影音分享平台上的情感經濟與勞動： YouTube微名人的實踐

YouTube如今已發展成極具經濟價值與商業氣息的視覺利基市場，更影響當代名人文化的改變。造就「人人都是微名人」（microcelebrity）的社群景觀，使得以注意力、名聲、人氣及影響力為本的情感經濟蓬勃興盛。而此平台有一個值得關注的影片形式：影像部落格，它是透過影像傳遞親密感與真實的影音分享格式，內容取材於自己的生活。當這個看似每個人都擁有的「生活本身」成為一種創作的生產原料，對於這些在螢光幕前販賣、展示自己生活的創作者來說，有什麼影響。他們身處在此種生產模式中又面臨了哪些困境和勞苦？人們普遍認為影像部落格易於製作且門檻低，如「他們有什麼好辛苦的？」是研究者在跟親友分享研究主題時，最常收到的回應。此種刻板印象的回應代表了影音創作者的勞動不受重視甚至被忽視與邊緣化的程度。據此背景，本研究使用網路民族誌作為研究方法，以參與觀察法與深度訪談法進行資料搜集，並輔以Bourdieu的實踐理論所發展出的理論架構進行分析，提出名聲資本作為情感勞動的產物。藉由觀察這些「正在YouTube道路上」的人，他們在累積經營籌碼的路上做了何種犧牲、付出與變化，探問名聲作為勞動成果的衡量並且支配場域位置所帶來的問題。研究結果發現情感勞動在很大的程度直接生產資本，且名聲資本更賦予肯認自我價值的魔力。在情感的作用之下使勞動行為隱含成為微名人固有的內在動力。其次，YouTube平台累積資本的關鍵來自於剩餘價值的佔有，微名人為了生存於此，必須在被剝削的前提下，玩這場競逐名聲的遊戲。最後，YouTube上的微名人事實上是每個社群使用者的縮影，影像部落格更是社群媒體帶給日常生活的影響與商品化的呈現。將當代的微名人的實踐與充斥在日常生活中的社交媒體實踐進行對話，了解當代社會使用社群媒體的人們每天的生活和歸屬方式。

關鍵字

YouTube ；情感勞動；微名人；名聲資本；商品化

並列摘要

Booming niche marketing opportunities on YouTube has not only added high commercial value to the media platform but impacted the celebrity culture in the contemporary era. The emergence of microcelebrities results in the thriving of reputation-oriented affective economies, and video blogging (Vlog) is one of the types that stand among the rest. A vlog makes it possible for a vlogger to connect with the audiences by delivering any information via online videos, for instance sharing everyday experience. However, vloggers can undergo numerous difficulties from productizing their life as life itself seemingly becomes a material at everyone’s fingertips. “What can be so hard about it?” is the most common comment on the topic of content creator. It is exactly the stereotypical response that indicates how unappreciated their works are, and furthermore the marginalization of the media platform society. The thesis adopts netnography as the research methodology, collect data through participatory observation and in-depth interviews, analyze the data using Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, and bring forward that fame capital is the reward of the affective labor. In an empirical manner, the thesis describes what microcelebrities on YouTube have sacrificed in exchange of their business prosperity and elaborates on fame being the dominant reward in the field position. The research reveals that to a large extent affective labor directly brings in fame capital, which grants one the power of self-worth; under the influence of affection, labor behavior implicitly becomes the inherent motivation of micro celebrities. Additionally, the key to capital accumulation is the possession of surplus value. In order to stay in the reputation game, microcelebrities are forced to accept the exploitation. Microcelebrities on YouTube is essentially the reflection of the entire platform. Among all, vlog is the symbol that social media has commercialized our life. The research introduces how contemporary microcelebrity practice intertwines with the practices on social media we experienced in our daily life.