Influenciadores digitais no YouTube: uma análise das práticas de consumo de conteúdos por adolescentes de camadas populares

Abstract

The general objective of this study is to investigate the consumption of content of digital influencers on YouTube by adolescents from a public school in Santa Maria/Rio Grande do Sul. Exploring this scenario is pertinent to the Public Relations since large brands have tried to approach these influencers because of their public's engagement. The methodology is inspired ethnography based on Travancas (2006), which analyzes the consumption practices of five young students of a public school in order to understand their interactions, perceptions and opinions about the influencers' contents. The reflective basis of this research is established with the considerations on learning on YouTube and the phenomena of the culture of convergence and participatory culture proposed by Burgess and Green (2009) and Jenkins (2008), respectively; the importance of the characteristics of the Internet and its transformation phenomena based on Hine (2016); the principles of cyberculture and the recombination practices proposed by Lemos (2006) and Silveira (2008), respectively. The reflections on consumption are based on Castro (2014); Barbosa and Campbell (2012) and Campanella and Barros (2016) and the popular strata by Barros (2008) and Sorj (2003). In the analysis, we found the following categories of content consumption: information and news; informal education; entertainment and leisure; digital influencers. Among the findings, we have seen that young people consume YouTube and influencers content to deal with their needs and create identifications, helping them to solve everyday problems like: school learning, depression and bullying.