Abstract

The digital age has brought about a new type of YouTuber content creator, the Reactor. Reactors film their supposed first-time reaction to various online videos including trailers, film, television etc. Reactors represent a new performance mode at the intersection of audience member and performer attempting to recreate a lost sense of community in an increasingly digitally mediated world. The act of filming one's reaction calls into question the authenticity of a reaction however, it is this very authenticity that drives Viewers to watch the content made by Reactors. Using reaction videos to the first year of Marvel Studios Disney+ shows as case studies (WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, & Hawkeye) this essay explores how reaction videos expose authenticity as a quality that is performed and received rather than inherent in a given performance. This performance is found and discussed in three ways, through involuntary physiological responses, being claimed through fandom and through viewing Reactor as Celebrity.

Degree

College and Department

Fine Arts and Communications; Theatre and Media Arts

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/