B.2.3. Ethics
4. Video Analysis
response (e.g. in the case of sub-standard police work), as well as the YouTuber’s conceptualization of the viewer as someone willing to promote social cohesion by actively trying to solve cases27. The viewers’ responses to these conceptualizations will also be discussed, in view of the Top 5 Comments analysis.
Finally, the “Ethics” journalistic value shall refer to whether sensationalist (both verbal and non-verbal) framing, and self-branding that overpowers the narrative at the expense of providing key information, take place. Of particular interest will be whether the YouTuber’s entrepreneurial side is taking over the video presentation or not.
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the Black Dahlia. The following table contains a brief introduction on the content creators whose videos will be discussed.
Table 9. Content Creators.
YouTuber
Host(s) / Content Creator(s)
Series Entrepreneurial Distinctions
Ryan Bergara has graduated from Chapman University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Television and Broadcast Journalism.
Shane Madej has graduated from Columbia College in Chicago with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Television (with a concentration in Editing and Post-Production).
BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime is a True Crime docutainment web series created by host Ryan Bergara for BuzzFeed. The series first appeared on YouTube, and finished in July 2021 after 8 seasons, having become successful enough to start streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime in 2018. On YouTube it is currently featured on the BuzzFeed Unsolved Network channel.
Bergara and Madej are also co-hosts of the BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural episodes -another creation of Bergara-, which features the same dynamic between the two (Bergara presenting the case and Madej making comedic commentary as he first learns about it as the episode is being filmed), albeit with a paranormal rather than True Crime theme, as the name suggests. The BuzzFeed Unsolved franchise has collectively amassed approximately 990 million views.
In 2020, the duo went on to launch their own production studio, Watcher Entertainment, alongside co-founder Steven Lim, who is another former BuzzFeed creator-host.
Bailey Sarian is a professional makeup artist who pioneered the True Crime & Makeup genre on YouTube.
Murder, Mystery & Makeup is a series created by Bailey Sarian.
Sarian, whose 6.5 million subscribers channel experienced a massive increase during the
Murder, Mystery & Makeup is currently available as an Audioboom podcast. In June of 2021, Sarian debuted her Audioboom original podcast Dark
Sarian’s most watched Murder, Mystery and Makeup video (“Jeffrey Dahmer. Inside His Messed Up Mind & How He Almost Got Away. Mystery
& Makeup | Bailey Sarian” – 23 million views), is the most viewed YouTube True Crime content on Jeffrey Dahmer, even surpassing the serial killer’s own jailhouse interview (“Inside the Mind of Jeffrey Dahmer: Serial Killer’s Chilling Jailhouse Interview” – 17.7 million views).
2020 pandemic (from 780,000 to 3.5 million28 by the end of the year), presents True Crime cases while doing her makeup in 35 minute long videos (on average).
History, which went on to win best podcast in the 2021 YouTube Streamy Awards. Sarian currently makes the most of the YouTube video and podcast combination, as video episodes of Dark History are being released on Sarian’s YouTube channel, a day after their Audioboom release.
Antphrodite (real name Anthony, last name unknown) is a YouTuber who pioneered Tarot card content on Twitch.
His background as a Twitch live streamer is traceable in the overlay style of his YouTube videos and their unedited (long take) format.
He describes himself as a
“sassy psychic mixing tarot with modern internet culture”29.
True Crime Psychic Readings is Antphrodite’s playlist collection of the True Crime Tarot readings he has done so far -other playlists include “Celebrity Psychic Readings”, “K-Pop Psychic Readings” and “Pick A Card Readings”, to name but a few-.
Antphrodite typically does tarot card readings on/about people who are not physically present in his videos (e.g.
celebrities, influencers, viewers, etc.).
Antphrodite pioneered Tarot card content on Twitch and, as a result, earned the coveted distinction of Twitch Ambassador in 201930. Currently, his most popular YouTube video is his True Crime “Madeleine McCann Reading” (380k views).
The discourse analysis findings from the three videos (“The Chilling Black Dahlia Murder Revisited” from YouTube channel BuzzFeed Unsolved Network, “The Mysterious Black Dahlia Unsolved Case – Who May Have Done It?! Mystery & Makeup | Bailey Sarian” from YouTube channel Bailey Sarian, and “Who Killed the Black Dahlia?! | PSYCHIC READING” from YouTube
28 Jordan, D. (2022, July 23). Bailey Sarian: La mujer que triunfa en youtube hablando de crímenes de la vida real mientras se maquilla. BBC News Mundo. Retrieved August 4, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-62274524.
29 From his YouTube channel description: https://www.youtube.com/c/antphrodite/about.
30 “Ambassadors”. (n.d.). Twitch. Retrieved August 4, 2022, from https://www.twitch.tv/team/ambassadors.
channel Antphrodite), will be comparatively presented in the following segment, in the a) Video Title, b) Video Description, and c) Video (overall recording) subchapters, with a view to highlighting how content creators present a True Crime case, in terms of representational choices, self-branding methods, and entrepreneurial strategies.
a) Video Title
Table 10. Video Titles.
Video Title Series / Playlist Host(s)
“The Chilling Black Dahlia Murder Revisited” BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime
Ryan
& Shane
“The Mysterious Black Dahlia Unsolved Case – Who May Have Done It?! Mystery & Makeup | Bailey
Sarian”
Murder Mystery & Makeup Bailey Sarian
“Who Killed the BLACK DAHLIA?! PSYCHIC READING” True Crime Psychic Readings Antphrodite
Introduction
YouTube video titles are extremely important metadata for overall video performance, because viewers only see the video’s title and thumbnail before clicking on it. For this reason, including word-for-word keywords in the title has traditionally been considered to be optimal for SEO31. Nevertheless, YouTube currently has a more sophisticated system that allows for semantic search, resulting in a reduced correlation between keyword optimized titles and
31 Search Engine Optimization.
rankings32. I begin the video analysis by examining the video titles, in order to determine the strategies that innovative YouTubers have developed for initially attracting viewer attention.
First of all, what immediately stands out is that the Infotainment paradigm and Bailey Sarian have developed their own brand-specific formulas favoring specific vocabulary, syntax and self-promotion techniques. In the Infotainment paradigm the video title draws attention to the previous, Season 1 episode on the same topic (“Revisited”)33. That being said, there are no links at the beginning, ending, or description segment of either video connecting it to its counterpart, and the titles themselves differ as well (“The Chilling Mystery Of The Black Dahlia”
vs “The Chilling Black Dahlia Murder Revisited”).
The video title follows one of the two standard BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime styles:
“The” + generic sensational adjective + the unique identifier of the case + noun
Examples:
o “The Bizarre Collar Bomb Bank Robbery”
o “The Unusual Australian Shark Arm Murders”
o “The Horrifying Texarkana Phantom Killer”
, whereas the alternative BuzzFeed style follows the formula:
“The” + generic sensational adjective + noun + of + person(s)
32 Dean, B. (2017, February 28). We analyzed 1.3 million YouTube videos. Here's what we learned about YouTube SEO. Backlinko. Retrieved August 4, 2022, from https://backlinko.com/youtube-ranking-factors.
33 BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime ran for a total of 8 seasons, beginning in February 2016 and ending in July 2021.
However, the first eight episodes are atypical of the series’ signature format which becomes solidified in terms of editing by the end of season 1, in the sense that only in episode 8 does video length reach the 20-minute mark (the average video duration of the episodes), and that the hosts for the first eight episodes are Ryan Bergara (presenter from 2016 to 2021) and Brent Bennett (presenter only for the first eight episodes). For the rest of the series, R.
Bergara and Shane Madej (presenter from 2016 to 2021) are hosting the show. Because the first Black Dahlia episode falls under the atypical episodes (8 min. duration, hosted by Bergara and Bennett, shooting while driving to location, etc.) and is acknowledged as such by host Ryan Bergara (“it was a little shorter because it was one of the first episodes”), the analysis only concerns the Season 4 episode (episode 9, “The Chilling Black Dahlia Murder Revisited”).
Examples:
o “The Puzzling Case of Marilyn and Sam Sheppard”
o “The Unexplained Murder of Bugsy Siegel”
o “The Eerie Case of the Watcher”
o “The Bizarre Death of Alfred Loewenstein”
In Bailey Sarian’s case, the title follows her Murder, Mystery & Makeup YouTube series formula according to which the series’ name (“Mystery & Makeup”) and her own name (“Bailey Sarian”) are added after the episode-specific part of the title. Sarian frequently uses questions in her video titles, encouraging viewer discussion/participation through the discursive introduction of alternative interpretations; Note for example,
o “The Mad Butcher, Cleveland Torso Killer – Still Unsolved?? Mystery and Makeup | Bailey Sarian”,
o “The Corn Rake Mystery – A Farmer Attacks Or Wrongly Accused? | Mystery & Makeup – Bailey Sarian”,
o “The Comic Book Creator Gone Mad?? Trust Fund Killer – Blake Leibel Mystery & Makeup
| Bailey Sarian”,
o “Brainwashed? A Deal Gone Wrong? Manson Mystery & Makeup | Bailey Sarian”.
In Antphrodite’s case, his psychic readings are organized in playlists, rather than deliberately marketed web series. This choice is also reflected in his video titles, which are less uniform and typically have “PSYCHIC READING” added in the end (e.g. “Is LOCH NESS MONSTER Real?!
PSYCHIC READING”, “Summer Wells UPDATE PSYCHIC READING”, “Alec Baldwin RUST Shooting CONSPIRACY SOLVED by PSYCHIC & LAWYER?!”). The video is featured in Antphrodite’s “True Crime Psychic Readings” YouTube playlist, which includes videos with “Psychic Tarot Readings on True Crime, Murder Cases, Missing Persons and Tragedies”34. Note, however, that, like
34 From his playlist description:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxCEVV8vOhiGKpMKfshv91tWHX3XIWukS.
Sarian, Antphrodite uses a question mark followed by an exclamation point (?!) when phrasing a question about the perpetrator’s identity, suggesting that an element of shock is to be expected, when discussing the potential answers.
Actors
The Black Dahlia is an actor in all three video titles. In the Infotainment paradigm, it is not obvious that the Black Dahlia is the victim, either suggesting that the case is notorious/culturally enduring enough for the viewer to be aware of it regardless, or that the viewer is expected to be familiar with the case from having watched the previous, BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime Season 1 video on the case (or both). The posthumous, given-by-the-Press moniker (Black Dahlia), rather than the person’s real name (Elizabeth Short) is used, which, in addition to the sensational adjective “chilling” and the discursive connection with a “murder”, suggests that the pop-culture phenomenon and media sensation construct will be of interest in the “Black Dahlia” representation.
In Sarian’s title, the posthumous, given-by-the-Press moniker (Black Dahlia), rather than the person’s real name (Elizabeth Short) is used and discursively associated with an “unsolved case”. Since the nature of the case (murder? abduction? robbery? etc.) is not alluded to at all, it is not obvious that the Black Dahlia is a person. This suggests that the case is notorious/culturally enduring enough for the viewer to be aware of it regardless.
In Anphrodite’s title, the Black Dahlia is presented as a murder victim and, once again, the posthumous, given-by-the-Press moniker (Black Dahlia), rather than the person’s real name (Elizabeth Short) is used. In comparison with the other two titles, the Black Dahlia is decisively a person who is “killed”, suggesting that Antphrodite won’t differentiate between the “mythos”
and “person” representations.
Sarian and Antphrodite both opt for a question in their title, thereby drawing attention to the perpetrator as well. In Sarian’s case, the reference to an unknown perpetrator further emphasizes that the crime -whichever it may be- is still unsolved. It is not obvious what
happened or to whom, but the perpetrator is specifically referred to as having “done”
something and gotten away with it (“Unsolved Case”), which suggests that a lot of discursive space will be dedicated to discussing possible suspects.
In Antphrodite’s title, the reference to an unknown perpetrator also emphasizes the unsolved status of the case and suggests what the host’s/viewer’s role will be (to find out who was the perpetrator).
Out of the three video titles, Bailey Sarian’s is the only one explicitly mentioning the name of the content creator; her full name is presented after the series name (“Mystery & Makeup”) in a standardized format, suggesting that the last part of the video title serves as a signature and that she has sole creative control over the video production.
Language & Rhetoric
In the Infotainment paradigm, the use of passive voice (“revisited”), draws attention to the existence of a previous episode on the same subject, and creates expectations for potential breakthroughs or new information about the case. The viewer is expected to have some knowledge of the case.
Certain morphological similarities are apparent between the video titles of the two innovative “amateur” YouTubers. In Sarian’s case, the video title can be divided into two parts with two sentences or phrases in each: The two sentences in the first part introduce the case (“The Mysterious Black Dahlia Unsolved Case”) and invite the viewer to start thinking of the post-video discussion (note the modal verb in “Who may have done it?!), whereas the two phrases in the second part serve as a signature, emphasizing Sarian’s brand (“Mystery &
Makeup”) and creative control over the video.
Attention is drawn to the perpetrator, who is presented as the subject of the only verb (“done”). The use of a descriptive adjective is reminiscent of the BuzzFeed Unsolved format (“Mysterious” vs “Chilling”), but sensationalization is less prevalent because Sarian refers to a
“mysterious” “case”, rather than a “chilling” “murder”. Posing a question already in the title suggests that Sarian is interested in opening up the discursive space for viewer input.
In Antphrodite’s case, the video title is divided into a part which introduces the theme (“Who Killed the BLACK DAHLIA?!”) and a part that brings attention to Antphrodite’s specific brand (“PSYCHIC READING”). Capitalization is used to turn “BLACK DAHLIA” and “PSYCHIC READING”
into keywords, suggesting that they are selling points of equal appeal. Compared to Sarian’s modal verb question, which opens up the discursive space for discussing various theories (“Who May Have Done It?!”), Antphrodite’s phrasing (“Who Killed the BLACK DAHLIA?!”) implicitly emphasizes his skill (he can definitively answer who did kill her and not who “may”
have killed her, through his “PSYCHIC READING”).
Moreover, note that despite not alluding to education-based or work experience in the traditional sense, Antphrodite’s positioning as a psychic may qualify him for falling under the Objectivity 2.0 category, as what matters is not the validity of his claims, but that he offers his personal observations due to having a knowledge/skill which the audience perceives as authoritative.
Discursive Strategies
In the Infotainment paradigm, the video title draws attention to the series’ motif of revisiting atypical episodes from Season 1 and doing a fresh take on them in the more recent signature format35, as well as the notion of murder as a pop-culture phenomenon, since the victim is introduced with a posthumous, given-by-the-late 1940’s Press nickname and not her real name.
The video therefore acknowledges, and is meant to be a part of, the True Crime lore of the
“Black Dahlia” murder case, which drew major public attention in the post WWII U.S.A. More importantly, there’s no identification with the victim, because the focal point is the “chilling”
“murder”, and not the victim.
35 Another example is S1, E1, “The Mysterious Death Of The Somerton Man” later “revisited” in S6, E6, “The Mysterious Death Of The Somerton Man Revisited”.
In Sarian’s title, both the nature of the crime and the victim remain obscure; the only question/subject-verb-object sentence draws attention to the unknown identity of the perpetrator, and is addressed to the viewer, suggesting that multiple suspects/theories are to be presented, and that the viewer will have the discursive power to act like a jury by proclaiming the most likely suspect.
In Antphrodite’s title, the video title is partly composed of a question presumably addressed to the viewer; however, the self-branding part suggests that rather than the viewer, it is the psychic (Antphrodite) that is expected to figure out “who killed the Black Dahlia”. Therefore, viewer participation is not necessarily encouraged by posing a question, which suggests that the viewer could have a limited role in the narrative.
Finally, the Black Dahlia is presented as a murder victim, and discursively shown to have been “killed”. Unlike the previous videos, in which the Black Dahlia is conceptualized in more abstract terms -by being discursively associated with a “murder” and a “case”, rather than actually being “killed” herself- and therefore somewhat removed from the “Elizabeth Short” -as a person- representation, the “Black Dahlia” here fully assumes the individual’s identity. This suggests either that Elizabeth Short (the individual), will be overpowered by the glamorized, external representation (the Black Dahlia) or that the two identities will interchangeably merge into one representation.
Ideological Positioning
The titles all point out to self promotion being a goal, but “amateur” YouTubers especially underline their niche skill, creating different implications for viewer participation. In the Infotainment paradigm self-promotion is content-based, as the viewer is made aware of the fact that more content on this subject is available by BuzzFeed Unsolved (“Revisited”), and indirectly encouraged to watch it.
On the other hand, Sarian prioritizes both direct communication with her viewers (“Who may have done it?!”) and self-branding by specifically mentioning her niche skill and full name (“Mystery & Makeup | Bailey Sarian”).
Antphrodite’s video title is essentially a self-branding method, as he advertises his own ability to find out “Who killed the BLACK DAHLIA?!”, as a psychic. Therefore, audience participation in a non consumerism-oriented way is not expected to be encouraged.
b) Video Description (see Appendix for full video description)
Table 11. Actors in Video Descriptions.
Video “The Chilling Black Dahlia Murder Revisited”
“The Mysterious Black Dahlia Unsolved Case – Who May Have Done It?! Mystery & Makeup | Bailey Sarian”
“Who Killed the BLACK DAHLIA?!
PSYCHIC READING”
Actors
Ryan
Shane
Viewers
Sources & Photographers whose work was used for the stills
Sources for the video segments featured on the episode
Viewers
Bailey Sarian
Elizabeth Short / The Black Dahlia
Courtney Sabol
Unknown perpetrator
Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short
Viewers
Antphrodite
Note that whereas the host(s) and viewers always appear as Actors in the Video Descriptions, that is not necessarily the case for the victim(!).
Actors36
In the Infotainment paradigm, the video description immediately addresses the viewer and mentions the two hosts of the show (“Watch Ryan & Shane uncover *…+”). It is clear, however, that the description is not meant to be written by Ryan and Shane. Ryan, Shane, and the accredited sources are all objects -and not subjects- in the text description. The “actors” are all referenced or referred to by the anonymous author due to their existing (as presenters or sources) or potential (as viewers encouraged to “watch”, “shop now”, “Subscribe”, etc.) contribution to the show.
It is interesting to note, nevertheless, that Ryan and Shane are the only two members of Cast
& Crew to be explicitly mentioned by name and, at first glance, it is not apparent that more people are involved in the making of the video. The “Credits” link leads to a page with the Cast
& Crew members listed by name and with a photo and link to their BuzzFeed projects available (see Appendix).
All in all, the hosts and sources of the show are presented in an impersonal manner, the viewers are addressed as consumers (encouraged to either consume content or purchase products), and the photographers and videographers (sources) are listed haphazardly, without links. The unpunctuated block of text also makes attribution unclear.
On the contrary, the viewers in Sarian’s video description are addressed throughout the entirety of the video description in a friendly and polite tone37. They are represented as
“friends” and “subscribers”, repeatedly thanked38 and encouraged to participate (“I would love to hear your theories and input!”), as their opinion is implicitly portrayed as important (“YES I read my comments”).
The video description is essentially a direct message from Sarian towards her viewers, suggesting that the latter are conceptualized as her interlocutors in an ongoing “dialogue” of
36 For reasons of clarity, quotes collectively longer than a line will be added as footnotes from here on.
37 (“Hi friends”, “Hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your week and I hope to be seeing you very soon”,
“Please recommend stories in the comment section and not via email”).
38 (“thank you so much for being here”, “Thank you for the 3 million subscribers!!”, “I can’t say thank you enough”).
equals across videos and subjects matters. As such, they are a necessary component of the video making process and not treated as mere customers/consumers (e.g. Sarian doesn’t use harsh imperatives such as “shop” or “watch” etc., and doesn’t prioritize costumer participation39).
Moreover, Sarian takes extra care to credit her external research assistant (“A big thank you to Courtney Sabol for helping me research today’s story!”) by name and link to portfolio webpage, while maintaining a personal tone. At the same time, it is noted that Sabol’s role is complementary (“helping me”), limited to researching, and temporary (“today’s story”), as Sarian is meant to be the focus of attention.
Indeed, as the host and content creator of the video -already established as such in the title-, Bailey Sarian dominates the text by writing in first person singular. The portrayal of all other actors and overall tone depends on Sarian, who has complete control over the narrative (“There are so many theories and things I left out”). She is presented as a warm and friendly host who addresses her viewers as equals40 and discursively gives (“Stay tuned next week for a giveaway!”) more than she asks for (“I appreciate you if you choose to support. If you don’t, that’s ok too.”).
Similarly, Antphrodite is interested in emphasizing his presence in the video description, but conceptualizes viewer participation very differently, as no discursive space for external input in the form of sources/assistants or viewer participation that doesn’t revolve around financially supporting Antphrodite is provided, suggesting that he is a dominant actor who has complete control over the narrative.
As the host and content creator of the video, Antphrodite addresses his viewers only in their capacity as financial supporters41 and content consumers (“VIEW ALL MY CELEBRITY PREDICTIONS”), by writing in first person singular (“If you'd like to send any tips”). He therefore
39 (“I appreciate you if you choose to support. If you don’t that’s ok too”, “First of all thank you so much for being here, subscribing, hanging out, liking, disliking, just being here means a ton and I hope you know that!!”).
40 (“Ahhh. I can’t say thank you enough”, “I would love to hear your theories and input!”, “YES I read my comments!”).
41 (“If you'd like to send any tips or donations to support me you”, “BOOK A PRIVATE TAROT READING FROM ME”).
both emphasizes the conceptualization of the viewer as a consumer and also heavily promotes his own niche brand42 through exclusively providing links to his own services/projects (e.g. his Streamlabs tipping page, his own website for $80 or $85 psychic reading bookings, his Cameo page for €25 personalized video shoutouts, etc.), with the exception of a link to the tarot cards he is using, for which he is nevertheless credited and perhaps receiving a commission by the designer43. Antphrodite thus shows a heightened interest in off-YouTube monetization, in accordance with the findings on niche content and the diversification strategies of platform dependent entrepreneurs (see Monetization & Alternative Sources of Income).
Moreover, Antphrodite’s entrepreneurial side is further highlighted by the effort he puts into making his videos more accessible through platform multihoming (his videos are available on YouTube, Twitch, his own website etc.) and hash-tag indexing his content under the popular True Crime category on YouTube (“#truecrime”). In fact, Antphrodite is the only YouTuber -out of the ones whose Black Dahlia videos are being examined- to use hashtags (#truecrime,
#blackdahlia, #mystery), in order to make his content more “visible” for people browsing relevant subjects.
As far as Elizabeth Short/The Black Dahlia is concerned, in Sarian’s video description, Elizabeth Short is equated to the “Black Dahlia” (“Elizabeth Short, also known as the Black Dahlia”). Because Elizabeth Short is discursively placed before the Black Dahlia and not introduced as a victim, it is suggested that Sarian will take interest in the personal life of Elizabeth Short prior to her definitive attachment to the Black Dahlia moniker. On the other hand, Antphrodite uses the “Black Dahlia” and “Elizabeth Short” representations interchangeably. Accordingly, he also refers to an unknown perpetrator who is presented as having “murdered the Black Dahlia” and “killed Elizabeth Short”.
42 (“PSYCHIC TAROT READINGS”, “WEEKLY HOROSCOPES”, “CELEBRITY PREDICTIONS”).
43 “As seen on Twitch used by sassy psychic Antphrodite.” -Etsy listing:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/563999648/moon-crystal-tarot?ref=shop_home_recs_1&crt=1.