Browsing by Author "Airola, Ella"

The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of consumption of groceries as entertainment among adolescents on YouTube. The first data-collection phase was led by answering the question, what kind of phenomenon is grocery consumption as reflected on the adolescents' YouTube videos. In the second data-collection phase, the aim was to find out what kind of symbolic meanings of consumption adolescents emphasize on the YouTube videos. The theoretical background was built on a group of concepts based on Maula's (1995) pattern on formation of the environment of grocery consumption. Data analysis is based on the contrasting symbolic meanings of consumption: utilitarianism vs. hedonism and egoism vs. altruism. The study is a multi-method study in which the data were collected and analyzed in two phases so that the first set of data formed the basis for the second acquisition and analysis of the data. The first phase was netnografic. Web environment was used as field of observation instead of a physical environment. The data consisted of vlog-type YouTube Finnish-spoken videos uploaded by adolescents aged 14–26 years. The data consisted of 50 videos from 32 different YouTubers. Videos were uploaded to YouTube during years 2013–2016. Four videos analyzed were selected to the second phase of the study. In this phase the data were produced as a learning assignment where the researcher was in the teacher's role. The learning assignment was carried out in the lesson of pupils on the 8th grade (24 pupils). After watching each example video, the students produced a mind map about their thoughts and ideas as a group. Seven mind maps were produced for each video. The results of the first phase show that grocery consumption on YouTube videos of adolescents were predominantly hedonistic and egoistic. This suggests that grocery consumption on the YouTube videos follows the real world: people seem basically to be egoistic and consumption in the society is to a large extent hedonistic. In the second phase, the students mainly emphasized the same symbolic meanings in their mind maps as were recorded in the first phase of the study. However, in the first phase, one of the example videos was seen as altruistic, and in the second phase, judged by pupils, as egoistic. This result implies that adolescent see YouTubers' behavior on the videos more egoistic than altruistic. Previous studies show that adolescents define their self-image by media, so it seems natural that in the eyes of adolescents, the behavior of YouTubers is emphasized. The results of this study can be applied in consumer and media education of adolescents.