Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: As audiences transition from television to digital platforms, YouTube viewership continues to grow.This platform has fostered a community of creators that produce programming specifically for the site, which heavily differs from broadcast content.Inherent in YouTube original programming is the notion of audience participation and feedback between the creator and consumer.This study completes a content analysis of videos from fifty popular original programming channels on YouTube, along with five hundred associated video comments.The primary research goal was to explore how YouTube creators are developing content that is designed to engage viewers and analyze how audiences are responding to those efforts.The analyses found that YouTube original programming is highly personalized.Over 62% of the videos directly addressed the audience -either linguistically or visually-and most videos include other relationship building elements, like audience questions, calls to action and a personal introduction.While these relationship building tactics are not associated with a larger viewership, they do influence the qualitative feedback of the audience.Overall, the comments from viewers were largely positively and engaging.Only 3% of the comments were offensive, compared to 32% of comments that shared a positive opinion.The research further examines how programming characteristics contribute to audience comments and audience development.These finding indicate that YouTube content creators should design their programming efforts with audience participation in mind.In return, creators will be welcomed with a thoughtful and constructive community.
Author: Kelsey Savage
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2300686584