Confessions in Social Media –

The dissertation focuses on confessional self-representational I-narratives of vlogs in the context of DIY cultures. Confession refers to a communicative strategy that aims to reveal intimate matters of an individual and, at the same time, serves as a way to socialize with others. The research question of the dissertation is “How and why does confession operate in communication and interaction in social media environments?” The participatory act of confession in DIY en¬vironments is understood as a process of constructing the individual as a social being – so-called social self. This is the new type of individual as suggested by mediatization theory — individual as a social being dependent on the recognition she gets in and through the media. The study modifies the figure of a mediatized and confessional indi¬vidual as disciplined but also as an actor with free will who is able to construct her real self through DIY-mediated I-messaging, in social and constructive relationships with others.