The Rhetorical Work of YouTube’s Beauty Community: Relationship- and Identity-Building in User-Created Procedural Discourse

ABSTRACT

This study investigates YouTube’s beauty community, an online group of women who make videos about makeup products and techniques. The videos contain makeup application instructions and challenge ideas about what is “usable” procedural discourse. They sometimes defy conventions for high production quality. Moreover, storytelling and instruction are integral to the rhetorical work of these tutorials. For the diverse groups in this community, procedural discourse also serves as a means of establishing credibility not otherwise afforded to them, as well as opportunities for identity- and relationship building.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital technologies
• feminist theory
• instructional technology
• research methods
• usability studies

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lehua Ledbetter

Lehua Ledbetter is an assistant professor of writing and rhetoric at the University of Rhode Island. Her areas of research interest include technical and professional communication, research methodologies, feminist and cultural rhetorics, and programmatic development.