Abstract

BLANCO-RUIZ, Marian  and  SAINZ-DE-BARANDA, Clara. Channels produced by LGBT+ YouTubers: gender discourse analysis. OBS* [online]. 2018, vol.12, n.spe1, pp.97-121. ISSN 1646-5954.

YouTubers are idols, and influence millions of people who follow their channels every day. These new media stars, born in transmedia, create their own content outside the major corporations. Across the millions of YouTube channels, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersexual and Queer (LGBTIQ or LGBT+) YouTubers are gaining more young followers who identify with their content and, also, are able to have direct contact with these YouTube “stars”. The objective of this research is to explore and analyse the content of the YouTube channels of the most popular LGBT+ YouTubers among Spanish young people and to assess whether there are gender biases in their content. The results show that content created by these YouTubers is more diverse than mainstream channels, with content ranging from personal stories to bullying. In spite of this, these channels continue to reproduce some gender stereotypes.

Keywords : LGBT+; social media; YouTube; gender identity; gender stereotypes.

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