Building proximity despite distance

Few studies have investigated the reconfigurations taking place in the modes of communication in agriculture in the age of social media. This article focuses on the emergence of a community of farmers filming themselves at work: the agri-youtubers. Based on a survey combining semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations conducted in situ and online (analysis of a video corpus), as well as a network analysis applied to the relationships between youtubers, we look at how these actors make their daily activities intelligible to an audience that is both distant and unknown. After situating these communication practices in the history of a community of vloggers aiming to regain control of the mediatization of farmers’ image among the general public, we show how agri-youtubers stage their practices in the format of a situated and familiar chronicle. This allows them to establish proximity relationships with their subscribers.