Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem

BookTubers (from the acronym book + YouTuber) have become key players for the publishing industry, given their influence on children and teens to promote reading and book consumption. Based on an 18-month digital ethnography that combines direct observation, digital interactions on YouTube channels,...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Tomasena, José M.
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2019
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/55462
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55462
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305119894004
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:BookTubers
Platformization
YouTube
Digital ethnography
Pierre Bourdieu
Publishing studies
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author Tomasena, José M.
author_browse Tomasena, José M.
author_facet Tomasena, José M.
author_role author
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
description BookTubers (from the acronym book + YouTuber) have become key players for the publishing industry, given their influence on children and teens to promote reading and book consumption. Based on an 18-month digital ethnography that combines direct observation, digital interactions on YouTube channels, and other social media and semistructured interviews with 17 Spanish-speaking BookTubers, this study uses Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital to analyze how BookTubers negotiate their practices with other agents of the publishing world. This article characterizes the challenges the Spanish-language publishing industry is facing in the context of digitalization to attract readers; describes the position that BookTubers have within the YouTube ecosystem, and how they relate with the platform’s actors, politics, and affordances; and analyzes the exchanges that BookTubers establish with publishers—often referred as collaborations—and their implications for their autonomy. This case study helps to understand how platformization allows new agents to transfer capital gained in social media to other cultural industries.
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
format article
id ES_e1e22e4e3ac0a38bc5d0cfec10f96d5d
institution Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
oai_identifier_str oai:recercat.cat:10230/55462
publishDate 2019
publishDateSort 2019
publisher SAGE Publications
publisherStr SAGE Publications
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
spelling Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem Tomasena, José M. BookTubers Platformization YouTube Digital ethnography Pierre Bourdieu Publishing studies BookTubers (from the acronym book + YouTuber) have become key players for the publishing industry, given their influence on children and teens to promote reading and book consumption. Based on an 18-month digital ethnography that combines direct observation, digital interactions on YouTube channels, and other social media and semistructured interviews with 17 Spanish-speaking BookTubers, this study uses Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital to analyze how BookTubers negotiate their practices with other agents of the publishing world. This article characterizes the challenges the Spanish-language publishing industry is facing in the context of digitalization to attract readers; describes the position that BookTubers have within the YouTube ecosystem, and how they relate with the platform’s actors, politics, and affordances; and analyzes the exchanges that BookTubers establish with publishers—often referred as collaborations—and their implications for their autonomy. This case study helps to understand how platformization allows new agents to transfer capital gained in social media to other cultural industries. SAGE Publications http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55462 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305119894004
spellingShingle Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
Tomasena, José M.
BookTubers
Platformization
YouTube
Digital ethnography
Pierre Bourdieu
Publishing studies
status_str publishedVersion
title Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
title_full Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
title_fullStr Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
title_full_unstemmed Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
title_short Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
title_sort Negotiating collaborations: booktubers, the publishing industry, and YouTube’s ecosystem
topic BookTubers
Platformization
YouTube
Digital ethnography
Pierre Bourdieu
Publishing studies
topic_facet BookTubers
Platformization
YouTube
Digital ethnography
Pierre Bourdieu
Publishing studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55462
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305119894004