Literacy and literary learning on BookTube through the lenses of Latina BookTubers

Abstract

In this study, we examine various aspects of BookTubers' literacy practices, regarding the personal and social factors that lead readers to devote themselves to the BookTube community, the elements that BookTubers consider as they create and publish video book reviews and the sort of literary learning this digital literacy practice entails. For this purpose, narrative interviews were conducted with six BookTubers, five of them from Latin America and one from Spain. Their answers offer insights into the motivations and unique types of learning that come together in this literary practice. A qualitative analysis of the interviews shows that affective engagement with books is a singular feature of BookTubers' understanding of reading culture and that literary video reviews are created in a complex bricolage process where resources, skills and knowledge are mobilised and develop, both aspects also being associated with the development of an online social reading identity. In addition, an ecological approach to analysing literacy and literary learning in the BookTuber culture points to the importance of framing video book reviews as a didactic resource with considerable potential to bring new learning practices to in-school literary education.