Home
biographies, autobiographies & memoirs
young adult nonfiction
social sciences
performing arts
YouTubers

YouTubers

How YouTube Shook Up TV and Created a New Generation of Stars

by Chris Stokel-Walker

Imprint: Canbury Press

352 Pages, 5.1 x 7.8 in

Paperback
9781912454228
July 2021
In Stock

$9.99

Buy

Hardcover
9781912454211
May 2019
In Stock

$10.00

Buy

Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

‘For anyone trying to understand the bonkers world of YouTube, this is essential reading.’ – ESQUIRE

‘Both absorbing and highly illuminating’ – THE BOOKSELLER

‘No one understands the intricacies of YouTube like Chris Stokel-Walker’ – THE ATLANTIC

Two billion people now watch YouTube, yet its stars are a mystery to the general public and media. What is the secret of their appeal? How do they cope with being in front of the lens? And who is behind their success?

More than 100 insiders laid bare the reality of their lives for this, the first in-depth independent book on YouTube. It charts the platform's rise from single home video to global boom – while getting the facts on brand deals, burnout and authenticity.

This is an ideal guide for anyone in universities, media or marketing who needs to understand YouTube professionally, and of course those who want to make it as a YouTuber.

By the author of TikTok Boom: China's Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media.

PART I

POWER AND BEGINNINGS

1. Uploading: Casey Neistat and the power of YouTube

2. Jake Paul: cars, money, and a burning swimming pool

3. Me At the Zoo: Jawed Karim and the worst video of all time

4. Viral comedy: YouTube laughs all the way to the bank

5. Grace Helbig and the first stars of vlogging

6. From Russia to Latin America: YouTube goes global

PART II

ENGINE ROOM: HOW YOUTUBE WORKS

7. The Algorithm: YouTube’s secret formula

8. Policing YouTube: extremism and the Adpocalypse

9. Sponsored content: the tale of Dodie Clark and Heinz beans

PART III

CHARTING THE STARS

10. Know your YouTube: elite, macro-influencer and micro-influencer

11. Elite influencers: fighting their way to the top

12. Child stars: meet MattyB, who gets two million views a day

13. Macro-influencers: beauty, crime and DIY

14. Micro-influencers: speaking to a devoted audience

PART IV

BEHIND THE SCENES: SNAPSHOTS

15. Summer in the City: a gathering of the influencers

16. Collaboration: Sapphire builds a career

17. Management: Sarah Weichel, star agent

18. Training camp: with the 11-year-old YouTubers

19. YouTube school: with the adult entrepreneurs

PART V

CAUGHT IN THE MACHINE

20. Pranks for views: why Monalisa Perez shot her boyfriend

21. Authenticity: the fourth wall for YouTubers

22. Burnout: slaves to the algorithm

23. Fanatical fans: obsessive relationships

PART VI

THE BATTLE FOR CONTROL

24. YouTubers found a union

25. Patreon: seeking independent support

26. Merchandise: from books to pop sockets

PART VII

THE FUTURE: YOUTUBE v TV

27. Invasion of the Hollywood stars

28. Is YouTube killing traditional TV?

29. Online video war: YouTube v Facebook

PART VIII

CONCLUSION

30. A flawed winner

Glossary

Acknowledgements

Notes

Index

Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist whose work regularly appears in WIRED, The Economist and Newsweek. He is known for breaking major news about YouTube and often reports on the site for television, radio and podcasts. For YouTubers he has travelled around the world, attending YouTube events and speaking to behind-the-camera producers and power- brokers, including key creators KSI, Hank and John Green, Emma Blackery, and many others.

No one understands the intricacies of YouTube like Chris Stokel-Walker. His reporting on the platform and its creators has been ground breaking and unparalleled. ~The Atlantic

For anyone trying to understand the bonkers world of YouTube, this is essential reading . Full of entertaining dispatches from the front line of streaming, Stokel-Walker has written the preeminent guide to the new celebrity world - and what it means for the rest of us ~Esquire

Brilliant, witty and extraordinary... This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to truly understand the future of media, as well as the internet itself. ~MEL Magazine

If you want to understand the inner workings of your favourite YouTube influencers, or perhaps if you want to understand why your children are always talking about them, you should read this book. It is smart, sweeping, and significant. ~Youtube--Simon Clark

I am one of the many people Stokel-Walker interviewed for this first independent look at the world's biggest video site.

The title charts YouTube's meteoric rise from a single home video, explores its ecosystem, and attempts to explain what lies behind the extraordinary success of vloggers such as KSI, PewDiePie, Zoella and Logan Paul.

It's both absorbing and highly illuminating.
~The Bookseller