Video Hosts (Ryan, Shane, Bailey Sarian, Antphrodite)

Ryan Bergara is one of the two cohosts of BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime alongside co-host Shane Madej, and he dominates the narrative. He is introduced as “Ryan” at min 0:01 with on-screen text and also referred to by first name by his co-host (“Ah, this guy’s a real piece of shit, Ryan.”), suggesting that a casual, friendly connection with the viewer, like with Shane, is encouraged.

He is discursively present throughout the entirety of the video by introducing the episode’s case (“This week on a special episode *…+”) and sponsor (“I Am The Night is a new limited series… in the case”), reading descriptive/informative text about the case⁵³ during voiceover segments in which still image montages and text appear on screen, and commenting on the case in video or on-screen text segments with Shane, in an informal (“I got my goggles on. I’m ready to dive deep”), comedic manner (“It’s much easier to be an asshole sitting behind a desk like we are”). He is both the first and last person to speak, in the opening and closing segments of the video, respectively⁵⁴.

Because Ryan does the voiceover segments in which the case is laid out and Shane is specifically presented as knowing next to nothing about it⁵⁵, it is implied that Ryan has taken on the researcher role; Ryan is, therefore, in control of which piece of information is presented and which is omitted, a power discursively suggested by the fact that he responds to Shane’s questions about the case by positioning himself as having personally verified the information⁵⁶, knowing beforehand what meaning-making is likely to take place for the information so far

52 The Infotainment paradigm Actors “Julia Child”, “Black Dahlia Avenger”, “Professor Snape”, “Man Ray” and

“Chris Pine”, as well as the Sarian Actor “Dan”, are less relevant for the analysis and will be discussed in the Appendix.

53 (“The body of Elizabeth Short was lying face up and naked”, “It was common at the time for newspapers to bestow nicknames on murder cases”).

54 (“This week on a special episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime*…+”, “He’s got nice eyes.”).

55 (R: “Do you know the case at all, The Black Dahlia?”, S: “Hollywood murder… And… it’s gruesome”).

56 (S: “Did they run these past any sort of experts?” R: “I’ve seen that they ran past a couple of experts but no one conclusively said yes”).

revealed (“There’s a reason why we’re going into the grisly details of this”), and controlling the direction of the conversation (“One other thing that we should talk about is the address book

*…+”).

Nevertheless, it should be noted that compared to the YouTuber videos which will be analyzed in comparison to the BuzzFeed infotainment format, this video is the product of a team of professionals; whereas a writer is credited in the crew⁵⁷ (“Writer Garett Garner”), Ryan is only credited as “Executive Producer” and cast member (“Featuring Ryan Bergara”), meaning that how much of the text he personally researched and wrote is actually unknown.

During the comedic, seemingly unscripted commentary segments with Shane, Ryan makes references to paid promotion material (“It’s also a show”), the pair’s other YouTube web series, BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural⁵⁸, and pop culture characters that have nothing to do with the case (“That’s some Professor Snape shit.”). Moreover, he uses profane language (“His dad *…+

was a bit of an asshole”), interrupts or is interrupted by Shane⁵⁹ and does not refrain from stating his personal opinion (“Like, that’s something that a normal person doesn’t say, I feel like.”), even going as far as identifying the murderer and passing moral judgement (“It’s George Hodel!”, “he’s a monster”).

It is therefore suggested that in the infotainment format, discourse develops both around the True Crime subject matter -enabling profit maximization through related sponsorships and self-promotion - and on a completely separate, unrelated to True Crime level, where the goal is for the viewer to relate to the host through informal, seemingly unscripted speech patterns, colloquial language, personalization and emotionalization.

To this end, it is necessary that in the case of more than one host, they take on complementary roles and showcase antithetical personalities. Indeed, Ryan takes on the role of researcher and presents the case facts in the voiceover segments which are then subjected to

57 Crew credits appear at the end of the video as on-screen text, while the two presenters are still speaking. Until then it is not obvious that Ryan and Shane are not the ones handling the technical aspects (sound mixing, editing) or even, in the case of Ryan, writing.

58 (“We should inject you full of truth serum and then ask you if you think ghosts are real”).

59 (S: “I did it to meet people! And I found-“, R: “You followed the white guy playbook in LA.”, and R: “That wasn’t my-“, S: “You see her face in these things though, right?”).

the average viewer/Shane’s irreverent/skeptical comments, and he also converses with the latter, while maintaining/defending his researcher role⁶⁰ and bringing out Shane’s comedic one⁶¹. The intentional construction of this duo dynamic is suggested by the fact that Shane, like the viewer, learns about the case from Ryan to the extent that he even needs to be reminded of key information (S: “Was he ever brought in for anything?”, R: “He was a suspect.”, S: “Oh, yeah.”).

As aforementioned, Shane Madej is the other BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime host, alongside co-host Ryan Bergara. He is introduced as “Shane” at min 0:01 with on-screen text, and also referred to by first name by his co-host⁶², suggesting that a casual, friendly connection with the viewer, like with Ryan, is encouraged. Shane does not do any voiceover narration of the case, and only partakes in the comedic commentary segments following the voiceovers by Ryan.

Immediately, attention is brought to the fact that he doesn’t know much about the case and hasn’t even watched the web series’ other episode on the same content⁶³; this positioning suggests that his reactions and questions to the information presented to him by the

“researcher” Ryan will be similar to the average viewer’s.

Indeed, the personalization aspect of the way he presents himself is highlighted by the fact that his commentary on the case facts pertains to how he, personally, relates to and interprets the case⁶⁴ by saying whatever comes to mind, without showing any awareness of the structure the episode is supposed to be following⁶⁵.

60 (S: “Are they a little more revealing than that photo of Amelia Earhart that you tried to pass off as evidence?”, R:

“I didn’t say I tried to pass that off-“).

61 (R: “You did also take an improv comedy class as well, right?” *…+ S: “I did meet some of the most insufferable people *…+”).

62 (“Now Shane this was before your time on the show, so, uh, you may not have seen this episode”).

63 (R: “Now Shane this was before your time on the show, so, uh, you may not have had seen this episode”, S: “I have not.”, R: “Do you know the case at all, The Black Dahlia?”, S: “Hollywood… murder. And… it’s gruesome.”).

64 (“We take no pleasure in this. We’re not sickos.”, “I wouldn’t want to be a detective.”, “I do wonder what the effects of that are”, “Other thing is though, if I’m living in Anaheim? And I’ve got a balcony? And I’m smoking cigars cause it’s the 80’s and I grew up in Hollywood in the 40’s and 50’s? I’m addicted to every substance known to man and I’m out there on my balcony in Anaheim, it’s a miracle I’m not going over that thing any given day of the week.”).

65 (“Quite likely beside the point, but I always feel bad for those dogs that gotta sniff dead bodies all day.”, “I don’t know if this is weird, but I think there’s more weight to it because it’s his son doing the accusing”).

Furthermore, by taking on the role of the sometimes skeptical to Ryan’s methods commenter in a joking manner⁶⁶, he both wins over the slightly skeptical viewer and

discursively constructs an environment of funny banter between friends, in which the viewer is invited.

Finally, Shane makes references to paid promotion material (“Check out, I Am The Night on TNT”), uses profane language (“Ah, this guy’s a real piece of shit, Ryan”), interrupts or is interrupted by Ryan⁶⁷ and does not refrain from stating his personal opinion, stating in fact, only that⁶⁸. As is the case with Ryan, this typical of the infotainment format discourse encourages the viewer to relate to the host through informal, seemingly unscripted speech patterns, colloquial language, personalization and emotionalization, while also exhibiting market-orientation traits.

Bailey Sarian, who takes the role of both video creator and host, introduces herself by first and last name (“My name is Bailey Sarian”) -which also appear on screen in all caps-. She presents herself in terms of what she does⁶⁹ and her strong, personal connection to her viewers⁷⁰, to whom she appears to be especially thankful (“a big thank you to you guys”, “I just want to say thank you”, “THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!”).

She is represented as a warm and friendly person (“I hope we can get together one day, and I can meet you in person and give you a hug”), who favors improvised rather than scripted speech (“Because I need to figure out what I’m giving away first of all. I don’t- I don’t know.”), as she characteristically

o uses direct speech fictitious discursive re-enactments in the Present Simple⁷¹,

66 (“That was just you making your little PowerPoints, you know?”, “Are they *the photos+ a little more revealing than that photo of Amelia Earhart’s head that you tried to pass off as evidence?”).

67 (R: “That wasn’t my-“, S: “You see her face in these things though, right?”, and S: “I did it to meet people! And I found-“, R:

“You followed the white guy playbook in LA.”).

68 (“Surprised his kids didn’t get together and kill their dad.”, “They (cops) don’t care! They don’t care!”).

69 (“on Mondays, I sit down and I talk about a True Crime story that’s been heavy on my noggin! And I do my makeup at the same time’”).

70 (“Oh my gosh you guys, so I don’t know what to say. I hit three million subscribers, and I just want to say a big thank you to you guys, because without you, I ob-vi-ou-sly would not be here right now”, “We’re doing it!”, “Please, be safe out there”).

71 (“they are like ‘yes, bingo’, you know?”, “’We’re gonna solve a mystery today’, is probably what they’re thinking”, “the police are thinking like, ‘This is our guy, but we need to get a confession’”, “so police are kind of like

‘Yeah, sure lady’”, “Police are, like, you know, ‘Why’d you lie? Why’d you waste our time?”).

o volunteers personal interpretations⁷², and

o offers meta-commentary (“I would like to do that job, that would be fun to me”).

As far as her dynamic with the viewer is concerned, Sarian humbles herself through self-deprecating humor or mockery (“Am I bald?”, “They really did that! I mean, she was cut in half, Bailey!”), which further emphasize the performative aspect of her narrative style. Sarian’s aforementioned narrative techniques and her repeatedly emphasized connection to the viewer/viewer community highly suggest that personalization is an objective in itself, in her videos.

This video is part of Sarian’s signature “Murder, Mystery and Makeup” series, in which she discusses True Crime cases while doing her makeup, completing a different look by the end of every episode. Sarian is visually represented as a skilled make-up artist throughout the majority of the video (4:11-30:30), but the look is not relevant to the case (e.g. 1940’s Hollywood makeup). This discursive disconnection further suggests that Sarian is positioned as a dominant actor, since she mixes unrelated themes without feeling the need to harmonize them.

Unlike the hosts of the Infotainment paradigm who don’t particularly introduce themselves but similarly to Sarian, Antphrodite, who takes on the role of both video creator and host, introduces himself by his online handle (“Antphrodite”), his signature skill (“pop culture psychic”) and what he will be doing in the video (“another True Crime reading”). He is represented as someone whose content or personality is controversial (“I been getting hate”) and consciously tries to avoid negative criticism (“I’m not saying that she’s like, a– a bad person, or anything like that”, “I’m not saying she wasn’t innocent, what I’m saying is that there’s more”). Due to the nature of his content (psychic readings), he exclusively gives his opinion⁷³ and makes speculations⁷⁴, but is nevertheless quite confident in his signature skill⁷⁵.

72 (“Police go out to the location, and when they arrive, they are just shocked, stunned, confused, you name it, that’s how they are feeling”).

73 (“that’s what I see”, “I think that *…+”, “what I’m seeing is *…+”, “I see *…+”, “To me that’s a message *…+”, “My opinion. It’s my opinion. No facts here, girl, all printer.”, “*…+ is what I’m hearing *…+”).

74 (“I wonder if she was privy to some information”, “this could be like some- like having an affair with someone, maybe her getting pregnant by someone”, “it’s possible they were the one doing all this”, “That’s very possible”).