Los géneros audiovisuales en la producción de los booktubers : un análisis cuantitativo

Abstract

Using Bakhtin's concept of genre (1982), this article presents a quantitative analysis of the most popular genres among the productions of Spanish-speaking BookTubers (book + YouTubers). Its aim is to determine which discursive forms are the most dominant in their productions and the repercussions of these audiovisual genres among their audience through quantitative indicators of popularity (views, likes/dislikes/comments). For this, we quantify the presence of audiovisual genres using a random sample of videos posted in 2017 (n = 368) using digital methods, thus obtaining quantitative popularity indicators (number of views, comments, likes, and dislikes). Evidence shows that BookTubers are able to use a wide variety of audiovisual genres that come both from other YouTubers (like vlogs, challenges, hangouts, hauls, or unboxings) and from other media (reviews, rankings, lists, interviews). Most prominent in our analysis corpus are the review, the list, and the wrap-up, which fit a traditional recommendation function; however, the most popular among their audiences, in terms of views, comments, and likes, are BookTubers’ thematic selections of several books, like the lists, the rankings or the wrap-ups. This reinforces the curatorial value of their work as reading mediators.

Keywords

• spain
• audiovisual documents
• virtual communities
• reading promotion