'I wanted to share with you some of my healthy habits': YouTubers' staging of health-related practices

Professional YouTubers have become highly popular in producing video content through self-mediation. Objective. The present article aimed to study ways in which lifestyle YouTubers construct health practices in their videos within the YouTube media culture. Design. We conducted a narrative and visua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology & health 2024, Vol.39 (1), p.68-90
Main Authors: del Rio Carral, María, Volpato, Lucia, Michoud, Chloé
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
critical health psychology
Exercise
Female
Habits
Health behaviours
healthism
Humans
Influencer marketing
Life Style
Male
Narration
narrative methods
postfeminism
Social Media
Social networks
social practices
visual methods
YouTubers
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Summary:Professional YouTubers have become highly popular in producing video content through self-mediation. Objective. The present article aimed to study ways in which lifestyle YouTubers construct health practices in their videos within the YouTube media culture. Design. We conducted a narrative and visual analysis across a selection of 15 videos. Results. Results showed that YouTubers' practices and recommendations for a better life were structured around three themes: Eating to live well; Exercising to live well; Resting to live well and, a fourth cross-cutting theme on Practices aimed at self-development to achieve health and happiness. YouTubers were mainly female presenting, as well as middle/upper-class and white appearing. An overall optimistic tone characterised their health stories, as they delivered personal experiences of success on becoming healthy, happy, and better persons, while encouraging viewers to act similarly. Our findings suggested that YouTubers actively contribute to construct unprecedented definitions of health, enhanced by the social media culture and broader societal logics of healthism and postfeminism. Conclusion. Our study constitutes an original contribution to critical health psychology by examining some of the paradoxes raised by social media influencers like YouTubers regarding health and wellbeing.
ISSN:0887-0446
1476-8321
DOI:10.1080/08870446.2022.2057495