All in One: Digital Influencers as Market Agents of Popular Culture

Abstract

Purpose

Considering the growing relevance of digital influencers in consumer practices and the emergence of Brazil as one of the main popular culture markets in the world, this study aims to understand how Brazilian popular culture digital influencer channels produce paratexts that complement and broaden the consumption experience of media texts.

Theoretical framework

Digital influencers operate as consumption mediators through the notions of marketplace ideologies and agencies established by media discourses, grounded by the Foucauldian Theory of Knowledge and the Theory of Paratextuality.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Foucauldian discourse analysis the research analyzes 4,006 video thumbnails posted between January 2017 and July 2019 from the top-five Brazilian YouTube channels specialized in popular culture and the entertainment industry.

Findings

The identified discursive formations point to three ideological positions taken by the digital influencer channels: as press, analytically resonating the entertainment industry; as fans, touting popular culture to a captive audience; and as promoters, assuming a marketing role in demand development. Altogether, these discourses evidence an episteme founded in market agency.

Practical & social implications of research

The study proposes an important theoretical insight, since digital influencers evidence an overlap of roles performed as market agents (e.g., consumers, producers, mediators), which are often well demarcated by the literature. Specifically, it evokes an ethical reflection on such conduct and reverberates their actions in authoring popular culture, bringing light to both social and practical concerns about it. Furthermore, the study also presents as a practical implication the importance of digital influencers in inducing consumption practices through their discourses.

Originality/value

The study addresses the conception of paratextual production as an interdisciplinary theoretical dialogue for the Consumer Culture Theory research tradition.

Keywords:
Digital influencers; paratext; marketplace ideologies; media; Foucauldian discourse analysis