Narrative of Young YouTubers From the Andean Community and Their Media Competence

Young people spend an increasing amount of time in front of a screen, developing new forms of content consumption and production. In this context, the so‐called YouTubers emerge. They are the new actors of the information society, who acquire prominence specially in the creation of audiovisual content. This article studies the narrative of YouTubers and the media competition behind the process. To accomplish this task we have selected the 10 most relevant young YouTubers in the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), ranked by number of followers. Their products were ana‐ lyzed with the following criteria: the narrative that they use, the impact that they generate, and the media competence that they demonstrate. The research we have made is descriptive and uses a mixed‐methods approach, which employs technical datasheets that collect general information on the channels studied and the impact of their accounts. In general terms, we have observed that the videos contemplate new standards, which are not related to the contents of traditional media; the narrative is self‐referential and through it, YouTubers manage to identify with niches of younger audiences, that can see in them similar life experiences. An interesting aspect is that a good part of the language used is violent and even foul, considering that young people are a vulnerable population group on the internet. Finally, the use and mastery of technological tools is evident on YouTubers, as well as the interest in self‐training in content production processes.


Introduction
In the last decade, YouTubers have become subjects of studies related to audiovisual content management. The term refers to vloggers or video bloggers who periodically publish content on YouTube, a platform on which they are endemically born (Pérez-Torres et al., 2018), and which they use to showcase their creations; the most ingenious ones multiply their followers and become influential figures.
YouTubers have been given the role of "internet celebrities" and cultural models for their followers (Jerslev, 2016;Marwick, 2013), due to the influence they have on the audiences way of thinking and their behaviors (Jerslev, 2016). This is mainly because followers identify qualities and ways of life in them that they see in their own, along with the need to build an identity through active online participation, and integration in thematic communities (Chamberlain, 2010;Montes-Vozmediano et al., 2018). On the other hand, as Usher (2018) writes on the concept of internet celebrity, it is nothing more than the perpetuation of the components, techniques, and tools for the spectacularization of content, already shaped in traditional media. This kind of staged authenticity proposed in the language of YouTubers, contrary to its generalized conception of being an emerging process that is situated outside corporate practices, is rather a well-thought-out process that involves the work of communication professionals and creatives, who artificially work these representations with the aim of positioning a brand and that constitutes one of the new commercial imperatives of contemporary creative industries.
Teenagers are the main users of the platform, although their purpose is not exclusively the production of content, but to see what others create Westenberg, 2016). According to Montes-Vozmediano et al. (2018), YouTube is the social network with which young people, and even children, begin their consumption of digital content (Kligler-Vilenchik & Literat, 2020) and which they later transform into a tool that is part of their lifestyle, and that allows them to connect with others through the consumption of trending content (Defy Media, 2017).
YouTube usage increased with the Covid-19 crisis, according to Statista (2021). Although the use of YouTube had already grown hand in hand with social networks and their new uses, the global confinement caused by the pandemic doubled the consumption of digital video, not only on YouTube, but also on TikTok and Instagram.
A key driver of these changes is in the use of smartphones, which is the main device for accessing content on the internet (Tejedor et al., 2021) for 66.6% of the world's population, which increased between 2020 and 2021, by 1.8% (93 million) since January 2020, while the total number of mobile connections has increased by 72 million (0.9%) to reach a total of 8.02 billion by early 2021 (We Are Social, 2021).
While young people are the population with the largest YouTube consumption (Mohsin, 2020;We Are Social, 2021), they are also the most vulnerable due to the amount of harmful content they are exposed to on the platform (Neumann & Herodotou, 2020;Renés Arellano et al., 2020;Rodríguez-Virgili et al., 2021). This content has credibility, especially when it comes from content creators that they recognize and follow. In addition, the fact that YouTube is today the second most popular social media platform in the world, implies a clear reconfiguration of both its functionalities-almost 20 years after its creation-and of its users and the way in which they produce content. The management of a huge amount of content created by the users, followers, or fans themselves, the so-called "user generated content," promotes the adaptation of these creators towards collaborative strategies of management, modification, and dissemination of content . This paradigm suggests a preference for personal experiences, emotionality, passion, and closeness, which together with the "call to action," (CTA) figure as protagonists of the videos (Muda & Hamzah, 2021;Wang, 2021).
Narratives have been the main resource to leave a mark on YouTube. Content creators use, in their way, sound and visual resources to narrate their experiences, their opinions, or what comes from their imagination, without the need for a commercial strategy, but in some contexts, their creations become a viral phenomenon on the internet.
The emergence of ICT and their development have disrupted traditional audiovisual techniques, taking them to the field of digital narratives or storytelling in which new styles of anecdote sharing appear, and the possibilities of narrative are expanded with new elements (Scolari, 2014). In addition to these factors, there is a variety of topics that are barely present in other audiovisual media such as film or television; in other words, YouTubers talk about topics that traditional media has left aside or does not address sufficiently, such as video games, fashion, tutorials for self-learning of various topics, stories, among others (López, 2016).
This type of content allows us to tell apart the target audience. Furthermore, the identification of content aimed exclusively at adult audiences becomes evident, although the use of algorithms is not completely accurate when limiting content related to violence, sex, and other disturbing topics for minors (Papadamou et al., 2019).
The present research has been conducted in the Andean Community, a context in which YouTubers acquire relevance, although their production value is reduced in comparison to first world countries; hence, there aren't many studies that focus on the work of YouTubers from this region. Previous research has addressed the YouTuber phenomenon in the Andean Community from the perspective of the language and topic of their creations (Córdova Tapia & Rivera-Rogel, 2020). Other studies have focused on the discourse and resources that they use (Beltrán-Flandoli et al., 2020), but there has not yet been an in-depth study of the production process and media competence.
The purpose of this article is to study the narrative that the 10 most popular young YouTubers in the Andean Community use in the creation of their content, based on analysis of the resources and technical elements they use to produce their audiovisual content, together with the media and digital competence they demonstrate in the process.
The structure of the article contemplates, in the first place, a review of literature, with the aim of conceptualizing the YouTuber phenomenon, and the characteristics of their narrative in the context of media competence. Next, the methodology, objectives, sample, and instruments used are explained. Subsequently, the preliminary results are organized according to the techniques proposed in the methodological part. Finally, the conclusions developed so far are included, in light of the information obtained with the different instruments, which allow us to see some of the significant contributions of this research.

Content Creation and Media Competence
At the center of the paradigm shift in today's society brought about by digital interconnection to an unmatched extent, we find that the users of the audiovisual and digital communications are both protagonists and beneficiaries (Hillrichs, 2016), who promote a series of behaviors that go from the mere context of information dominance (Lee et al., 2019;Stornaiuolo et al., 2017) to a continuous escalation of social media and platforms as socializing agents (García-Ruiz et al., 2018;Kennedy & Hill, 2018).
From this point of view, YouTubers truly represent the values mentioned above, and Latin America is one of the places with the greatest projections of YouTube, where many content creators are earning income from this platform. Thus, if 10 years ago there were more consumers than creators, the scenario has changed to the production of local content that is consumed worldwide (Statista, 2020); and with this, the long tail theory proposed by Anderson (2004) takes force, in which specialized market niches will mark the future of internet entertainment, allowing smaller and less conventional content to find audiences, forming larger markets than those of conventional products.
In this context, the skills and aptitudes for content creation, along with the new narratives, contemplate the study of media competence in a system of emerging prosumers (Díez-Gutiérrez & Díaz-Nafría, 2018), conceived from the pyramidal basis of its conception (Ferrés & Piscitelli, 2012;Leaning, 2019;Pérez-Rodríguez & Delgado-Ponce, 2012) but also framed within a formerly digital and now transmedia experience (Buckingham, 2018;Jenkins et al., 2009;Scolari & Fraticelli, 2019;Scolari et al., 2018). These factors include, for example, the versatility in the performance of YouTubers in terms of technical aspects of production and post-production, of which Masanet et al. (2019) as well as Buckingham (2011Buckingham ( , 2018 mention that there is a diverse typology that is not stationary at all. This classification ranges from what is considered aspiring or amateur producers to expert digital producers. Interactivity, set as a defining element of contemporary media cultures, now at the scale of the virtual, underlines its influence in the changing denomination of the agents involved in this process of media creation. The passage from a merely receptive audience to categories more typical of the "new media" such as "prosumer" or "produser," are indicative of a certain inclusion in the processes of multimedia production (Sugihartati et al., 2020). In this vertiginous change, the role of technology as a dependent apparatus of society is undeniable, at the same time; it drives and renews it, shaping itself through cultural relations (Pérez-Rodríguez & Delgado-Ponce, 2012;Praprotnik, 2015).
The result is that in the age of content selfactualization, the ways of presenting media formats such as angles, tone and color, narrative voice modality, and the use of certain gestures, abbreviations, and specific image motifs, including dress codes, are, in addition to technical advances, symbols of the new dialectic of interaction creation.
Likewise, it is worth mentioning digital learning as a competence to be analyzed in the YouTuber area, which is defined as the ability to increase the knowledge of the platforms and media suitable for disseminating the contents that they produce, and that, according to Gil-Quintana et al. (2020), happens mainly in social network scenarios. Finally, performative skills also affect the aforementioned aspects, where, promoted by the reality-virtuality mix in which digital technology users act, the approach of discursive strategies with a consequent degree of interaction-deliberation in audiences is facilitated (Aran-Ramspott et al., 2018;Dahlen & Rosengren, 2016).

Methodology
In this study a mixed-methods approach was used, employing quantitative and qualitative methods that allowed us to obtain the necessary information from young YouTubers in the Andean Community. By combining the methodologies, it was possible to understand the phenomena under study because these "refer to complex fields where the human being and its diversity are involved" (Pereira, 2011, p. 17).
This research aims to observe the processes of audiovisual creation, that is, the narrative of YouTubers in the Andean Community, in addition to the impact that they generate, and the levels of media competence reflected by their creators. This is a descriptive type of study. According to Sampieri Hernández et al. (2006, p. 81), in this type of research "a series of questions are selected, and information is measured or collected on each one of them, in order to describe what is being investigated." Through the content analysis technique, the videos of the selected YouTubers were examined, and using an in-depth interview, it was possible to evaluate their media competence.
To carry this task out, the most relevant young YouTubers in the region were selected, taking as reference the data provided by the Social Blade tool, in addition to considering the following inclusion criteria: (a) the age of the YouTuber is between 18 and 25 years old; (b) their nationality of origin is from one of the four countries that make up the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru); and (c) the content is produced by individuals, not organizations or companies, excluding the media, artists, or singers.
With these considerations in mind, a list was made for each of the four countries in order to compile the top 10 YouTubers of the Andean Community with the largest number of subscribers, resulting in the sample detailed in Table 1. YouTubers from Bolivia were not included because the number of followers is significantly lower.
Once the profiles were identified, each channel was accessed to collect general information, and through content analysis of the first and last videos published, the narrative used in their productions was examined using several criteria (see Table 2).

Remarks
With the selection of the first and last video, the aim was to determine the evolution of the YouTuber based on the technical and discursive aspects used to produce the contents. Within the first section, the sound, visual, and post-production areas were analyzed. In the discursive area, the additional information provided by the YouTuber in the video description was evaluated, as well as the degree of deliberation that the influencer tries to exert on his followers, encouraging them to comment suggestions for future videos, their opinion on certain topics (debate), or CTAs: like the video, comment, or subscribe. Lastly, the discursive strategies used by the YouTuber to attract and maintain the attention of his audience were considered, including the categorization of YouTube content to evaluate whether there is foul language, nudity, sexual content, violence, drugs, or strobe lights.
To complement the analysis, statistical tests were carried out to determine the degree of certainty and significance of the results, including Pearson's correlation for quantitative data, mean differences through McNemar's test for paired categorical variables, and T-Student for scale variables.
Finally, in-depth interviews were conducted with the most popular YouTubers in each country of the Andean Community, to learn about their work in the creation and dissemination of content, to demonstrate their degree of media competence. The interview consisted of 14 questions framed in the dynamics of content production for their channels: pre-production, production and post-production, content preparation, and strategies considered for its dissemination.
Given the difficulty of obtaining a response from the top 10 YouTubers in the Andean Community, a group of the 10 most relevant YouTubers in each country was considered, according to the number of subscribers, which are part of the study universe of this research. Eventually, a total of three interviews were conducted with one representative from each country (see Table 3).

Results and Discussion
The topics addressed by the 10 most prolific young YouTubers of the Andean Community, whose channels are in the category "People & Blogs" predominate (4 out of 10 channels); their videos show the lifestyle of the creators in an apparent natural style. Three channels have content related mainly to video games and three channels to entertainment content.
Concerning the general video data, it is important to note the length of the clips analyzed, considering that the YouTube platform allows hosting videos of a maximum of 15 minutes by default, that is, for all users with a Google account; while for verified channels, this limit is extended and allows videos of up to 12 hours in length. In the sample, clips ranging from 55 seconds to 27 minutes and 14 seconds in length were found. To statistically determine the predominant range of duration in the sample, three groups were determined according to the length of the video: (a) 00:01 to 09:59, (b) 10:00 to 19:59, and (c) 20:00 to 29:59. With this division, we obtained the mode of 1, i.e., short videos predominate.

Narrative of Young YouTubers in the Andean Community
The first variable in the analysis sheet is the video description, which is a section that allows YouTubers to provide additional information in text format. Four key points were considered in this part: the first is a summary of what the video is about, an aspect that is evident in 12 out of the 20 contents analyzed. Concerning this particularity, a very common practice was observed among the videos of the analyzed channels since most of the YouTubers of the Andean Community do not personalize the description of their videos but use a generic description for all their publications.
The second parameter shows that none of the videos in this study are divided into chapters. It should be remembered that this option allows the viewer to know the exact minutes at which specific topics are addressed. Considering that the sample of the present research covers the first and the last video published on the YouTuber's channel, none of the analyzed videos implemented this function, which was incorporated in YouTube in mid-2020.
According to the additional information that can be added in the video description, less than half of the videos analyzed (8 out of 20) provide their audience with links of interest or data that allow them to expand on the topic. Finally, most of the videos (18 out of 20) provide contact information of the YouTuber through links to their social networks, email, or other channels where followers or interested brands can establish direct communication with the influencer.
Regarding the discursive strategies used by YouTubers to enhance their videos and keep the audience entertained, the type of narrative they use is  Sabich and Steinberg (2017). Within the sample, it is noticed that most of the contents belong to the group of self-referential narratives (19 out of 20 videos) as these videos seek to show the YouTuber naturally, with "an apparently neutral and casual enunciative structure" (Sabich & Steinberg, 2017, p. 179). On the other hand, one of the videos is aligned to cliché narratives, that is, materials that demonstrate a better production or more rigid script, so they involve representations, mostly comical, of reality. The section on discursive strategies also addresses the language functions used by YouTubers, taking Jakobson's (1984) categorization as a reference. Most of the videos (12 out of 20) employ referential language. This function is used for referring in a way that is attached to reality, focusing on communication. Next, we have the conative and expressive functions (three videos in each category). It should be noted that these two modes of language focus on the receiver and sender respectively. YouTubers intend to cause an effect on their followers either by motivating them to act or, on the contrary, by showing their emotions to be close and real with their audience. Lastly, we can mention the poetic function (2 out of 20 videos) in which the intention is to modify the language to make it more attractive or to give it varied nuances in line with what one attempts to achieve.
Regarding the specific strategies employed by the YouTubers (Figure 1), all the analyzed videos use simple language as a mechanism to maintain a close connection with the viewers, except for one. This is one of the characteristics of audiovisual content on YouTube, especially in those channels that deal with entertainment topics. In addition, in 14 out of the 20 videos, the YouTuber has good oratory skills. This means that they express them-selves eloquently, clearly, and fluently. Finally, 7 out of the 20 videos use humor as a discursive strategy, to awaken the user's interest with comments that the audience finds funny.
To conclude with the discursive strategies, we consider the classification proposed by YouTube, which labels the content suitable for adults (Figure 2). The first dimension addresses explicit or offensive language, which is found in seven videos. This is evident in the materials produced by gamers, who, in the euphoria of the game, use foul language. Regarding violence, the same number of videos refer to or show slightly violent acts (seven), such as the case of gameplays, where references are made to killing the opponent. In the section on sexual references and content, three videos show explicit or implicit references to sexual acts, while one of the videos show partial nudity and another one allusion to drugs. It is necessary to specify that in these last two categories, videos whose background music contained this type of reference were considered.

Impact of Young YouTubers in the Andean Community
Regarding the reception of the contents of young YouTubers in the Andean Community, the interaction figures received by the videos published in April 2021 were monitored, considering that, during this period, there are no special festivities (Christmas and others) that may alter the schedule of videos that the YouTuber manages or the audience's response. Figure 3 shows that as the number of videos increases, the interaction increases. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated between these two variables, with a result of 0.949. This value was statistically significant (p < 0.01),  and it confirms what was stated by Feixas et al. (2014), which is that the frequency of publication and consistency when uploading content to YouTube are key to success on the platform. Table 4 shows that the channel that published the most videos during the study period was RaptorGamer, followed by Luay, both YouTubers dedicated to the gamer theme. This situation could justify, to some extent, the difference between the amount of content published by these influencers versus their colleagues. A lot of the material produced by these profiles are gameplays, and these videos involve a simpler editing process. Globally (considering all the videos published since the creation of the channel) the channel that has more videos is MrStivenTC, a profile dedicated to video games.
To comprehensively interpret the figures shown in Table 4, and to determine whether there is a relationship between the number of videos a YouTuber publishes, and the numbers or impact accumulated by his or her channel, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated, concluding that the impact variables are closely related to the overall number of videos published by the YouTubers and that there are statistically significant correlations. On the other hand, the likes have a statistically  As the last point in the analysis of the impact of the influencers, a T-Student test was performed on the interactions obtained by the videos. We considered likes, dislikes, and comments, both for video 1 (V1) and video 2 (V2), taking as a control variable the CTA made by the influencers to their followers within the video (Table 5). The results show that there are no statistically significant differences in total interactions (p > 0.05), which implies that the user is the one who makes decisions based on the content that they observe and do not necessarily react to the YouTuber's requests.
To determine the existence of improvements in videos produced by YouTubers, McNemar's nonparametric test was used, considering the technical aspects of the first video published and the most recent one on the channel (see Table 6). The results show that there are no statistically significant differences between the two videos analyzed concerning technical and discursive aspects since these characteristics tend to be the same at both times.
However, the sample shows a slight improvement in image and sound quality in the latest videos posted, which could mean that, as YouTubers gain ground on the platform, they invest in better production teams.
From the perspective of the YouTubers interviewed, there has been an evolution in the creation of videos. In this process, the key has been training, especially in terms of recording and editing, as explained by the Bolivian YouTuber Kapléx, who recognizes that in the beginning, he developed these processes intuitively and for leisure purposes. However, after his first viral video, he understood the need to keep people's attention and improve his creations. JorgeIsaac115 agrees with the previously mentioned opinion. For him, video games were a hobby, and today they are the main source of income for his family.

Media and Digital Competence of Young YouTubers in the Andean Community
YouTubers' creations consider a series of elements that evidence the mastery of certain skills and abilities, which according to Scolari and Fraticelli (2019, p. 5) implies that YouTubers, apart from being young people uploading things to the internet, are "creating their individuality through those videos," and in that process, they develop a series of competencies. Therefore, "they should be considered relevant subjects of the media" (Scolari & Fraticelli, 2019, p. 5). For example, with respect to background music, use of original audio, and sound effects, it is observed that most creators use the first two resources (19 out of 20 and 18 out of 20, respectively); and only 12 out of the 20 videos used sound effects.
In terms of the use of shots and angles, 13 videos make considerable use of shots variety, while 12 of the 20, show use of diverse camera angles. It is worth considering that in the video game recordings, where the gamer's reactions did not appear, the use of shots or  angles did not apply. Finally, there is the voice-over variable, with four videos that use this resource, which is not very common in the sample. However, the absence of shots, angles, and sound or visual effects does not reflect a lack of competence on the part of YouTubers (Usher, 2018), since these resources are not required in all cases, as explained by Ecuadorian YouTuber JorgeIsaac115. On the other hand, it must be considered that most of the content created by YouTubers appeals to the naturalness of the experience, which does not imply the use of a technical script that specifies the types of shots to be used.
Next, the post-production decisions were evaluated. These aspects refer to the functionalities offered by YouTube at the time of uploading the video. Starting with the watermark, 14 out of the 20 videos have this option, which is represented by an icon that can be added in the corners of the videos and offers the option of subscribing to the channel by clicking on it.
The second most common tool is subtitles, present in 14 out of the 20 videos, remembering that this option, in some cases, is automatically generated when the language of the video is chosen in the settings before publishing it. Thirdly, there are support resources added by the YouTuber when editing the video. In this sense, 13 out of the 20 videos implement text or images that reinforce what the YouTuber points out in his narration.
The next field is the use of end screens, a function promoted by YouTube to promote previous videos of the channel, in addition to a subscription button. This is presented in the last 5 or 20 seconds of the video. This function is adopted by half of the contents (10 out of 20), highlighting that 7 out of the 10 that use this resource do so in the most recent video. Then, it is observed that 6 out of the 20 videos have a closing template. This design that appears at the end of the videos usually contains the usernames of the YouTuber's social networks, in addition to a screen card thanking the audience for watching the video and promoting the subscription to the channel. As the name suggests, these are templates that are used generically for all videos and are added when editing them.
For Peruvian Isabel Paipay, the graphic part is an important point for the dissemination and generation of expectation before launching her videos. This coincides with the statements of Leon (2018), who refers to the insistence of YouTubers on these details. She also highlights that the platform itself offers a guide for its structuring. Others, such as JorgeIsaac115, prefer to hire professional designers so that their content stands out and acquires a differentiating element.
One activity that requires more knowledge of illustration tools is the animated introduction. Out of the 20 videos, only two have an animated welcome established. At last, the cards option is presented, which is a function almost nonexistent in the analyzed sample (only one). This tool adds interactive buttons that appear during the video and suggest other videos of the channel with similar content (Figure 4).
A skill on the map of media competencies of emerging prosumers is the ability to create and work collaboratively (Gil-Quintana et al., 2020). YouTuber Isabel Paipay highlights that her content is the result of a team specialized in social networks and digital marketing, which leads her to talk about the way she disseminates her content: "I publish or mention them in my other social networks (Instagram, Facebook)," she says. This is similar to what Kapléx does. While for JorgeIsaac115 advertising YouTube content on other social networks does not have a major effect, he argues that the key is in the striking presentation of the video, either in its name or in the graphic part, and the platform itself is responsible for promoting it.
For JorgeIsaac115, the most important thing is the narrative of the creator rather than the visual resources he uses. Regarding this, he recalls that the success of his channel was due to the creation of Fortnite theories, a videogame in which there are curious events that sometimes happen. These events attract the attention of his followers, who try to guess what these events are about. Despite these situations, he maintains that the contents of his channel have a professional creative process since he works with a video editor and sometimes graphic designers.
None of the YouTubers interviewed is over 25 years old. However, they have established themselves as content creators and receive an economic income that has allowed them to buy better production equipment such as high-end smartphones, tripods, softbox lights, microphones, LED rings, and drones. They have been also able to build a recording studio, travel, purchase goods, and hire staff. Likewise, although they did not know the processes of content production initially, over time, they acquired training from tutorials and other sources. With this training, they went from using free and user-friendly software to purchasing licenses for more sophisticated software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Audition that allows them to produce videos with better quality.

Conclusions
Given the objective of this research, important findings about the language that sustains the creations of the most representative YouTubers of the Andean Community and the respective relationship with the aesthetic, visual, and enunciative aspects in their representations have been typified and discussed. In this sense, the narrative of young YouTubers from the Andean Community is mainly self-referential and, thanks to this their followers, identify with their qualities and find their ways of life similar to their own (Chamberlain, 2010;Montes-Vozmediano et al., 2018). The use of language is mostly referential, and a lot of videos show explicit or offensive language or make use of foul language, and this is mostly observed in the videos of gamers, also 7 out of the 20 studied videos, show slightly violent acts. This finding corresponds to that found by Rego and Romero-Rodríguez (2016), who analyzed the videos of the most popular Spanish "gamer" YouTubers, and recurrently found foul language in the clips, which is a relevant aspect considering that young people are the most vulnerable population on YouTube Mohsin, 2020;We Are Social, 2021). This shows that the classification of adult content on YouTube is not enough. The key is in the media competence education of prosumers (Papadamou et al., 2019). For these reasons, it is important to conduct further studies that focus on analyzing the discourse and messages that these new opinion leaders transmit, especially considering that many times a lot of their followers tend to be minors, a highly influential audience (Renés Arellano et al., 2020;Rodríguez-Virgili et al., 2021).
Regarding the impact of YouTubers, it was assured that with a higher number of videos the interaction in their channels would increase, implying that they  produce entertainment content consumed by a significant part of the YouTube market. Also, these creators produce less conventional content in relation to traditional media, and thus increase their audiences (Anderson, 2004). An example of this is found in the increased number of likes, with a ratio of 95.3% over the overall number of videos published by YouTubers. In this study, the profiles that published the most videos were RaptorGamer and Luay, both dedicated to gaming themes. YouTubers use voice-over, sound effects, background music, animated intro, different shots, etc. according to the subject matter of the content. This shows an interest in developing skills related to audiovisual production that were self-taught by watching other YouTubers, tutorials, and even through formal training. This situation shows the participatory culture that emerges in this platform and the emergence of new content producers that are different from traditional media and processes (Berlanga & Fernández-Ramírez, 2020).
From this framework, researchers such as Lobato (2016) and Leon (2019) indicate that YouTube content creators notice the particularities that arise in terms of the dynamics of the platform, i.e., they have a considerable degree of awareness about this. Hence, they seek to improve the quality of their content.
The authors of this research recognize that the process of evaluating the narrative of young YouTubers from the Andean Community is not sufficient to determine the quality of the channels and their media and digital competence, since only the first and last videos were analyzed. However, this constitutes a starting point for future studies that could examine other aspects in depth of the content published by YouTubers or even the business models of this industry.