Cultural Capital in the Digital Age. The YouTuber Online Persona

Abstract

Abstract In this essay, we will examine if and how Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory can be applied to the YouTuber online persona and if any significant alterations could point towards the consideration of a new form of capital – digital capital. We will also be looking at how a YouTuber persona and its capital can be transferred and used in different environments and situations. We aim to examine how one’s online persona is becoming just as, if not more important than one’s real-life actions, managing to overcome punitive measures (inauthenticity aversion) usually applied to inauthentic forms of capital. We will take into account how the embodied, objectified, and institutionalized cultural capital can be found in YouTuber personas, but are being altered by the online environment, by exposure, by the algorithms used by the platform, by ‘internet history’. With the help of these alterations, the forms of capital associated with the online persona – in this case the YouTuber persona – have transcended the classic definitions of cultural capital. These developments can be analyzed and further explored in several fields, such as personal branding.