Vlogging on YouTube: the online, political engagement of young Canadians advocating for social change

Youth are often perceived as passive and disengaged from civic and political life. However, many researchers have countered such discourses of youth passivity and isolation, highlighting young people's active and interactive political engagement through less traditional outlets, especially onli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of youth studies 2018-04, Vol.21 (4), p.495-512
Main Authors: Raby, Rebecca, Caron, Caroline, Théwissen-LeBlanc, Sophie, Prioletta, Jessica, Mitchell, Claudia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
agency
Disengagement
Inequality
Internet
Political factors
Political participation
politics
Poststructuralism
Social change
social media
Virtual reality
Youth
YouTube
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Summary:Youth are often perceived as passive and disengaged from civic and political life. However, many researchers have countered such discourses of youth passivity and isolation, highlighting young people's active and interactive political engagement through less traditional outlets, especially online. In this article, we are influenced by a poststructural orientation to agency to identify themes across the social change-oriented YouTube channels of eighteen young Canadians. The themes we have identified counter a dominant focus on youth civic disengagement, political apathy, and isolation, instead highlighting the diverse political issues young Canadian vloggers address, the strategies they use, their multiple subjectivities, the interaction and support of their online community, and the relevance of inequality. We show how YouTube has become an important venue for the production and dissemination of youth perspectives.
ISSN:1367-6261
1469-9680
DOI:10.1080/13676261.2017.1394995