Kid influencers in Spain: understanding the themes they address and preteens' engagement with their YouTube channels
Keywords
Social science
Childhood
Content creation
Digital engagement
Influencers
Online content creators
Produsage
Publication details
| Year: | 2020 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05056 |
| Issued: | 2020 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 6 |
| Issue: | 9 |
| Start Page: | 1 |
| End Page: | 10 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Castillo-Abdul B.; Romero-Rodríguez L.; Larrea-Ayala A. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Heliyon |
| Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
| Topics: | Internet usage, practices and engagement; Other; Social mediation |
| Sample: | To select the study population, first, the YouTube channels in Spain with the highest number of subscribers were selected, limiting the search to channels whose lead character of the channel are children and teenagers between 8 and 14 years old, range covering childhood from 0 to 10 years, and the stage of adolescence as determined by the World Health Organization, between 10 and 19 years (WHO, 2008). In order to define the sample to be analyzed, a series of videos have been selected based on the criteria of the number of views and channel subscribers, which, according to Burgess and Green (2009), are decisive for recognizing the keys to a channel's engagement. For the execution of this research, the analytical tool Social Blade has been used, a software that allows generating statistics and analysis of social networks. A channel of 'influencers' means a record of at least 10,000 visits and more than 100,000 subscribers. A selection was made based on the above described from the results obtained in the Top 100 YouTubers Channels from Spain ranking offered by the referenced application. The visualization of the contents of each selected channel was done manually in order to extract the data under study. The data were collected from June 7, 2019, to March 15, 2020. In this sense, an intentional non-probabilistic sample has been chosen in which the sample elements are selected by the personal judgment of the researcher. |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parental practices / parental mediation; Other |
| Other Parent Implication: | The importance of parental risk awareness; the importance for parents to manage and respect their children´s privacy |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Industry |
Abstract
This research analyses the contents of the videos of the ten Spanish children's YouTube channels with the highest number of followers and video plays to identify correlations between the thematic axes of the videos and the increase in digital engagement data. Little is known about the topics that the most popular Spanish-language. YouTube influencers share with preteens and young adults' audience. In response, this exploratory study will use content analysis to examine this gap and contrast the themes that its videos reflect against others. For this purpose, interpretive-based content analysis is carried out based on an analysis sheet validated by expert judgment. Among the main results, it is shown that most of the children who are the lead character of the channel are currently between 10 and 12 years old, having created the channels an average of five years ago, which shows how early many YouTubers are starting in this industry. There are also differences in the thematic axes of the channels' videos according to the gender of the children's influencers, with a higher representation of male YouTubers devoted to gameplays, while their female peers have a more significant presence in videos in the lifestyle category. It is concluded that there is a need to supervise the contents accessed by children on this platform since it can deepen not only gender gaps but also become a wrong reference of role models.
Outcome
Results show that YouTubers tell their experiences from a life stage: a transition phase from childhood to adolescence. Referring to Zacar et al. (2009) contribution, the authors remark that this evolutionary period of "emerging adulthood" that the represent is characterized by progressive autonomy, psychological
maturity, and productivity, offering a perspective that allows them to make their reflections from a distance (Castillo-Abdul et al., 2020: 7). One of the main results highlighted by the authors is that the editing of the videos of the ten channels analyzed is characterized by being striking, colorful, noisy, with
constant references to the digital culture in which children and adolescents are immersed, using a language that is capable of capturing and keeping the public's attention, persuading it and, finally, winning its
loyalty. Castillo Abdul et al. (2020: 7) point out that "all these elements facilitate and guarantee the success to become potential influences for their followers and these strategies seem to have been understood by these new content creators, who manage to increase the number of views and the number of followers of their channels every day. The authors also point out to the the role of parents in this process: "parents exercise supervision and participation in the production and editing of the videos and even in the management of sponsors or supporting brands, as well as the administration of monetary earnings, resulting from the popularity of the materials disseminated" (Castillo Abdul et al., 2020: 8). They also remark the implications and business interests behind the YouTubers channels summarising that "It could be understood
with this type of actions that a business is being carried out at the expense of the child since they are earning huge amounts of money every month through their public exposure" (Castillo Abdul et al., 2008).
[Text adapted by the coder and extracted from the original article]