RT info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis
T1 Affiliation and Body Image in Hashtag Use: A Social Media Critical Discourse Study of Fitness Influencers on YouTube Shorts
A1 Portillo Sánchez, Emelyn Gabriela
A2 Universidad de Valladolid. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
K1 Fitness
K1 YouTube Shorts
K1 Influencer discourse
K1 SM-CDS
K1 Hashtags
K1 Shorts de YouTube
K1 Discurso de influencers
K1 5701.11 Enseñanza de Lenguas
AB Social media has created digital spaces for users to form communities, bond and align with shared values and beliefs. In this context, influencers can be considered stakeholders; as information providers they hold high social status within a particular digital community. Understanding influencers discourse is pertinent to foreground and challenge practices that may be detrimental for users. This is especially relevant in the fitness sphere on YouTube Shorts. Due to the increasing efficiency of Shorts, fitness-related content can be consumed at higher rates and in more persuasive formats. Von Polheim et al.’s (2023) and Ratwatte and Mattacola’s (2019) research on influencer discourse has highlighted health behaviours that may negatively impact users’ dietary and physical habits as well as promote unhealthy body image goals. Still not much research has been done on how hashtags function as discourse markers. Far from being only organising tools, hashtags are discursive in that they spur the formation of communities around specific topics by rendering information clickable. Similarly, hashtags can highlight specific values that circulate within the language of the fitness community. This dissertation aims at studying the functions fitness-related hashtags carry out, and the values transmitted in YouTubers’ discourse from a Social Media Critical Discourse Studies (SM-CDS) approach. Five major categories of hashtags have been identified and labelled into FITNESS, WORKOUT, TARGET, PLACE and OTHERS. The analysis revealed three main affiliative functions: self-representation (e.g., presenting the self as trustworthy), community membership and self-branding. Fitness influencers use these strategies to legitimise their online persona and engage with their followers. The analysis also revealed a discourse formation around appearance-oriented values; even though there are some health and wellbeing-focused practices, weight loss and body image remain forefront in fitness influencer discourse.
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/79718
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/79718
LA eng
NO Departamento de Filología Inglesa
DS UVaDOC
RD 18-dic-2025