Last friday March 2^nd, CritiCC's member Florencia Anabel García Rapp defended her PhD thesis, which title is The Digital Media Phenomenon of Youtube Beaty Gurus: The Case of Bubzbeauty. The thesis has been supervised by Carles Roca. 

Abstract: This thesis is submitted as a compilation of five publications. With the aim of contributing to the theorizing of digital media culture and practices, I explore the current phenomenon of online popularity as exemplified by influential personalities like YouTube beauty gurus. The study focuses on a popular beauty content producer, Bubz, and her channel Bubzbeauty.

Looking at content, meaning, and interactions through qualitative, ethnographically-oriented research, the thesis sheds light into the politics of success of YouTube’s beauty community. I examine content characteristics and affordances for the creation and maintenance of viewers’ attention. I conceptualize community-specific norms that guide practices, particularly those related to self-presentation and identity-management and their implications for everyday celebrity practice. In addition, the value of her celebrity position as well as the uses of her content for the purposes of inspiration, creativity and identity work are thematized.