Empirical Research Question Assignment
While attending a video workshop at YouTube’s office in Manhattan, I learned that the video site is actually the second largest search engine on the Internet, with the first being its mother company, Google. Wide-eyed and eager, I had signed up to learn the secrets to increasing the amount of views and subscribers on my beauty and fashion channel. There, I discovered a roomful of other hopeful YouTubers, many of whom called themselves “beauty gurus.” A “beauty guru” is a person, male or female, that has a passion for an aspect of beauty, whether it is makeup, hair, nails, fashion, or skincare. They create informational blog posts or YouTube videos, sharing their personal experiences and knowledge with a largely female audience. Ever since my exposure to so many passionate creators, I have been fascinated with their content and its affect on their target viewers.
In my study, I aim to examine how watching YouTube beauty gurus affect adolescent females’ self-image and self-esteem. To narrow the study to a specific age range, female viewers from the ages of thirteen to twenty-one will be studied. I plan to collect survey answers, personal interviews, and observations from YouTube comments. In addition to YouTube viewers, I also want to interview beauty gurus to better understand their motives and content.
YouTube turns ten years old in February, 2015, but the amount of research done on the impact of social media networks, like YouTube, on teenagers and adolescents is still an ongoing project. The results from research conducted on beauty gurus could affect not only the content they produce, but also the sponsorships they accept from partnering companies. Their adolescent viewers are developing a sense of identity as they grow up, which makes their self-esteem particularly at risk. I think it is vitally important to understand