Introduction
Humans are arguably storytelling beings, and this is evident in the media that we consume, both in new and traditional avenues. Today, the Internet is an environment of participation and mediated communications. Therefore, I seek to answer the following question: “How does an educational message from a nonexpert gain acceptance through a digital medium?” In this paper, I will examine how the web-based video series “Sanders Sides” created by Thomas Sanders is an excellent case study for Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm theory. Other issues I will analyze in the paper are how mediated communication can be perceived as interpersonal by the audience and how the disclosure of self by an online social media influencer can generate an environment amenable to an audience building parasocial relationships.
This communication artifact in question was created by YouTuber and online media personality Thomas Sanders along with several of his friends. Sanders’s YouTube videos could be classified in the genres of comedy, fantasy, and musical. Sanders is a trained theatre actor and that is a boon to his videos. A key distinctive of this series is the way in which Sanders portrays the main aspects of his personality as characters, including his morality, creativity, logic, and anxiety all himself. In each video, Sanders faces an internal dilemma and explains this to the “Sides.” The various “Sides” (all played by Thomas) appear and give advice, some of which conflicts with the advice of each other. Each Side is color coordinated to one color, focuses on the area of personality most connected to their name, and engages in various levels of friendship or antagonism with the other Sides. Through these conversations, arguments, educational segments, musical numbers, Thomas Sanders finds a solution to his problem and points his audience to educational resources such as mental health websites and topically relevant scholarly articles. As the series progresses, more “Sides” appear to Thomas and talk to him. This suggests a journey of self-discovery and identity as portrayed through media.
The series has two seasons and spans twenty-eight episodes. The first episode of “Sanders Sides” premiered on October 19, 2016 and the latest main series episode was released on June 25, 2019. This YouTube series has garnered a large following online over the last three years with the first video “My True Identity!” currently sitting at 3.3 million views. “My True Identity” was the premiere episode of the Sanders Sides and features the introduction of three of the main Sides: Logic, Creativity, and Morality. The fourth main Side, Anxiety, appeared a few months later, in Episode three “Taking on Anxiety with Lilly Singh." In order to further personify these characters, Sanders gradually revealed their names over the course of the first season. Logic’s name is Logan, Creativity’s name is Roman, Morality’s name is Patton, and Anxiety’s name is Virgil. This journey to knowing the characters helped solidify the audience to return with each new episode.
Literature Review
The literature surrounding my research question is somewhat limited as YouTube is still a relatively young source of media, being founded in 2005. Consequently, the following researchers are among the few who have delved into the personal aspect of YouTuber culture and audience participation. Firstly, theories on the creation of parasocial relationships in the digital realm can aid in investigating the research question at hand because the concept of a parsocial relationship includes the possibility that audiences can accept the nonexpert YouTube personality without knowing them in person.
An analysis by Alexander Rihl and Claudia Wegener examined how theories of parasocial interactions and relationships could be applied to the new phenomena of online video in their article titled “YouTube celebrities and parasocial interaction: Using feedback channels in mediatized relationships” (Rihl and Wegener 555). Applying theories of parasocial relationships to YouTubers is appropriate because YouTube personalities can be classified as prototypes for the creation of such relationships, in that they occupy a similar consideration as talk show hosts, newscasters, and stand-up comedians (Rihl and Wegener 558). These researchers noted that despite that the relationship is largely one-sided with the online personality creating the content for the viewer, audiences have been observed to consider their interactions mutual and personal (Rihl and Wegener 556). Key to building this kind of relationship is the celebrity creating a sense of intimacy and curating a narrative through the sharing of experiences and stories with the viewers (Rihl and Wegener 556). Intimacy plus an engaging narrative creates an emotional bond between the viewer and the video creator. Rihl and Wegener’s study included qualitative questionnaires of young people in Germany who regularly watched YouTube and the results demonstrated that fan’s attachment to the YouTubers was connected to how the video content was integrated to the audience’s daily lives.
Additionally, Patricia Lange describes videos of this kind of mediated digital communication as “videos of affinity.” Affinity is an appropriate name for videos that are geared toward building feelings of connection with both potential and intended viewers (Lange 71). These amateur generated videos stand in contrast to the popular opinion that mediated encounters are cold and difficult to maintain (Lange 72). The author breaks down two separate talking-head YouTube videos that demonstrate a warm feel that invites participation of the audience. Videos of affinity are focused on the present communication and are not necessarily about recording history or how life was at the time of recording (Lange 74). Through several types of verbal and nonverbal cues, the video creator builds a social bond with the viewer and causes the viewer to feel like the primary audience of the conversation. These videos connect viewers into a social network of shared meaning and a wealth of inside references and humor.
Authenticity and originality are also major concerns in the realm of YouTube and YouTube content creators. In “A new authenticity? Communicative practices on YouTube” by Andrew Tolson, the researcher dives into a couple examples of mediated authenticity as it pertains to “vloggers.” Part of Tolson’s contextualization of YouTube compares YouTube’s mode of authenticity to “conversational” broadcast-talk as seen in traditional television (Tolson 278). Tolson often references Burgess and Green, whose extensive writing on YouTube includes a description of the “conversational character” of vlogging and how it is a “distinctly original form of mediated communication” (Tolson 279). Tolson notes that young people use YouTube not only for entertainment but also for instruction. This gives room for the nonexperts to provide videos tutorials of some kind or another and thus be considered as having expertise (Tolson 282). The presentation of the “ordinary expert” is made possible by vlogging and the direct-to-audience nature of this mediated communications (Tolson 283). Authenticity in the context of YouTube vlogging can be found in the direct address, transparent filmmaking process, and the immediacy of the conversational responses of the audience through the comments connected to each video (Tolson 286). Authenticity or the visual cues of authenticity may add to the appeal of YouTube online creators.
Furthermore, participation plays a major role in this mediated communication through a digital medium. Some researchers claim that the emergence of new media will birth a “new communicative paradigm that would replace the many-to-many communicative paradigm” (Carpentier 408). In “Participation Is Not Enough: The Conditions of Possibility of Mediated Participatory Practices,” Carpentier reviews how participation in various points of communication history have differed, from the radio, to the television, to the Internet (Carpentier 410). The Internet has the potential to give more opportunity for participation but the literature on the perspectives of diverse audiences has not seen much action. How the user interacts with the new media deserves more attention from communication scholars and “legitimizes the need for introducing more reception studies into the area of participatory (online) media” (Carpentier 411). The researcher conducted a study that analyzed the responses of people to two kinds of videos, one produced by amateurs while the other was produced by professionals. The results revealed that while the audience liked the realist and authentic “real-life” perspective of amateur filmmakers, they also sought the aesthetic and narrative professional standards upheld by traditional media (Carpentier 417). This could indicate a shift in the how audiences participate and react to nonexpert digital creators.
Explanation of Communication Theory
Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm theory is an interpretive theory in the rhetorical tradition. Fisher believed that all forms of communication that “appeal to our reason are best viewed as stories shaped by history, culture, and character” (Griffin et al. 303). This extreme lens through which Fisher evaluated forms of communication is the “paradigm” aspect of this theory. The conceptual framework of the “paradigm” is an interpretive lens with which to measure the qualities of stories (Griffin et al. 305). The standard scholarly approach to processing information is based on the writings of Aristotle and Plato; Fisher calls this the “rational-world paradigm” (Griffin et al. 306). This mindset places a high value on reason, arguments, the context of the speaking situation, and a view of the world as a series of puzzles to be solved. Fisher rejects all of this.
In “Rationality and Narrative: A Relationship of Priority,” authors Redick and Underwood examine whether narrative came before or after rationality. Despite Fisher’s disagreement with the “rational-world paradigm,” Redick and Underwood find value in assessing how these two elements relate to one another. The authors claim that the “narrative-impulse” pre-exists a recognition of the unique properties of the self and others (Redick and Underwood 397). Self-awareness is necessary not only for reason but also for communicating effective narratives.
Fisher proposes an alternate scale of analysis called the narrative paradigm, “a theoretical framework that views narrative as the basis of all human communication” (Griffin et al. 307). Narrative rationality is “a way to evaluate the worth of stories based on the twin standards of narrative coherence and narrative fidelity” (Griffin et al. 307). In this way, listeners measure how truthful and human the story sounds. Coherence, specifically narrative coherence, concerns how the story hangs together and functions consistently within itself. Narrative fidelity is the quality of a story that connects to the listener by striking an emotional note (Griffin et al 309). When a story’s values match truthful and humane values, the story can serve as a guide for future actions. Actions can be deemed rational when there are good reasons to support those actions. Some parameters for determining good reasons are truth, consistency, and coherence (Redick and Underwood 395). These qualities are determined by the “ideal audience” who put a high value on concepts like justice, order, wisdom, and courage (Griffin et al. 309). A good story is a powerful means of persuasion.
Part of the narrative persuasion of this communication theory relates to identification with the speaker or storytelling. In “Identification as a Mechanism of Narrative Persuasion,” the researchers sought to qualify how the way people listened to a story was affected by how they identified with the characters in the story (de Graaf et al. 802). The researchers mention how identification is the experience by which readers adopt the perspective of a character and see the events through their eyes. Empathy is sparked in this moment of attitude shift and participation (de Graaf et al. 804). According to the authors, identification can adjust one’s existing attitudes to match those of the character in the narrative (de Graaf et al. 817).
In addition to identification, empathy the listener feels toward the narrative and the speaker also draws upon Fisher’s work. In “Narrative Theory and Criticism: An Overview Toward Clusters and Empathy,” the researchers expand on Fisher’s work while bringing more light to the similarities of the grand narratives that form out of many stories. Fisher’s paradigm asserted that narrative is relevant to social and political life, not just moral life (Clair et al. 3). For Fisher and the authors of this article, narrative could be considered the master metaphor of the human experience, in this way “narration subsumes the other proposed models of human rationality” (Clair et al. 3). Since Fisher’s original proposal, research in this field has expanded beyond the focus on an individual’s stories to seek the grand narratives identified by postmodernists (Clair et al. 5). These grand narratives can trickle down to affect the personal narratives of the individual (Clair et al. 5). “Extended narrative empathy requires a continual sense of reflexivity for a fuller understanding to be achieved” (Clair et al. 11). The research thus far could be expanded in the realm of how the quality of stories builds empathy and acceptance of its audience, that which is the focus of this paper.
Application of Communication Theory
Within the Sanders Sides video, Thomas Sanders employs many of the theoretical concepts related to Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm Theory. “Sanders Sides” could be considered analogous to advice columns that appeared in newspapers in the past. In the first episode of the series, Thomas Sanders explains the reason that he made this first video was in response to the many everyday life questions he received from his YouTube audience (Sanders, “My True Identity! | Sanders Sides”). In each video, the character Thomas begins by greeting the audience with his catchphrase “What is up everybody!” before beginning to relate his newest issue directly to the camera. This direct address is given in a way that the audience feels is interpersonal and friendly. Invariably, at least one or more of the “Sides” appears to talk to Thomas, bringing various personality characteristics with them.
In episode seven of Sanders Sides, entitled “The MIND vs. The HEART!,” Sanders reveals to his audience that he has discovered how indecisive a person he really is. In order to confirm his hypothesis, Sanders calls Morality and Logic to join him in his living room. The two Sides appear somewhat taken aback from being summoned but decide to help Thomas anyway. Morality and Logic bicker somewhat about how they each think that they hold the best advice for Thomas. Sanders interrupts them and explains that his heart and his mind fighting each other makes his life harder when he faces important decisions. Morality and Logic decide to compromise and work together to guide Sanders’ actions in the future. The goal in this video is to give an example of how one can balance the competing priorities of the desires of the heart versus those of the mind. Sanders ends the episode with the main takeaway message, “I hope you are all able to find a healthy balance in your lives as well and until next time take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals. Peace out!” (Sanders, The MIND vs. The HEART!).
The narrative coherence of the Sanders Sides videos is evident in the twenty-eight main episodes that cover topics such as growing up, creative stagnation, lying, friendship, nostalgia, and mental health concerns like intrusive thoughts and anxiety attacks. A few of the videos take on the form of a musical rather than a five-person chamber play but all the stories hang together despite the variety in form. The common threads of detail, humor, and factual information about various topics keep the audience satisfied that all these narratives occur in the same universe and exhibit both developing interpersonal ties between the “Sides” and character growth. This can be observed in the shifting role of Virgil over the course of the first season, as he moves from being an adversary to the other characters to becoming part of the collaborative group. Sanders externalizes his acceptance of his anxiety and mental health concerns by crafting a months-long narrative about self-knowledge.
The audience is drawn to the Sanders Sides videos for its appealing qualities of smart humor, home-made aesthetic, endearing characters, moral messages, helpful information, and complex narrative. The “set” of the majority of the videos is a living room and the costumes are homemade as well, lending to the authenticity of Sanders’ message. The audience is able to pick one or multiple Sides to root for in the various debates and arguments. Logan (Logic) embodies Sanders’s logical side and the pursuit of knowledge and Aristotelian reason. Patton (Morality) embodies Sanders’s moral and emotional side and simultaneously represents both a parental figure and the inner child. Roman (Creativity) represents Sanders’ imagination and flights of fancy, particularly related to his love of theatre, acting, and Disney movies. Virgil (Anxiety) is the voice of caution, worry, and protection. By creating lively and distinct characters in his narrative videos, Sanders is able to bring about a sense of identification that his viewers can connect to and value.
Conclusion
Sanders Sides demonstrates how a YouTube-based nonexpert’s educational and entertaining message can gain acceptance through a digital medium. The attention to detail and internal consistency over the course of hundreds of hours of filming and the topics that connect to the everyday lives of the viewers serve as aids to building viewer empathy to Sanders narrative. His conversational tone makes the viewer feel like they are listening to a friend share anecdotes of their life. These findings speak to the ever growing body of research that seeks to identify how narrative is found in both the media and in interpersonal communications. Further research into how young people’s parasocial relationships with online personalities inform their actions is needed, especially in the realm of instruction and expertise. It is established that people go to YouTube to participate in a mediated online community and to be entertained but the educational functions of this platform have not yet been fully explored.
Works Cited
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Sanders, Thomas, director. Taking on ANXIETY with Lilly Singh!! | Sanders Sides. YouTube, YouTube, 19 Dec. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjMxXTCGPu8&list=PLYA7DZ_sbUzvgwABnAVVzxy2zuKJWJnLP&index=3.
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