| dc.description.abstract | This master’s thesis explores the trend of YouTuber historians and the communities they create through the use of the platforms Patreon and Discord. The exploration is grounded in analysis of three case studies of YouTuber historians and their communities. I analyze the videos made by the YouTuber historians (their historiography) as well as the discussions related to historical topics which take place in their communities. Through these examples we can see what history and historianship are to many people today. The theory driving this thesis is that the convergence of certain social and historical factors have opened a new space for a novel type of historianship to emerge. These factors are discussed under the general categories of Media Technologies, Political Economy, and Historianship. Borrowing from media studies of rhetorical analysis, anthropology (netnography), and basic historiographic methods, my analysis of the three case studies shows that YouTuber historians combine an entertainment factor, a conspicuous degree of playfulness, a method of appeal that is largely visceral but not without empirical underpinnings, and frequent polemical content. They thereby become an intriguing variant of ‘the historian’. In addition, through the affordances of Patreon and Discord, the ability of a YouTuber historian to combine their historianship with an entrepreneurial drive and a community building ethos sends their mode of historianship on an expansive trajectory. To cap off the thesis, we consider two diverging attitudes one might take to the phenomenon, and then a pragmatic way to interact with YouTuber historians and their communities if one is so inclined. | eng |