García-Rapp, F. (2017). "Come join and let’s BOND": authenticity and legitimacy building on YouTube’s beauty community.

From Digital Culture & Society

Article Review:

García-Rapp, F. (2017). ‘Come join and let’s BOND’: authenticity and legitimacy building on YouTube’s beauty community. Journal of Media Practice, 18(2-3), 120-137. Retrieved from: [1]

By: Natalie Treude

Since the development of the Internet and social media almost everyone and anyone can claim celebrity status, but most only get their 15 minutes of fame. For others, such as Youtube or Instagram stars, that 15 minutes can last for years. How do these online celebrities keep their status and how do these people get to the point where they become authentic and legitimate? In García-Rapp’s article “‘Come join and let’s BOND’: authenticity and legitimacy building on YouTube’s beauty community” all these questions are discussed and answered. She focuses on authenticity and how legitimate Youtube stars (beauty bloggers) can be in relation to selling products on their channels. There are some that are extremely successful and some that fall flat. It is the way they present themselves and the way the audience perceives these online celebrities that can be the distinguishing factor.

The viewers are important in this article as the Uses and Gratifications Theory can be applied. This is when people choose certain media in order to satisfy their specific needs. Online celebrities (beauty bloggers) who have had more than 15 minutes of fame bring skills, talent and creativity that have certain long-lasting benefits, such as entertainment, knowledge, self-reflexivity, motivation and inspiration for their viewers to go to in order to satisfy their viewers’ needs and allow them to identify with these celebrities. These celebrities are satisfying their viewers’ needs by providing them with tips, tutorials, blogs/vlogs, Etc., and while doing this they are able to sell products (usually beauty products) in order to fulfill viewers’ needs with products that will enhance their lives.

This article used a multi-year ethnographic approach in order to understand Youtube’s beauty community while focusing on one in particular, Bubzbeauty, run by a British-Chinese beauty guru named Bubz. They wanted to look at the community around her such as her audience, followers, and fans. Bubz is analyzed in order to find out what legitimates her and how she is found to be authentic. There are certain requirements like expertise and effort that play a role in legitimacy and authenticity. Online celebrities need self-presentation and engagement with brands and viewers in order to be successful, but without losing who they are and their own personal identity. This was found to be the biggest value inside Bubz beauty community.

When discussing authenticity and legitimacy, García-Rapp thinks when things are overly advertised in beauty videos it could seem unauthentic and/or illegitimate as followers assume the celebrity was paid to say those things. The most important requirement to achieve legitimized fame seems to be expertise and talent, demonstrated by beauty related know-hows during video tutorials. Also, it is important to imitate mainstream celebrity culture and to visually highlight aspects such as luxury and glamour in order to be successful as an online celebrity. These were a few of the skills that were examined and that Bubz has demonstrated in order for her Youtube community to believe she is both authentic and legitimate.

One of the major strengths of this article is that it identifies a new type of issue that can evolve from this new online platform since almost anyone can become famous online nowadays. A lot of people online can be illegitimate nor authentic in their content and when selling products just to scam viewers for profit. This has always been an issue when it comes to marketing, but with the development of the Internet this has increased dramatically and many people are getting scammed by who they think are legitimate and authentic. It was important for García-Rapp to address this issue in this new digital age and to inform online users on what to look for when viewing content made by online celebrities.

A weakness that came from this article is the fact that García-Rapp only discussed one Youtuber and their community. I understand that they conducted an ethnographic analysis, but this article could have been strengthened by analyzing other online celebrities and their communities. García-Rapp could have looked at Bubz's other online platforms as well or other people that are famous off of Instagram. This analysis felt very one-sided and I would have liked to see examples of online celebrities who were not authentic and legitimate and what their communities had to say. Not that this piece was biased, but I feel like the author knew what she wanted to say and found the information from a subjective point of view.

Overall, García-Rapp did an excellent job of discussing a new issue that has risen due to the digital age and the new phenomena of the online celebrity. Marketers are using anyone who has a platform to get their products out and we, as online users and an audience, want to and need to know who and what are authentic and legitimate. The research found in this article did give great context for what these people look like and how they sell products in a truthful way, but more research will have to be conducted on different online celebrities and their platforms in order to have a varied opinion and stance on the matter.