Keywords
Gender, stereotypes, audience, teens, pre-teens, youtubers, YouTube, web-scraping
Abstract
YouTube is the favourite entertainment platform for teens and pre-teens. It is configured as a space for interaction and collaboration that coordinates collective creativity as a generator of meaning. Because of this, nowadays the platform constitutes an enabling environment for subjectivation. Women and men participate by sharing or consuming videos, although the visibility and experiences are different for each gender. The aim of this study is to analyse the presence of women in the new spaces of participation, both from the perspective of producers and consumers of content. An analysis based on Web Scraping of the Instagram profiles of the 50 most successful Youtubers in Spain was carried out. The data obtained was analysed with the statistical software R. The results show a low representation of women among the channels with the highest number of views and subscribers. In addition, there is a lower presence of a female audience. Both roles, women as content creators and as consumers, are mostly associated with stereotypically feminine content such as beauty, drawmylife and fitness sports. The study shows that YouTube, the platform representing the new online participation spaces, reproduces the gender power structures of traditional media. An analytical approach to media education is needed to fight against sexist representations, stereotypes and under-representation of women in public spaces.
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Technical information
Received: 30-09-2019
Revised: 28-10-2019
Accepted: 14-11-2019
OnlineFirst: 15-02-2019
Publication date: 01-04-2020
Article revision time: 28 days | Average time revision issue 63: 48 days
Article acceptance time: 45 days | Average time of acceptance issue 63: 83 days
Preprint editing time: 139 days | Average editing time preprint issue 63: 198 days
Article editing time: 184 days | Average editing time issue 63: 243 days
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Regueira, U., Alonso-Ferreiro, A., & Da-Vila, S. (2020). Women on YouTube: Representation and participation through the Web Scraping technique. [La mujer en YouTube: Representación y participación a través de la técnica Web Scraping]. Comunicar, 63, 31-40. https://doi.org/10.3916/C63-2020-03