the introduction of “a beta version of a new product to help strengthen the bond between you and your viewers, called YouTube Community”. Somehow similar to Facebook’s timeline, the YouTube Community tab is intended to offer users another means of communication, non-video related. This new tab allows the owner of the channel to share more content with his or her subscribers. It can be used to post images, text messages, GIFs or videos to which subscribers can leave comments to, or like/dislike the post. Furthermore, McEvoy stated in his blog post that: “with creator and fan feedback, we look forward to rolling out new features and functions as well as including more creators [in Banu 6! testing the Community tab] in the months ahead”. Originally available on only twelve channels, the YouTube Community tab can now be found on other channels too. Hence, it can be argued that this new addition represents another step towards building the social character of the YouTube platform. The aim with this tab is to get users engage with the content creators (YouTubers) and develop a community directly on YouTube; thus, eliminating the necessity of using other SNSs (i.e. Facebook or Instagram). Postigo explains in his research that generally “[w]hat designers envision as affordances emerging from their systems and how those affordances are understood by users are two things not necessarily at odds but often separated by the gap that forms between intended use and actual use as performed by users” (335). The Community tab is a perfect example of such affordance, as the reactions to this new addition were not entirely what the designers expected. Among the twelve channels which were part of the beta testing of the Community tab, is the vlogbrothers1 channel. On a post published by on their YouTube channel’s Community tab, they explain that with every new post to the tab “a very small but still significant number of people unsubscribe” (vlogbrothers) from their channel. To some extent, users felt bothered by the extra feature and the definite reason for why this happens, is yet to be found. One of the reasons for people’s dissatisfaction towards this feature might be due to the extra notifications received when new content is posted on the Community tab. Nonetheless, it is important to understand this aspect when discussing the relations between social practices, technical affordances and perceived value to users. Moving forward, what one needs to understand when discussing content creators, is that not any user of YouTube can be labeled as YouTuber. A basic way of defining the term YouTuber would indeed be: any person who has an account on the platform. However, YouTubers are mostly identified as those users who regularly upload content to the platform and usually have an increased amount of followers. As Chau also explains, “[f]ull-fledged YouTubers are those who regularly broadcast videos to the YouTube audience” (67). Additionally, their videos are no longer aimed to be shared solely with friends and relatives, but rather towards a larger audience. The videos published by YouTubers are also created around a certain theme (comedy, travelling, daily or weekly vlogs, cooking videos, crafting videos - typically known as ‘do it yourself’ or DIY, science experiments and so on).

1 Source: www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers. Banu 7!

According to Chau, “[o]ne of the main categories in the large corpus of user content is how- to videos on a variety of topic, from cooking to skateboarding to hairdressing” (69). Another important difference between a casual user of YouTube who may upload a few videos, and the YouTubers comes not only from the amount of subscribers to their channel or the amount of views their video receives, but also from the communities they manage to build. Some of the most famous YouTubers have now reached millions of subscribers; for example, the most subscribed YouTuber, PewDiePie2, has now over 55 million subscribers. Consequently, most of these subscribers constantly watch the videos posted by the creators, engage with the content and with each other. Chau explains that “[a]t any level of participation, from viewing a video to creating response clips, visitors contribute greatly to the community” (71). Moreover, the success of a video is directly connected to the relationship formed between the content creator and its audience/subscribers (Postigo 344). Along with the how-to, challenges, and questions and answers type of videos, another frequent type of videos uploaded by YouTubers are the vlogs. A vlog is essentially a blog post in the form of a video. Within a vlog the creator is usually directly talking to the camera - addressing the audience. The usual form of a vlog is a representation of what happens in the day/week of the creator; however, some vlogs have a higher production value and/or scripted scenes. Some of the most famous YouTubers have a designated channel where they post solely their vlogs. For example, the British YouTuber Alfie Deyes, who’s main channel PointlessBlog3 has 5.5 million subscribers, has a second channel called PointlessBlogVlogs4 where he uploads daily vlogs. As a result of these practice, the YouTubers who upload vlogs got a new name, that of ‘vloggers’. Returning to the subject of this research, one popular practice of YouTubers nowadays is to give back to the community by using their popularity for a good cause. In general celebrities are known for using their popularity for social campaigns; however, in this thesis I claim that when YouTube celebrities are doing the same thing, the impact is somehow different. This difference is not necessarily attributed to the overall outcome of a campaign, but rather the response it gets from the audience. For example, YouTubers engage with the

2 Source: www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie. 3 Source: www.youtube.com/user/PointlessBlog.

4 Source: www.youtube.com/user/PointlessBlogTv. Banu 8! audience on a more personal level due to the medium (YouTube) and its affordances. Thus, this research will use the three case studies to understand the differences. Banu 9!

2. Literature Review In order to better examine and interpret each case study for this research, the theoretical framework and concepts that will be used must be thoroughly explained. Therefore, this section of the paper will be focusing on defining each theory and concept, and the ways these help, in order to understand how YouTubers make use of their channels and communities for contributing to social changes around the world. To begin with, danah boyd5 and Nicole Ellison’s paper “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” (2008) was used, within this thesis, for understanding the changes and development of SNSs over time - precisely the shift of YouTube from video sharing platform to social network website. Since the structural basis of YouTube is similar to any other social media platform - each user must create a profile by filling in details, such as age, location, self description, personal interests and so on, in order to connect with other users - the starting point for analysing this shift is the definition of SNSs as given by boyd and Ellison: [SNSs are] web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi- public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system (211). YouTube complies with the above mentioned definition as, firstly, when joining the platform the user should create a profile (channel). Secondly, the user can subscribe to other channels and others can subscribe to his or her channel. Initially when the platform was launched the users’ subscribers list was visible to everyone. However, nowadays, this function in no longer available. Nevertheless, one can still find new connections by browsing the user’s platform (i.e. video comments, Community tab conversations). Therefore, all three points of the SNSs definition apply to YouTube; proving in this way that it is a social network site. In addition to the above mentioned paper, Clement Chau’s study, “YouTube as participatory culture” (2010), helped defining the increased popularity of social networks (with a focus on Youtube) and the inclusion into community, which users feel once joining such platforms. According to Chau, young people’s appeal towards the platform comes from

5 The reason for not capitalising the first letter of her name is due to the fact that she has legally changed her name to be written with a lowercase instead. Banu 10! its easy accessibility and usage. Additionally, “their creation [the content users upload to their channels] is easily circulated and shared, informal mentorship and instruction facilitate their developing identity, their levels of contribution matter, and they feel socially connected to peers within the community” (Chau, 73). In essence, YouTuber’s viewers feel included and feel that their contribution (such as likes, comments, shares etc.) matters. Consequently, viewers perceive this as a connection with the YouTube creator, but also with the other members within the community (other subscribers). For this research, it is important to understand how YouTube communities develop and function, as they represent one of the core elements for creators to reach their goals - in this case, spreading awareness and/ or contributing to solving different social issues. As previously mentioned, starting from simply being a video sharing platform, YouTube, has emerged into a social networking website and a well-developed industry for entertainment, easily accessible to anyone. According to Snickars and Vondreau, “YouTube has become the very epitome of digital culture not only by promising endless opportunities for viral marketing or format development, but also by allowing ‘you’ to post a video which might incidentally change the course of history” (11). Thus, multiple content creators nowadays manage to develop and make a living, as a result of the videos they publish on the platform. Moreover, they managed to create a community of subscribers who follow them and watch their videos regularly. José Van Dijck explains in her research that “platforms started out as indeterminate services for the exchange of communicative or creative content among friends” (“Engineering Sociality” 6). It is important to mention that whilst YouTube allows users to upload videos through which they can communicate with their followers, the conversation is, to some extent, one- sided. They first have to upload their video and then wait for an answer which can be given through the comments section or likes and dislikes. As consequence, in order to communicate with their subscribers YouTube celebrities usually make use of different social media platforms which allow live or more direct interaction (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat). The interaction with viewers represents a key factor for YouTubers, as it is one of the fundamental components for building and maintaining a community. Interestingly, YouTube’s designers had also noticed this need, hence, they have introduced the (previously mentioned) Community tab to the platform. The tab is still a work in progress, nevertheless, it Banu 11! is a step forward which proves that YouTube recognises the creators (YouTubers) as important members of their platform. For answering the question regarding the ways in which creators make use of the platform’s features, Tiana Bucher and Anne Helmond’s 2016 work on platform affordances was used. Their study stands as primary source for understanding what affordances are in general, and what are the affordances of YouTube. The concept of affordances refers to all the features (in this case) of the platform which allow the user to perform different actions - from creating a channel to transmitting a message, to playing part in making a social change in the world. The affordances of YouTube - important to highlight, for this research - are the features of the platform which allow content creators (YouTubers) to promote a social cause among their community and manage to get people involved and to take action. Such features are the possibility of interaction via comments, the use of the Community tab, the feature which allows live-streaming videos with anyone, most importantly the video itself and the ability of sharing it with your friends and family. On a similar note, Hector Postigo’s 2016 research explains how “our understanding of YouTube has shifted over time, and YouTube’s vested communities (users, owners, designers, creators), shape the overall understanding of what YouTube affords” (336). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the ways through which YouTubers make use of the platform. For this research, the focus will be on how creators make use of the platform in relation to their goal of making a change in the world, and involving their communities in different social causes. Such social cause might refer to helping a community in need, raising money for charity, or providing visibility to a project aim to bring a change in the world. Moreover, Postigo emphasises the importance of subscribers to a channel, which to some extent might have an influence on the outcome of a project. Although the access to view the ‘subscribers list’ has changed, some users provide a list with ‘related channels’ which might persuade one into also subscribing to those. Hence, this represents a way through which a community can be expanded. One of the main concepts used for analysing the case studies within this thesis is the ‘dragonfly effect’, developed by researchers Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. Aaker is a Marketing Professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, while Smith is a marketing, consumer strategy and operations advisor. When analysing the market the two Banu 12! researchers found that, despite the abundance of books focusing on social media, psychology and marketing, there was no work combining all these three areas (Stanford Graduate School of Business, “The Dragonfly Effect, Part 1”: 00:00:40). Moreover, they wanted to understand how social campaigns conducted via social media influence the audience differently and makes people get involved into taking action for a social cause. Therefore, by combining different aspects of marketing (strategy) and psychological behaviour, they have developed the dragonfly effect concept. Coming from the idea that there is a basic path one can follow in order to successfully use social media websites for social change, the dragonfly effect is a marketing theory built towards social media. The development of this concept started from the story of Sameer Bhatia who was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) - a severe type of cancer which starts to develop in the bone marrow - and managed to survive through the help of social media. Bhatia’s only treatment was by getting a bone marrow transplant, thus, he was faced with the challenge of finding a matching donor. As India (where he is from) does not have a national bone registry as other countries do, Bhatia turned to social media for help. When hearing the diagnosis, Bhatia’s best friend Robers Chatwani decided he has to do something to help and set up an online campaign to get South Asian people register to become donors. He wrote an email including a short story about his friend’s situation followed by a series of instructions: ”[f]irst, he urged them to get registered through a simple cheek swab test. He gave a link to locations where this could be done. Second, he told readers to spread the word. Third, he instructed people to learn more by visiting the website set up to help Bhatia” (Aaker and Smith). After his email reached 35 thousand people, in 48 hours (Aaker and Smith) people started to take action. Therefore, after eleven weeks “24,611 new people were registered” as donors (Aaker and Smith). According to Aaker and Smith, “Bhatia’s quest to find a donor match is a tale of the revolutionary power of social technology”. The fact that he managed to find a donor to help him, and to get so many people to register as bone marrow donors, proves that “people are clamouring for ways to use social media for social good, but it also confirmed […] that there is a replicable framework to achieve this goal” (Aaker and Smith). Therefore, as more and more people are turning to social media when in need of help, the two researchers Banu 13! demonstrated that by following certain steps when developing a social campaign online, one could achieve the intended goals. According to Aaker and Smith: [t]he method relies on four essential skills, or wings: 1) focus: identify a single concrete and measurable goal; 2) grab attention: cut through the noise of social media with something authentic and memorable; 3) engage: create a personal connection, accessing higher emotions, compassion, empathy, and happiness; and 4) take action: enable and empower others to take action. The name of this theory - the dragonfly effect - is a metaphor which comes from the fact that just like the dragonfly who uses all its four wings simultaneously in order to fly in any direction, one should apply all the above mentioned principles when designing a social campaign on social media. As this concept appears to be the recipe of success for social change via social media, the following case studies within this thesis will also be analysed through the lens of the dragonfly effect. By doing this, I will be able to better understand what makes YouTubers have such great success when using their platforms for battling social issues. Lastly, apart from following the above mentioned pattern, this thesis draws insights from the parasocial relationships theory. According to the researchers Siyoung Chung and Hichan Cho “[c]onsumer–celebrity relationships built via social media exchanges can be explained by the concept of parasocial relationships” (Chung and Cho 482). The concept of parasocial relationships refers to the personal relations (such as friendships) developed between celebrities and their fans. Within their research, Chung and Cho, investigated the importance of parasocial relationships in the success of celebrity endorsement and the importance of social media connectivity between celebrities and their fans. Additionally, their study investigated how parasocial relations are facilitated by the self-disclosure of celebrities, resulting in an increase of trust from the audience, in credibility of the brand (in this case, social cause), and the overall opinion of audience towards the brand/cause. The outcome of their study proved that “social media exchanges with celebrities have a significant impact on celebrity endorsement, and that the exchanges have different implications depending on whether its effect is mediated or nonmediated by self-disclosure and parasocial relationships” (Chung and Cho 489). This means that the more open (meaning, not afraid to share personal information, opinions, beliefs or views) a celebrity is, the higher the chances for consumers to Banu 14! have a positive opinion towards their message. Therefore, since YouTubers (especially those who have vlogging channel) are opening up about their identities, private lives and personal views, the audience perceives this as a sign of friendship thus fostering the development of parasocial relationships. Moreover, in contrast with the above mentioned importance and influence of subscribers as described by Postigo, Chung and Cho’s study shows that “popularity on social media (e.g., a large number of followers and friends) […] can have adverse effects on celebrity endorsement if it is not mediated by positive experiences, such as self-disclosure and parasocial relationships” (490). Therefore, if a YouTuber has an increased number of subscribers does not automatically imply that the message he or she transmits has the desired impact. Subscribers who do not have a parasocial relationship with the YouTuber (meaning that the viewer does not perceive the YouTuber as a friend) might not be influenced by the creator at all, or might even be negatively influenced. Therefore, this study will draw a parallel between Chung and Cho’s research findings and YouTubers relationships with their viewers in order to understand to what extent parasocial relationships play a role in the success of a YouTube social campaign. Overall, the above described studies were used in order to understand what makes YouTube celebrities differ from the mainstream celebrities when engaging in social projects. For example, when promoting a social issue, YouTubers do not necessarily offer more information about the cause, rather they inspire viewers to get more involved and gather more knowledge regarding the issue discussed. Additionally, the impact a social campaign has on the audience is presumably different due to the medium through which it is done (YouTube), and consequently, due to the bond formed between the YouTubers (who started the campaign) and their audience. Banu 15!

3. Methodology Within this chapter I will discuss the approach this study takes for responding to the research questions. First of all, the studies described in the second chapter of this thesis offer broad insights into the whole concept of YouTube as a platform, YouTubers, and YouTubers’ practices. Therefore, this is a qualitative research in which previously conducted studies stand as ground base for analysing my three case studies, and for possibly developing new theories. The case studies described within this thesis will be analysed through this lens and by drawing from the concepts and theories described above in order to understand (1) how content creators (YouTubers) make use of the platform’s affordances to develop a community and spread awareness regarding social issues, and (2) what are the reasons for YouTubers to succeed (or not) in achieving their social campaign’s goals. Although a number of studies have examined YouTube and YouTubers, there has not been a strong focus on the practices developed by the creators and their involvement in social issues. The three case studies described within this research were chosen mainly due to the fact that I have been following their development from start to end (or current stage). Moreover, I have been a subscriber to the YouTube creators, who founded each project, for the past years. Although this fact might classify me as a fan of these YouTube personalities, it does not affect the research conducted. As Henry Jenkins wrote, “[w]hen I write about fan culture, then I write both as an academic (who has access to certain theories of popular culture, certain bodies of critical and ethnographic literature) and as a fan (who has access to the particular knowledge and traditions of that community)” (5-6). Therefore, being a subscriber of the YouTubers discussed in this research, offers me greater insight about their work and communities. Additionally, whilst the first two case studies described within this research - the #GirlLove campaign and Cringemas campaign - were developed by YouTubers who, despite their original content, have a rather mainstream audience, the last case study - the Solvey project - was chosen due to the fact that its creators, Louis Cole and Dave Erasmus, have a more niche audience. Consequently, as the first two case studies come from YouTube creators who address a broad audience, the third case study can be seen as equivalent to a control group. Given this, the three case studies will aid in proving that the elements that make a Banu 16! social campaign succeed do not dependent on the type of the audience be that mainstream or a niche. Firstly, for each of the case studies analysed within this thesis, I looked at the YouTuber(s) who created it, providing background information. For each YouTube creator, I looked into the reasons they started uploading YouTube content (as stated by them), the date when they first joined the platform, and the type of content they upload to their channels. Furthermore, I have analysed the numbers related to their channels such as the total number of subscribers their channels have, and number of views. I have also looked at the first (visible) video uploaded by them and the most popular video on their channel. For each of these videos I looked at the date they were published, total number of views, and the number of thumbs up and thumbs down received. The purpose of retrieving the numbers regarding subscribers, views, and thumbs up/down, was to understand their popularity within YouTube and how large their communities are. The nature of content posted by them helped in understanding the addressed audience, the ways they have developed connections with their viewers, and what makes their content interesting overall. Furthermore, I looked at what other - if any - previous social causes each creator has been involved before the project in cause. This was important in order to form an idea of how socially responsible the creators are, and how inclined they are to give back to the community by helping with a social issue. Secondly, I started analysing the actual campaigns and noted the first mention of each project. All three projects have been announced via a video published by the YouTuber who founded them. Moreover, the videos provide detailed explanations regarding the purpose of the project, the way they will be further developing, and the final intended goal. As previously mentioned, one of the four ‘wings’ of the dragonfly effect is ‘focus’. Therefore, I looked at the goal of each campaign in order to determine whether or not is complying with the guidelines of the concept. The goal of each social campaign had to be clear, measurable, and realistic; hence, in order for the dragonfly effect to be effectively applied each goal should have these characteristics. In addition, for each campaign, it was important to document where it took place (if it was tied to a certain location), the time period over which each of the campaigns took place, what was the purpose of the campaign (what was the social cause they were helping), the means through which the campaigns were going to achieve Banu 17! their objective. These factors helped in determining how concrete the goals were in the case of each campaign. Overall, the elements mentioned above constitute the first ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect, and they are important in order to determine if this is indeed a method for developing a successful campaign. A campaign is considered successful when the goal of the project is achieved by following the four ‘wings’ pattern. As described in the second chapter, the dragonfly effect functions when all four ‘wings’ are applied simultaneously; therefore, it is important to see the relation between each wing. For this reason, the above mentioned details regarding each campaign also help me understand how and to what extent the audience could contribute to the social campaigns (this referring to the fourth ‘wing’ - ‘take action’). Thirdly, as I have been following the development of each of the three projects from the moment they were initially created, the subsequent elements noted for this research were the main stages in the progression of each campaign. Moreover, I have looked at the ways used by each of the YouTubers to try to keep their audience up to date throughout the campaign. These elements relate to the second ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect - ‘grab attention’. It was important to analyse what each campaign was doing to attract the viewers, get them interested in the subject, and trigger them to take action. Since the platform where the projects took place is YouTube, videos play an important role in the development of each campaign. For example, in order to grab attention, the videos must be different from the usual content viewers are used to see on the channel. Additionally, for the campaigns that lasted a longer period of time it was interesting to analyse how the YouTubers were constantly bringing their projects into the attention of their viewers. The third ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect (‘engage’) implies that a personal connection has to be built between the creator and the audience. The bound YouTubers have with their subscribers also relates to the parasocial relationships described in the second chapter. Therefore, along with a clear goal and an attractive/ interesting design, each campaign (and consequently the YouTubers) should engage with the audience. Nevertheless, the parasocial relationships do not solely occur within the long lasting projects, but also for those that lasted a short period of time (such as the Cringemas campaign). Fourthly, for this thesis I have analysed whether other entities - be that fellow YouTubers, foundations, and/or influential persons - were involved within the projects and Banu 18! what was their role. This element is important in order to understand how they have contributed to the overall outcome of the campaign and to what extent they had an influence over the viewers, such as, persuading them into taking an action (which relates back to the fourth ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect). Lastly, I have looked at the outcome of each project, and if and how the initial goal for each campaign has been achieved. For the later - ’how’ the goal was achieved - it was important to look at the ways through which the audience was enabled to ‘take action’. Hence, I have analysed in what ways did the creators encourage their audience to take part in the campaign, and whether or not they made it easy for them to get involved. Additionally, the results of the projects were analysed from the perspective of the dragonfly effect, focusing on whether or not the campaign used the recommended four wings and consequently, reached its goal. However, as two of the campaigns out of the three analysed are not ended, I have looked at the concrete milestones that have been achieved for the time being. To recount, the conducted research used different perspectives, and an important aspect of it was to closely follow the development of the three case studies (1) The #GirlLove Campaign by IISuperwomanII, (2) The Cringemas Livestream by PewDiePie, (3) The Solvey Project by FunForLouis and Dave Erasmus. The thesis’ hypothesis argues that YouTubers have a specific way of dealing with social issues due to platform specific elements. Therefore, the dragonfly effect was used for the analysis of each of the case studies in order to evaluate the success of each social campaign. Additionally, following the evaluation of the three projects this research will draw on the previously mentioned theory and concepts in order to establish the accuracy of the hypothesis. It is important to note that all the information presented within this thesis comes from public YouTube channels, which are available to everyone. Additionally, all the research data (such as number of subscribers, views, thumbs up/ down) is based on the period this research was conducted and is subject to change in time. Banu 19!

4. Case Studies

4.1 The #GirlLove Challenge by IISuperwomanII

Before going into explaining what the first project analysed within this research is about, I will start by briefly describing the person behind it, the YouTube creator and personality Lilly Singh. Singh was born in Toronto, Canada on 26th September 1988, and publicly calls herself Superwoman. In a video about her life and background, she explains that as a child she started using this pseudonym (Superwoman) as she felt empowered by it and it gave her strength to work more and be the best version of herself (Singh, “Draw My Life”: 00:01:28). On 28th of October 2010, Singh joined the YouTube platform and created a channel called IISuperwomanII6. She started by uploading amateur videos without the intention of making YouTube a full time job. However, since then, her channel has gathered a total of 11.4 million subscribers and 1.8 billion views which are increasing everyday. Thus far, Singh has created and uploaded 583 videos to her channel (this includes live streamed videos and other special videos uploaded by her). Her channel description perfectly sums up Singh’s mentality and view on what she does: “Spent thousands of dollars on tuition, graduated and got a degree. I make YouTube videos now. I am also a happy unicorn that believes in one love. Join me on my adventures!!” (IISuperwomanII). Being so open about her past and her believes makes her viewer feel more connected with her; thus, tying back to the theory of parasocial relationships. Chung and Cho explain that “consumers [in this case viewers] interpret celebrities’ self-disclosure as a sign of friendship being offered” (489). The type of videos usually created by Singh are short sketches in which she satirically presents everyday occurrences of what happens within a family or group of friends. Such kind of videos, make the audience relate to her content as they might also have similar experiences, and as consequence they relate to her - this as well builds the relationship she has with her audience. As previously mentioned, Singh is one of the creators I have been following for a long period and one of the main reasons why her videos were appealing to me was due to how much I can relate to the stories she is presenting. She has also created several characters, such as her parents, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends, which are all played by herself. Consequently, her audience is generally composed

6 Source: www.youtube.com/user/IISuperwomanII. Banu 20! of teenagers or young adults; however, some of her videos are also appealing to an older audience. Moreover, Singh frequently collaborates with other YouTubers by offering them a role within her sketches. Such practice is very common on YouTube, as fellow YouTubers promote each other by persuading their audience to visit other Youtuber’s channels or invite them to collaborate in videos. This practice helps growing the audience, but also acts as a form of endorsement. In a video called “Draw My Life | Superwoman” published on 27th of June 2013, Singh explains how, after going through a period of depression, she found her happiness in making videos. Additionally to enjoying creating the videos she claimed that “if my videos could be the reason someone’s bad day turns good, or the reason someone upset smiles, than all my efforts would be worth it” (Singh, “Draw My Life”: 00:05:40). Thus, she made it her mission to make people happy through her videos. Initially, Singh was uploading random videos, but after a while she decided that it is time to “do this YouTube thing seriously” (Singh, “Draw My Life”: 00:05:30) and she is currently uploading new videos every Monday and Thursday. After taking this decision, she gave herself one year to see if YouTube is going to work for her as a career and that was the start of her journey towards becoming a world know YouTuber. Shortly after she joined the platform, Singh started making videos and uploading them online. The earliest video which can be found on her channel is called “How to Tie a Side Turla Bhangra Pagh (Turban)” and was uploaded on 9th of December 2010. The video has now a total of 693 thousand views, 11,777 thumbs up, and 338 thumbs down. Singh’s most popular video at the moment is “How Girls Get Ready…” which has 22 million views. The video is a satire towards the high amount of time girls spend getting ready to go out and it gathered an overall of 317,519 thumbs up and 4601 thumbs down. All the previously mentioned numbers, offer a good perspective in regard to how influential Singh is, as a YouTuber, and how big of an audience she grew over the years. Moreover, the increased number of views for the first video uploaded proves that her community of users is not only watching and interested in her latest videos, but actually go back to see all the videos she uploaded onto the channel. Banu 21!

Additionally to her main channel, IISuperwomanII, Singh has created (on 26th of December 2011) a second channel called SuperwomanVlogs7 where she currently uploads daily vlogs displaying her daily activities. At first, she has used this channel to upload videos from her trips and holidays with her family, but starting 11th of August 2014 when she posed a vlog called “Welcome to my Daily Vlogs! (Day 1)” (Singh) she has been uploading a vlog everyday. This second channel has now 1.9 million subscribers and over 237 million views. The subscribers of this second vlogging channel are partially coinciding with those on her main channel, IISuperwomanII. Compared to her main channel, this one has more videos uploaded (942) due to the fact that she uploads daily; however, her vlogs do not have the same production value as her main channel videos, and they are not scripted. Along with her daily vlogs, on this channel, Singh publishes extras from her main channel videos (such as bloopers) or short videos promoting her latest projects (such as her “A Trip to Unicorn Island” show world tour, her book promotion world tour and so on). Throughout her career as a YouTube content creator (YouTuber) Lilly Singh has been involved in different side projects. She wrote a few songs (i.e. #Leh featuring Humble The Poet, Clean up Anthem, Voices) and made videoclips for them - which were all uploaded on her main channel. She also acted as a side character in different films (i.e Dr. Cabbie (dir. Jean-François Pouliot 2014), Ice Age: Collision Course (dir. Mike Thurmeier and Galen T. Chu 2016)) and she developed and produced her own entertainment show called “A Trip To Unicorn Island” which she performed in 27 cities around the world between May and July 2015. Her world tour was documented and turned into a feature film also called A Trip To Unicorn Island, which was released in February 2016, and with which she won the Streamy Award for Best Feature. After coming back from her world tour, Singh moved from her hometown, Toronto, to Los Angeles to further pursue her YouTuber career. Moreover, she continued her work, getting involved in different projects. One of the most significant projects developed by the YouTuber during that time, and the one which will be analysed with this research, is the #GirlLove campaign. The first mention of the #GirlLove campaign was back in 2015, when on 28th of December, Singh posted the video called “The #GirlLove Challenge”. Together with some other famous female YouTubers, Singh launched a campaign which promotes exactly what it

7 Source: www.youtube.com/user/SuperwomanVlogs. Banu 22! says, love for and between girls. Some of the most popular YouTubers involved in this project launch were: Colleen Ballinger8; her sister Rachel Ballinger9; Gabbie Hannah10; YouTube launched singer, Lindsay Stirling11; Grace Helbig12; Hannah Hart13; Mamrie Hart14; and Lauren Riihimaki15. By bringing together so many YouTube influencers she managed to grab attention (which is the second ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect). Moreover, this made her campaign stand out as she created a video including different YouTube female creators who support the movement. Additionally, during the video each of the creators expressed their opinion of how women are, thus, they engaged with the (arguably, mostly female) viewers and built a connection through their empowering thoughts. This engagement relates to the third ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect. The idea behind it is to stop and prevent girls from hating each other, and instead encourage them to compliment and support one another. The caption of the video reads: Girl-on-girl hate is such a huge issue in schools, at the workplace and/or online. It's about time we got rid of this lame trend and came together to build women up. Watch the video and tag all your female friends in the #GirlLove challenge! Simple post a compliment towards another woman on social media using the hashtag #GirlLove. All revenue from this video will be donated to the Malala Fund in support of educating girls around the world. (Singh, “The #GirlLove Challenge”) Therefore, along with promoting this mentality among girls and women, Singh urges her viewers to spread the #GirlLove hashtag in posts which support other women, on their own social media platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). Additionally, all the money raised from the views of her video have been donated to the Malala Fund which helps girls around the world get access to education (Singh, “The #GirlLove Challenge”: 00:05:53).

8 Channel name Miranda Sings; 7.7 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/mirandasings08. 9 Channel name Rachel Ballinger; 1.6 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/NOVAQUA.

10 Channel name The Gabbie Show; 4.3 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/TheGabbieShow.

11 Channel name Lindsay Stirling; 9.5 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/lindseystomp. 12 Channel name Grace Helbig; 3 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/graciehinabox.

13 Channel name MyHarto; 2.5 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/MyHarto. 14 Channel name Mamrie Hart; 1.2 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/YouDeserveADrink.

15 Channel name LaurDIY; which has 5.8 million subscribers; source: www.youtube.com/user/LaurDIY. Banu 23!

Despite not having a set amount of money that were to be raised, the campaign had, nevertheless, a clear focus. As the dragonfly effect’s first ‘wing’ suggests, the goal of the campaign should be clear, measurable, and doable. The #GirlLove Challenge was clearly defined by the period in which it took place and had a concrete purpose. The money raised from views in the first month were going to be donated to the Malala Fund. Furthermore, the objective was as well achievable as even one view will make a difference. In consequence, the possibility to take action (which is the fourth ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect) was easy and open to everyone. In order for the campaign to succeed, one only had to watch the video and/ or share it via their own social media so that it will reach a larger audience. As promised in her video, on 27th of January 2016, exactly thirty days later, Singh uploaded a picture on her Instagram account (@iisuperwomanii) in which she shared with her audience the total of money raised from her video and donated to the Malala Fund. The picture is a screen-shot of the receipt (see figure 1) which shows that a total of four thousand dollars were donated. As mentioned in the second section of the first chapter, due to the nature of YouTube, creators resort to other social media platforms for sharing content such as images. Therefore, Singh had to post the result of the #GirlLove Challenge via an Instagram image. Furthermore, in the description of the picture, Singh introduced a new Instagram account dedicated to the #GirlLove campaign @spreadgirllove. The account has so far 111 thousand followers and new pictures and videos supporting the campaign, are constantly uploaded. This new account also proves the need of other types of communication (different from videos) within the community. Nonetheless, it is important to mention, that at that time, the Community tab was not yet introduced. Following the above mentioned challenge, Singh continued to spread awareness regarding the ongoing hate between women in the online and offline world via her social media accounts. She continuously uploaded pictures and messages on her Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts encouraging or complimenting fellow female YouTubers, celebrities, and different women in her life (such as her sister, her mother, and best friends). Furthermore, she managed to get other YouTubers to participate in spreading this message. Many YouTube creators (both females and males) continued to share on their own YouTube channels and social media platforms, encouraging messages towards other women which also included the #GirlLove hashtag. Among these YouTubers are: Kanwer Singh who is better Banu 24! known by his channel’s username Humble The Poet16, where he uploads inspirational videos in which he talks about living a healthy and happy life, and music videos of his songs; Rosanna Pansino17 known for her cooking channel with the same name; Justine Ezarik better known by her channel name iJustine18 where she uploads a variety of videos such as vlogs, gaming video, challenges and so on; and the fitness instructor and YouTuber Cassey Ho, whose channel blogilates19 offers workout tutorials.

Fig. 1. Money Donated to the Malala Fund; Source: IISuperwomanII. @iisuperwomanii. “It’s been 30 days since… .” 27 January, 2016. Instagram.

The name of the campaign, as well as all the related posts, contain the hashtag ‘#GirlLove’. Within most social media platforms, a hashtag is the hash symbol (#) followed by a word or a phrase20, and represents a way of searching posts related to that certain word/

16 164 thousand subscribers; 10 million views; www.youtube.com/user/kanwersingh. 17 8.5 million subscribers; 1.9 billion views; www.youtube.com/user/RosannaPansino.

18 3.8 million subscribers; 630 million views; www.youtube.com/user/ijustine. 19 3.7 million subscribers; 463 million views; www.youtube.com/user/blogilates.

20 Hashtags are not case sensitive, therefore the use of capitals is simply a matter of preference, often use in hashtag containing multiple words in order to make it more readable. In a search, capitals do not influence the result of the posts showed. Banu 25! phrase. Every social platform has a search bar which allows users to look up different things; thus, if one looks up a certain hashtag he or she can find all the posts related to it. Therefore, Singh uses the hashtag #GirlLove with her campaign in order to gather together all the content published by all users related to the campaign. This way, anyone who wants to see how different people might partake in this campaign can simply look up the hashtag #GirlLove. As new social media posts are constantly uploaded, content can be easily go unnoticed. Thus, by using a certain hashtag anyone can easily find all the content related to the subject. As this is an online campaign, Singh made use of the hashtag in order to keep track of all the content related to #GirlLove. Along with any user, she can easily keep track of how people get involved within the campaign. Overall, the goal of the #GirlLove campaign is a rather clear one - to stop girl-on-girl hate in the online sphere; however, it is not a measurable one due to the fact that ‘hate’ is not a quantifiable object. Therefore, it is important to mention that the campaign had and has (as it has not ended) smaller goals which are not only clear but also measurable and achievable, as recommended through the first ‘wing' of dragonfly effect. Therefore, after the initial video, a second one (also dedicated to the #GirlLove campaign) was uploaded by Singh on her main YouTube channel, on 17th of July 2016. The video entitled “Goodbye Hate, Hello #GirlLove” was a promo video announcing that starting with 28th of July that year she will be uploading a series of videos and daily content on her social media account dedicated to the #GirlLove campaign. The description of the video offers a more explicit summary of what was going to happen in the coming weeks, followed by the message “[s]pread the love with us on social media” (Singh,”Goodbye Hate, Hello #GirlLove”). This message aimed to urge people into sharing their own #GirlLove related content onto their own social media accounts and thus, spreading the awareness regarding the issue. The following actions taken by Singh towards promoting the #GirlLove campaign included a series of collaborations with different celebrities, some in form of sketches, some in form of interviews. The first video included three members from the cast of the movie Bad Moms (dir. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore 2016): Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell. and Kathryn Hahn. Following this video, Singh has created and uploaded videos featuring Bebe Rexa, Michelle Obama, Sabrina Carpenter, Victoria Justice, Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, and Bill Gates. By bringing so many famous persons onto her channel she not only gained more publicity, but Banu 26! she managed to reach a higher number of people from different backgrounds. The variety of celebrities and the fact that they themselves have a diverse background, can be seen as a way of attracting a larger audience to Singh’s videos. This increase is not necessarily referring to the total number of people that watch her videos, but their diversity (such as interests, education, geographical location and so on). Moreover, the collaboration with mainstream celebrities, as the ones mentioned above, can be interpreted as a form of celebrity endorsement. As #GirlLove is an on-going campaign, the above mentioned actions managed to keep the audience constantly engaged with the project. Hence, these actions have a great impact on the bigger objective, that of (eventually) eliminating the online hate between women. Whilst uploading content onto her social media and creating new videos, Singh also started a partnership with the charity called ME to WE (pronounces as me to we) , as a way to celebrate her 28th birthday together with her online community. The WE Charity aims to empower communities and help them grow out of poverty by offering them access to water, food, education, health treatments, and helping them cultivate their entrepreneurial skills in order to provide for their families (“About WE Charity”). ME to WE is part of the WE Charity and its aim is “[t]o empower people to transform local and global communities by shifting from “me” thinking to “we” acting” (“ABOUT US”). Singh’s collaboration with this charity came, as well, as part of her #GirlLove campaign. The YouTuber announced this collaboration between her and the charity through a video posted onto her main channel called “My Life Changing Experience in Kenya - Help Me Send Girls To School” (uploaded on 20th of September 2016). By presenting and introducing this new piece of the #GirlLove campaign, through a video in which she talks about how visiting the Kenyan community changed her, Singh creates a bond with her viewers. Furthermore, it makes the campaign more personal, and thus, more engaging for her audience (also complying with the third ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect - ‘engage’). Additionally, by getting involved in such projects and partnerships, Singh proves that she wants to go beyond the profit of her channel and offer back to the people. She makes use of the community formed thus becoming more socially conscious. Actions like this contribute to the overall positive opinion her audience has towards her. Moreover, it creates an emotional bonding with her viewers - a parasocial Banu 27! relationship. By showing her compassion towards other people, the audience perceives her in a more positive light. ME to WE’s projects consist of offering women from deficient communities a possibility of selling their goods around the world, while the money gained become not only a source of income, but also a chance to get education, school supplies and health care (“Track Your Impact”). The video posted by Singh was a presentation of her trip to Kenya in which she visited the communities helped by her partnership with the foundation. For this partnership, Singh together with the Kenyan women designed a #GirlLove rafiki21 bracelet (a friendship bracelet) which she then encouraged her fans to purchase. The bracelets are manufactured in Kenya by the women within Kenyan community helped by ME to WE foundation. One can purchase a #GirlLove rafiki bracelet for $15.00, and all the money raised are donated to help girls in Kenya to go to school. Taking action (as the fourth ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect suggests) was thus very easy as one had to simply purchase the bracelet online. Moreover, by having these bracelets as an icon of the campaign to help girls in Kenya, and the overall movement to stop girl-on-girl hate, Singh made the project more appealing. Arguably, by having these bracelets, people feel more connected to the community and have an actual object that reinforces the fact that their contribution matters. Therefore, this is an elements through which the campaign grabs the attention of the audience and makes them take an action, proving how the second and fourth ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect work in sync. Singh’s initial goal was to sell a total of 10,000 bracelet; however, with the help of her large online community she managed to surpass that by having sold up to the date of this research a total of 33,329 rafiki bracelets. From the beginning her objective was clear, measurable, and due to the number of subscribers and followers she has on all her social media platforms, it was also achievable (this relates to the first ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect). In consequence, not only did she reach her goal but the outcome was more than three times higher. The number of how many bracelets were sold can be found on the ME to WE online shop website, along with an explanation of how each bracelet sold contributes to the education of girls in Kenya:

21 Rafiki comes from Swahili and it means ‘friend’. Banu 28!

Educating girls is one of the most important things you can do for a developing community. In Kenya, primary education has been free since 2002, but there are still challenges keeping girls out of school. WE Villages works with communities to sustainably break down barriers and provide access to education. Every #GirlLove Rafiki you buy helps send a girl in Kenya to school, spreading the Girl Love worldwide. (“GirlLove”) Despite the fact that Singh’s goal was already surpassed, the #GirlLove rafiki bracelets continue to be sold. In a recent vlog uploaded on her second channel, Singh included a short video presenting the outcome of this project. The short clip from the vlog entitled “The Time I Show You A Special Secret (Day 829)” published on 19th of April 2017, announces that over 30,000 #GirlLove bracelets have been sold thus offering access to school for a total of 600 girls (Singh 00:11:50). These numbers show how much influence a creator such as Lilly Singh has, but also how big of an impact such projects can have within an online community.

4.2 The Cringemas Livestream by PewDiePie

The second project which will be looked at within this research, is a fundraising campaign initialised by the number one most subscribed YouTuber, Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. Kjellbers is better known by his pseudonym PewDiePie, which is also the username of his YouTube channel. At present, he is the YouTube creator with most subscribers, having more than 55 million subscribers and over 15.2 billion views. He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden on 24th of October, but he is currently based in Brighton, The United Kingdom of England. Kjellberg joined YouTube on 29th of April 2010 and he is mostly known for his gaming videos commentaries in which he plays a videogame while describing his actions and reacting to how the game unfolds. However, his creations also include humorous videos, challenge-type videos, live streams, vlogs, or videos featuring other famous content creators. One of the most featured YouTubers on his channel is his girlfriend Marzia Bisognin known for her YouTube channel, Maritza (which used to be CutiePieMarzia) which has over 7 million subscribers and 552 million views. The videos Kjellberg produces stand out among other gaming video commentators due to their humorous character and the way he interacts with Banu 29! his audience through this videos. Additionally, his gaming videos provide an entertaining review of the actual game. The first uploaded video that can be found on Kjellberg’s channel is a gaming video called “Minecraft Multiplayer Fun” added on 2nd of October 2010 which is a screen-capture of a walk-through of the game Minecraft (2010) featuring Kjellberg’s comments as he was playing the game. The video has now more than 22.8 million views, and a total of 1.1 million thumbs up and 85.6 thousand thumbs down. The creator’s most popular video has an astonishing 77.2 million views with more than 1.4 million thumbs up and 37 thousand thumbs down. This video, called “A Funny Montage” was uploaded on 4th of June 2013 and it is a compilation of small funny clips from his previous videos. So far, Kjellberg has a total of 3,194 videos uploaded to his channel, and continues to upload new content every day. In a video called “DRAW MY LIFE - PewDiePie”, uploaded on 31st of January 2013, Kjellberg explains how games have always been a part of his life as he loved playing video games since he was a child. He goes on explaining that one of the things he always wished was to make gaming videos. After managing to gain enough money to buy a new computer he started uploading video games on YouTube and the feedback received made him do it more and more. Thus, he now has one of the biggest online communities and, as already mentioned, is the YouTuber with most subscribers. Similarly to the previous YouTuber discussed, Lilly Singh, Kjellberg build a close relationship to his audience through self- disclosure and by sharing private life stories through his videos; thus, fostering the development of parasocial relationships between him and his viewers. The enormous fame gained through making YouTube videos, pushed Kjellberg to use his resources and popularity to give back to the society by helping with different social causes. In 2012, he donated money to the World Wildlife Fund and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Additionally, as a celebration of reaching ten million subscribers, he started a social campaign called ‘Water Campaign’ through which him together with his audience donated money to the Charity: Water, a non-profit organisation that provides water to under-developed communities. In 2014, he started another campaign - this time to celebrate 25 million subscribers - for Save the Children foundation. In a video called “1 MILLION $ FOR CHARITY”, published on 4th of June 2014, Kjellberg announced that Banu 30! through the four above-mentioned campaigns more than 1 million dollars have been donated to charities (00:00:48 to 00:01:05). All Kjellberg’s social campaigns have had a great impact over the past years; however, for this research, I will be focusing on one of his latests charity projects - the ‘Cringemas’ YouTube livestream, a fundraising campaign. The livestream took place on 9th and 10th of December 2016 and its purpose was to raise money for the (RED)22 charity. The goal for this fundraising was to raise a total of 300 thousand dollars in order to help the prevention of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Therefore, as recommended by the dragonfly effect’s first ‘wing’, the ‘Cringemas’ campaign had a single, concrete and measurable goal. The (RED) charity was founded back in 2006 by the activist Bobby Shiver and Bono, whose real name is Paul David Hewson, the lead singer of the Irish rock band, U2. Since its foundation, (RED) together with its partners raised a total of 465 million dollars which have been further donated to The Global Fund, an organisation which fights to put an end to epidemics such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The goal of (RED) is to one day have an AIDS free generation. Every day around 400 babies are born with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) (“What Is (RED)?”); thus, the charity aims to prevent the spread of the virus and reach a point where babies are no longer born infected with HIV. Moreover, lots of teenagers are infected everyday with the virus whilst there is a way to prevent it (“What Is (RED)?”). Consequently, (RED)’s other goal is to increase the awareness regarding the methods of prevention of AIDS. In the beginning of 2016, Kjellberg started an online network, Revelmode, formed of twelve YouTubers passionate about games, pop culture, and charity work with the aim to bring original new content on social media. This network’s purpose was to bring together influential creators who despite have the same interests, they create original content. Through Revelmode, the YouTubers promoted each other’s channels and side projects. Furthermore, the network had a separate YouTube channel where the creators intended to publish collaborative videos. However, a series of controversial videos published by Kjellberg, on his channel, lead to him being dropped by his major corporate sponsor, Disney. As a consequence, the Revelmode project had to be discontinued and the network was dissolved.

22 The name of the charity is written between parentheses as that is their trademark, and it should be pronounced as the colour red. Banu 31!

Kjellberd confirmed that Revelmode had to be shutdown in a video called “GOING TOO FAR?” published on 12th of March 2017. Nevertheless, before shutting down the Revelmode network, Kjellberg together with four other members of the network organised the “CRINGEMAS CHARITY LIVESTREAM” as one of the network’s charity projects. What makes his campaign different from others is the way it took place, via a live streaming video. Hence, the project stood out due to its design - a two-day livestream video. Such practices, despite gaining popularity among YouTubers, are not yet something common. Given that, the project fulfils the requirements of the second ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect, that of grabbing attention. This campaign is proof of how content creators make use of the platform’s technical affordances in new way, other than the ones they were perhaps designed for. Additionally, YouTubers have given shout-outs throughout the livestream by mentioning the names (or nicknames) of those who donated money, hence, engaging with their audience. The YouTube livestream was moderated by Kjellberg and was posted onto his account (PewDiePie) as one video of seven hours and a half (which were initially filmed over a span of two days). One of the YouTubers featured in the video was Mark Edward Fischbach whose YouTube channel, Markiplier23, has 17.3 million subscribers and over 7.28 billion views. His YouTube content contains gaming videos, animated and comedy sketches, and occasional livestreams. The second creator present in the livestream was Sean William McLoughin whose YouTube channel, jacksepticeye24, has 15.4 million subscribers and more than 7.13 billion views. McLoughin’s YouTube content consists of daily game commentaries videos. The third YouTuber who appeared in the ‘Cringemas' video was PJ Ligouri whose YouTube channel, KickThePJ25, has 1.2 million subscribers and over 74.4 million views. He is best known for his humorous videos and animations. The last YouTuber featured in the video was the singer and song-writer Emma Louise Blakery whose YouTube channel, emmablackery26, has 1.3 million subscribers and over 147.9 million views. Besides her singing career, Blakery is also a YouTube vlogger.

23 Source: www.youtube.com/user/markiplierGAME.

24 Source: www.youtube.com/user/jacksepticeye. 25 Source: www.youtube.com/user/KickThePj

26 Source: www.youtube.com/user/emmablackery. Banu 32!

The name of the campaign ‘Cringemas’ is a combination of the words ‘cringe’ and ‘Christmas’, and it comes from the fact that the video had a Christmas theme and throughout the livestream - once they reach a certain donation mark - the protagonists of the video were going to do something ‘cringe worthy’27. For instance, at every one thousand dollars donated, the YouTubers were adding extra decorations to their Christmas tree. However, at each five thousand dollars donated, they were each opening a Christmas cracker. To keep the audience entertained, and to also pursue them to donate more money, one of the five crackers always contained a forfeit which had to be completed by the creator who found it. Additionally, each forfeit (or challenge) was created to be cringe worthy - thus, the name of the campaign. By completing these challenges, they made the video more entertaining thus making people take action (as implied by the fourth ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect). In order to donate the money, an account was opened on the fundraising website CroudRise in the name of ‘Revelmode Cringemas’ ("Revelmode Cringemas"). One could simply click one of the buttons displayed on the website and choose to donate 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 dollars, or introduce their own desired amount (a minimum of 10 dollars was imposed). The first day of the livestream had the goal of raising 100 thousand dollars. Throughout the livestream, the viewers could see a button on their screens which would direct them straight to the donation website, hence, making the process of donating easier. Moreover, the method of donation was easy to understand, making it easy for the viewers to get involved as the dragonfly effect suggests. Additionally to the donation from the audience, YouTube also contributed by matching each donation up to 100 thousand dollars - meaning that for every dollar donated YouTube doubled it (Kjellberg, “CRINGEMAS CHARITY …”: 4:19). In order to attract more viewers, throughout the livestream the YouTubers encouraged the audience to promote the campaign on their own social media accounts using the hashtag #Cringemas. Therefore, those who wanted to help the RED charity, but could not actually donate money, they could raise awareness about the campaign on social media, and attract other possible donors. Only forty-three minutes into the livestream, the YouTubers managed to raise the first 10 thousand dollars. Consequently, with YouTube’s one-to-one matching they had raised a

27 ‘Cringe-worthy’ refers to something that is “making you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable” (Source: Turnbull, Joanna, ed. The Oxford Dictionary. 8th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010. ). Banu 33! total of 20 thousand dollars in less than one hour. As a result of this donations, the creators had to open the first round of Christmas crackers and complete the forfeit. In addition to being entertaining, this forfeits arguably represented a way of making people feel that each of their contribution matters, as a new milestone towards the goal was being achieved. The first day of the livestream lasted for almost four hours and by the end of it, a total of 100 thousand dollars have been raised for the (RED) charity. As already mentioned, YouTube matched all these donation resulting that only in the first day of the ‘Cringemas’ livestream, the content creators managed to raise 200 thousand dollars for helping the fight against AIDS. The second day of the livestream had the same goal as the previous one, to raise 100 thousand dollars. Nevertheless, it was an even bigger success as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation decided to contribute as well to the campaign. The foundation matched the donations one-to-ten, so for each dollar donated by the audience they matched it with another 10 dollars, up to one million dollars. By the end of the second day the goal has been achieved; therefore, by the end of the ‘Cringemas’ YouTube livestream over 1.3 million dollars have been raised for (RED) for the fight against AIDS (see figure 2). Overall, the ‘Cringemas’ livestream campaign surpassed its initial goal with 1.1 million dollars, proving yet again the power and influence of YouTube content creators.

Fig. 2. Total Amount Raised During ‘Cringemas' Campaign for (RED); Source: Screenshot from "Click Here to Support Revelmode Cringemas." CrowdRise. N.p., n.d. Banu 34!

Looking back at the dragonfly effect’s ‘wings’ the ‘Cringemas’ campaign had a clear goal set (raising 300 thousand dollars for (RED) charity), grabbed the attention of the viewers through its design and development (a livestream in which YouTube creators were performing different challenges), engaged with the audience (by directly communicating with the community, and answering their messages live) and enabled the viewers to take action (by making the process of donating easy and entertaining). Therefore, it can be argued that all four ‘wings’ have been applied simultaneously, and thus, the campaign achieved its goal.

4.3 The Solvey Project by FunForLouis and Dave Erasmus

The third and last social project which will be discussed within this research paper is The Solvey Project. The project was co-founded by daily vlogger Louis John Cole, together with the YouTuber and entrepreneur, Dave Erasmus. Compared with the previous YouTubers analysed within this research, both Cole and Erasmus’ channels have a lower number of subscribers. Cole’s channel has almost 2 million subscribers and over 257 million views to his 1460 videos uploaded, while Erasmus has about 67 thousand subscribers and 1.8 million views. Cole was born in Surrey, United Kingdom, on 28th of April 1983, and he is best known by his YouTube username FunForLouis28. He joined the platform on 6th of November 2011 as a daily vlogger who loves travelling and sharing his experiences from around the world with others. The first video posted by Cole on his YouTube channel is called “Norway Roadtrip 2012 | part 1 | FunForLouis” was uploaded on 13th of May 2012 and has over 213 thousand views. His most popular video, with more than 3.3 million views, is called “Brutal Skating Accident” (Cole) and was uploaded on 19th of June 2014. His original content has made him part of a niche in the world of YouTube content creators. Contrary to the previous YouTubers discussed in this research, Cole’s videos are focused solely on his travel adventures and projects, while totally avoiding the mainstream type of videos (i.e. challenges, questions and answers etc.). Throughout his career as a YouTuber he had faced some controversies, one of the most recent issues being due to his ten vlogs from North Korea published on his channel between 10th and 20th of August 2016. Furthermore, Cole has been

28 Source: www.youtube.com/user/FunForLouis. Banu 35! involved in several different projects, mostly focused on travelling. He founded his own brand/club called “Live The Adventure” (LTA) which was joined by other YouTube creators focused on travelling. The LTA club aims to inspire others in achieving their dream of travelling, but also promote social change. Dave Erasmus was born on 5th of December 1985 in Johannesburg, South Africa, but grew up in Surrey, United Kingdom. Despite being a YouTube creator, Erasmus is also known for his TEDx conference talks: “The Power of Connection” at TEDxManchester29, “Is Giving Good for You” at TEDxChisinau30, “Why Giving is Better than Porn” at TEDxBrighton31 - all three held in 2012 - and “Is Giving One Pound Enough?” at TEDxSalford32 in 2014. In his talks Erasmus discusses his journey as a social media expert and entrepreneur. Moreover, he explains the reasons why he chose to focus on social causes, and explains how his projects aim to give back to the community and help people around the world (e.g. one of the discussed projects is the company he founded in 2012, Givey, which is a social donations platform). Erasmus joined YouTube on 8th of October 2012, and has since posted about 160 videos. His channel name is Dave Erasmus33 and uses it as a platform and way to share his experiences, projects and ideas with others. In his channel description, Erasmus explains that he is “interested in how we use what we have to solve problems for other people” (Daveerasmus). His first video was uploaded on 9th of July 2013 and is called “Welcome to my Hut! :)” (Erasmus). This video has 20 thousand views, and is an introduction of himself and the place where he lives. This video includes fragments of self- disclosure, in which Erasmus is presenting his life story and why he decided to live his life the way he does. His most popular video is called “£2500 SOLAR CAMPER VAN CONVERSION IN 5 DAYS? [PT2]” (Erasmus) published on 12th of February 2017. The video has over 113 thousand views and features two other YouTubers, Alfie Deyes (mostly known by his channel name PointlessBlog which has 5.5 million subscribers and over 467

29 Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2n5rn6cIoc. 30 Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3vVWee0dus&t=579s.

31 Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiVGx6dRRj8&t=331s. 32 Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQH3FNa4wI.

33Source: www.youtube.com/user/daveerasmus. Banu 36! million views) and Sean Elliott O’Connor (known for his YouTube channel Seanelliottoc34 which - despite that he only started uploading videos in June 2016 - has already gained over 445 thousand subscribers and more than 13 million views due to his multiple collaborations with other YouTube creators). Back in 2015, the two YouTube creators, Cole and Erasmus, decided to put their platforms and connections together and started The Solvey Project. The project was first announced via a video, posted on Erasmus’ channel on 15th of June 2015, called “The Solvey Project // Louis & Dave”. The two creators, decided to look for someone who has an idea or already a project aimed to change the world into a better place - a small or big thing that can improve the life of others. The two YouTubers decided to use all their networks and knowledge to help someone further develop their idea. Since they already have the platforms and awareness due to their YouTube channels and previous projects, they believed it is a good idea to use all these to help with a social cause. However, since they were lacking an actual idea, they started this project through which they were helping someone else who already had a plan - this element made their campaign differ from others. Instead of using their networks and platforms for their own project, they decided to found someone else’s idea; thus, they not only made the project interesting but also more engaging for their audiences. The name of the project, Solvey, comes from the word ‘solve’ and as the description of the video states, they were trying to find “the worlds most ambitious and innovative charitable problem solver” (Erasmus, “The Solvey Project…”). Therefore, the objective of the campaign was clearly explained through the video - to find a project aimed to help with a social issue, worth investing into and developing further. Through the video posted, the two creators invited their viewers to send them application in the form of a short video in which they describe their project ideas. They also encouraged the viewers to share the video with their friends and networks, share it on their own social media platforms using the hashtag #solvey, and encourage anyone that has an idea to submit an application. By designing their campaign as contest, the YouTube creators made the ‘Solvey’ project more entertaining, thus, more appealing for people to take part in it. The applications could be submitted until 30th of June 2016, followed by a selection period in which the YouTubers were going to decide which idea is worth investing in.

34 Source: www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkgRyGyoji5ZDugyt02Y-A. Banu 37!

In another video called “Solvey Update // One Wave” (Erasmus) uploaded on 9th of September 2015, Erasmus explains that the previous video had a great success, reaching a total of 150 countries (minute 0:35). The Solvey Project received 85 applications from people from 20 different countries (Erasmus, “Solvey Update…”; 0:33). The amount of responses received proves how much of an impact the first video had on the viewers, and on the overall reach (meaning the people that watched the video). The applications sent went through a process of filtering, after which only one of the project was selected as winner of the Solvey project. The project that the two YouTubers had selected to invest into is called One Wave and was co-founded by two Australians, Grant Trebilco and Sam Schumacher. The project aims to help people that have mental health conditions to overcome their problems and learn to live their life at the fullest, by organising special events called Fluro Fridays. Cole and Erasmus flew the two Australians to Los Angeles and invited them to VidCon to present their project. VidCon is an annual online video conference, originally organised by the two YouTubers and brothers Hank and John Green (known for their channel vlogbrothers which currently has 2.9 million subscribers and over 686 million views). The conference brings together creators from around the world and their viewers, and all the people related to the industry of online videos. Therefore, it was the perfect place for Trebilco and Schumacher to pitch their project idea. By taking part in such events, not only offered the project visibility and access to resources, but also access to mentorship in order to improve the overall design of the project. One Wave is a surfing community which organises events that are meant to bring together people that suffer from mental health issues and offer them a place that makes them feel better. The events are called Fluro35 Fridays as they are organised on Fridays and because they require people to wear fluorescent or brightly coloured outfits. By taking part in such events, one has the chance to meet people that might share the same health issues or similar ones, and together learn to overcome them. With the help of The Solvey Project, One Wave gained over 22.9 thousand followers on Instagram, and their event is now held in multiple locations in California, Bali, Australia and New Zealand. Louise Cole and Dave Erasmus continued to help the two Australians further manage and develop their project, and in 2016 they decided to do it all over again. However, the format of the project was altered. On 1st of March 2016, Cole uploaded a video to his channel

35 Fluro is a short form of the word fluorescent, frequently used among young Australians. Banu 38! called “ANNOUNCING : SOLVEY WORLD TOUR”. Through that video, the two creators (Cole and Erasmus) announced they are going to travel around the world in 30 days in the search of other project ideas which The Solvey Project can help develop. The world tour started on 1st of April 2016, and they visited the following destinations: Lagos, Dubai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Rio, and Reykjavik (Erasmus, “SOLVEY Q&A ”). The whole world tour was documented through daily vlogs by Cole which were published on his YouTube channel. In each of the locations they met with different people that had an idea that could possibly improve the life of others. Moreover, at the end of their tour there was a two week period in which other people from around the world could submit their applications through the Solvey website - www.solvey.com (Erasmus, “SOLVEY Q&A ”). Therefore, the project was not limited to the locations that the two creators visited. It is important to mention that, just as in the previous phase of the project, the goal remained relatively similar. The main change was that this time, the two YouTubers were going to choose not only one but multiple projects to be founded and developed. Nevertheless, in order to keep the audience engaged they had to add new elements to the project. Therefore, by travelling around the world to meet people, they developed a stronger bound with their audience. Meeting people in person, rather than having them solely send their applications online, gave the whole project a more personal and intimate character. Consequently, this made ‘Solvey’ grab the attention of the audience, get them engaged, and, as a result, persuade them to get involved and share their ideas. Via a livestreamed video-call done on 3rd of June 2016, called “Solvey Spotlight Awards”, the creators, Cole and Erasmus, announced the final projects who The Solvey Project was going to sustain and help develop (+SocialGood). The second round of the project received 140 applications from 40 different countries. After both Cole and Erasmus choose their top ten applications they compared their list and agreed on six projects that Solvey was going to help. They believed that among these six ideas there was a gap; therefore, on a location basis, they added another project. Each of the seven projects has received one thousand dollars and an article was featured in the online Forbes Magazine describing each of the winning projects, their founders and the overall purpose of the Solvey project (Erasmus, “Solvey Spotlight…”: 00:12:30). The final seven projects aimed to: (1) bring a change in the architecture of slum communities; (2) provide a way of connecting Banu 39! children around the world via Skype; (3) develop a technology which allows people to use their smartphones as hand sanitisers for only 10$; (4) establish a book-bank to repurpose people’s old books; (5) develop a more efficient way of recycling aluminium that would also be less harmful to the environment; (6) include products fabricated in Bolivia into the global market; and (7) create a medicine-bank which would stop people from wasting unused pills and other forms of medication (Chhabra).

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5. Discussion After examining the three case studies of (1) The #GirlLove Campaign by IISuperwomanII, (2) The Cringemas Livestream by PewDiePie, (3) The Solvey Project by FunForLouis and Dave Erasmus, this section of the thesis will draw on the literature presented in the second chapter in order to establish how YouTubers deal with social campaigns differently due to platform-related practices and affordances. Additionally, it will draw conclusions regarding the efficiency of applying the dragonfly effect method when designing a social issue campaign on YouTube. To begin with, as previously explained in the first chapter of this thesis, YouTube can now be considered one of the social networking platforms due to its social affordances. As Bucher and Helmond explain, “the concept of affordance is generally used to describe what material artifacts such as media technologies allow people to do” (3); hence, when discussing YouTube, social affordances are those features and tools which allow users to connect and communicate with each other. Moreover, in their research, boyd and Ellison argue that “as the social media and user-generated content phenomena grew, websites focused on media sharing began implementing SNS features and becoming SNSs themselves” (216); therefore, the same thing happened in the case of YouTube. By introducing means of communication and interaction between users (i.e. subscribing to other channels, getting push notifications when new content is uploaded, or the addition of the Community tab), YouTube gained the status of a social networking website. Nevertheless, it is important to point out, that YouTube as a SNS is still under development and its designers are continuously trying to add and improve its features. For example, despite the addition of the Community tab in the autumn of 2016, the above described studies prove that there is still a need of using other mean of communication (i.e Instagram, Facebook or Twitter) when transmitting messages in formats other than videos (pictures or text messages). Therefore, this feature needs to be further developed in order to achieve its goal of bringing all the communication onto the platform and removing the need of using other types of social media. Going back to YouTube’s overall social character, and “[g]iven that SNSs enable individuals to connect with one another, it is not surprising that they have become deeply embedded in user’s lives” (boyd and Ellison 221). Consequently, due to YouTube’s increased Banu 41! popularity, content creators (YouTubers) have managed to develop communities of millions of subscribers. By doing so, YouTubers not only gained the status of ‘celebrities’, but also that of ‘influencers’ - as a result of the relationships built with their audience. The nature of these relationships, emerging between content creators and audience, represents one of the main reasons YouTubers have a different approach towards social campaigns. Through their videos, YouTubers share a great deal of information with their audience. This information is not only concerning common subjects or everyday matters, but also elements from their private lives, their upbringing, or their personal opinions and beliefs. The type of videos such as ‘draw my life’ are a common way through which YouTubers share their life stories with their viewers. Moreover, videos in which (to some extent) YouTubers honestly answer to questions from their subscribers, or those in which they share their opinions regarding certain matters, also contribute to the development of their relationship with the audience. The result of such videos it that an intimate relation (of friendship) is developed, as the viewers get emotionally attached to the YouTubers. Chung and Cho argue that “[c]elebrities’ perceived openness and willingness to be vulnerable enhance consumers’ feeling of intimacy and friendship, which results in the formation of parasocial relationships with them” (489). As defined in the second chapter of this thesis, parasocial relationships are a type of personal relations (such as friendships) developed between celebrities and their followers - in this case, subscribers. Since creators share intimate and personal facts about themselves, the audience feels like they know them on a personal level. Additionally, given that one watches the videos created by YouTubers every week or every day for a long period of time (such as months or years) then he or she feels like the creator is an actual friend. As I previously argued, due to the strong relations developed with their audience, YouTubers are also seen as influencers. Interestingly, Chung and Cho explain that: the fame and popularity of celebrities do not transfer directly into endorser effectiveness unless celebrities establish parasocial relationships with consumers. An intimate, friendship-like relationship built on cumulative information disclosure and a deep understanding of the endorser will influence evaluations of the endorser's trustworthiness (490). Therefore, in order for YouTubers to make an impact and influence their audience, they must be open about their lives and beliefs, share personal information with their viewers, and be Banu 42! generally unafraid of self-disclosure. Given that, it can be argued that the subscribers and viewers perceive YouTube content creators as trustable and reliable. After the in-depth study of the three case studies, it can be concluded that, in addition to the development of parasocial relationships, the dragonfly effect method is indeed a successful way of achieving the goals of a social campaign on YouTube. In each of the studies described in the fourth chapter of the thesis, the four ‘wings’ of the dragonfly effect can be identified: (1) focus; (2) grab attention; (3) engage; and (4) take action. The first ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect implies that a social issue campaign should have a clear focus. This means that the goal of the campaign should be both measurable and realistic. Throughout the three case studies analysed within this thesis, it was observed that each one of them had their objectives clearly stated. Interestingly, whilst the Cringemas livestream and the Solvey project had concrete goals, the #GirlLove campaign was rather vague as stopping girl-on-girl online hate is not a measurable object. However, Singh had divided her campaign into smaller quantifiable and achievable targets, thus, making her project comply with the dragonfly effect method as well from the perspective of the first ‘wing’. Each of the objectives were presented to the audience through the videos posted by the creators (in relation with the projects), and it was thoroughly explained what one has to do in order to help achieving them. The second ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect outlines the importance of having a campaign which grabs the attention of the viewers. This is an interesting aspect of the method as in the case of YouTubers the campaign by itself (regardless of its design) will grab the attention of the audience. As YouTubers’ viewers are mostly subscribers which have been following their channel for longer periods, the introduction of a social campaign grabs attention as it is a different type of content than what they are used to see. Nevertheless, each of the campaigns stood out either through its message (spreading love instead of hate, in the first case study), through its design (a two day livestream video, in the second case study), or through its realisation (founding someone else’s idea of a project which aims to help with a social issue, in the third case study). Additionally, YouTube creators promote social causes in a very medium specific way (through their videos); thus making the projects appealing to their communities of subscribers. By developing such campaigns, YouTubers are going Banu 43! beyond profit (gaining income from their videos), by becoming socially responsible; thus, it can be argued that the audience perceives them in an even more positive light. The third ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect emphasises the importance of engagement with the audience and suggests that the campaign should foster personal connections. This element of the dragonfly method is interesting when related to YouTube content creators. As previously explained, YouTubers through their videos develop parasocial relationships with their viewers, therefore, their social campaigns benefit from these already formed connections and ‘friendships’. In the same time, for the social campaigns that have not yet ended (#GirlLove) or lasted a longer period of time (Solvey), the YouTubers have added new elements in order to keep their audience interested in the subject. For example, in the first case study, Singh has shown clips with the girls from Kenya who got the donations from the viewers. This way, people could see exactly who they helped and how. Next, she has promoted the overall goal of the campaign - stopping girl-on-girl online hate - through different actions such as collaborations with other YouTube creators and with famous and influential people (i.e. Bill Gates, Michelle Obama). In the third case study (Solvey), the creators kept people engaged and interested in the second part of their project by changing their approach. Firstly, instead of investing in only one project they invested in seven; and secondly, they traveled around the world to have face to face meeting with the applicants to the project. The fourth and last ‘wing’ of the dragonfly effect refers to the actual participation of audience in the campaigns. In order to reach its goals, the audience (the viewers) must take actions and get involved in the project - be that through simply sharing the video(s) with their friends, or actually investing their time and/or money. Therefore, it is important when designing such project, that people have all the necessary information on how to participate and there is an easy way for them to act. It is important to note that in the case of campaigns conducted via social media, one way for everyone to participate and contribute is by sharing the video within their own social networks. Doing so, simply requires the press of button; thus, anyone - even those who might not afford to contribute financially - can get involved and help in achieving the campaign’s goal. Moreover, compared to social campaign conducted through other medium such as television (where in order to participate one must make a phone call, or send text messages, or make donations to a certain bank account), Banu 44! social media conducted campaigns (specifically YouTube) make this process easier as one has direct links and buttons. Lastly, one important aspect regarding the dragonfly effect method is the importance of applying all the four wings simultaneously. Having a campaign with clear goal, but not enabling people to take action, or designing a campaign which grabs people’s attention, but they do not feel connected to the creator or subject/ cause, will most likely fail in achieving its objective. In consequence, it can be concluded that the dragonfly effect is a method which can be effectively applied by YouTubers when conducting social issue campaigns via their YouTube channels, with the condition that all four wings are simultaneously put into practice. Moreover, the cases studies analysed prove that the type of content uploaded by the YouTuber conducting the campaign does not have any influence on the outcome of the project. To conclude, through the three case studies analysed in the previous chapter: (1) The #GirlLove Campaign by IISuperwomanII, (2) The Cringemas Livestream by PewDiePie, (3) The Solvey Project by FunForLouis and Dave Erasmus; this research explores the aspects of social campaigns conducted by content creators on YouTube. As proven above, YouTubers deal with spreading awareness and getting people involved in a rather different manner due to the platform they use. The social affordances of YouTube enable them to develop deep and personal relationships with their audience which increases their overall reliability, credibility, and trustworthiness. Moreover, as people can easily identify with them in comparison with mainstream celebrities, YouTube content creator have a higher chance of engaging the audience to take part in spreading awareness or helping a certain social cause. Additionally, due to the medium, the ability of people to actually act is easier and their contribution to the cause is more visible (making one feel like his or her involvement actually made a difference). As such, this study provides insights about the practice developed by YouTubers of using their communities to create social campaigns such as spreading awareness, raising money, funding and developing social projects aimed to improve the world and so on.

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6. Conclusion This research has examined three social campaigns which were conducted by YouTube content creators (YouTubers), in order to identify (1) how they make use of their channels to build a community and develop parasocial relationships with their subscribers, and (2) how they deal with social causes differently than mainstream celebrities. YouTube, as a social networking platform, is becoming so embedded in people’s lives, particularly the younger generation, it is important to examine the practices of YouTubers and their power of influence. They are an essential component of the platform from the perspective of designers (as they attract viewers), but also from the perspective of viewers (as they are a source of information). As Chau points out, “[b]y merging the technical aspects of youth as media creators with the social aspects of youth as social networkers, new media platforms such as YouTube offer a participatory culture in which to develop, interact, and learn” (Chau 65). Hence, it is necessary for further research to be conducted in order to understand how much of an impact YouTubers have nowadays in the identity and opinion formation of youth. Additionally, as YouTube is experimenting with its social affordances, specifically with its community features (i.e. the Community tab), extensive research is required in order to understand how the platform can further be developed to support its current functionality, but also bring in new opportunities and allow other means of interaction. Nonetheless, this research shows that YouTube is indeed a useful platform to use for social issues campaigns, especially for the ‘self-made’ celebrities such as YouTubers, due to the increased influence they have over their viewers. Banu 46!

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