Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2018

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

Lehua Ledbetter University of Rhode Island

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.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2018-10-02
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2018.1518950
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Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis social media
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Bjork (2025)
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CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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