The (in)visibility of the black female youtuber

Abstract

Discussing under the intersectional bias, the article seeks to expose the problem of media invisibility of black women youtubers within the context of participatory culture. We identified and observed channels of female youtubers from the cut of the themes of feminism and female empowerment, and we conducted a descriptive study with quantitative and qualitative approach, analyzing the approximations and distances of the channels from the reach, interaction and thematic categories. It is concluded that black youtubers interact more significantly than non-black youtubers, which does not interfere with the range of the channels, as black youtubers have lower range data than non-black youtubers. We note that even though it can reach all women, the black youtubers’ speeches can be understood with focus on the racial issue, meanwhile, we identified a universal discourse of ‘being a woman’ in the non-black youtubers speeches, a factor that can contribute to the expressive reach.