"My team strongly advised me not to" : En multimodal kritisk diskursanalys av ursäktsvideor på YouTube med fokus på Image Repair Theory

This thesis examines apology videos on YouTube through a Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis combined with William L. Benoits Image Repair Theory as well as Christian Fuchs Critical Media Theory. The aim is to analyze which image repair strategies Colleen Ballinger and David Dobrik apply to their videos when making an apology. Additionally, it explores how these strategies reinforce or challenge existing social structures and power dynamics between influencers and their audiences. Through the method of critical multimodal discourse analysis, the study examines how audiovisual elements such as facial expressions, body language, and camera angles, interact with contextual factors like societal cultural norms and audience expectations and interactions. The linguistic choices including tone, metaphors, word choices and narrative framing provides a nuanced understanding of the multimodal strategies influencers use to shape their apology videos and manage their public image in order to receive forgiveness. The study takes a footing in previous studies mainly focused on use of image repair strategies in YouTube apology videos but aims to explore the subject through a different method to achieve new insights to the area of research. The findings show how Ballinger goes against previously established structures concerning traditional PR-apologies and apology videos posted on YouTube, while Dobrik reinforces these structures. Ballinger continuously tries to change the position of power by stating that the audience is maliciously killing her reputation without real cause. Dobrik on the other hand takes full responsibility and continuously apologizes for abusing his position of power. The most used image repair strategies for Ballinger were denial, evasion of responsibility with a focus on defeasibility and good intentions and reducing offensiveness of events with a focus on attacking the accuser. While Dobrik used strategies such as corrective action, mortification and evasion of responsibility with a focus on defeasibility. Crying and humor were other big themes in the material.