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YouTube Affordances and Use Practice: A Case Study of Russian Youth Audience Usage Patterns
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Olga Solovyeva
Current research is focused on technological influence on social structures and practices, particularly, on YouTube effects on content consumers. The study relies on the framework of affordances theory merged with uses and gratifications approach. Applying affordance theory, we structure the research to find out the drivers for technological shift: consumption patterns, digital architecture and aspects of user engagement. Moreover, integrating uses and gratifications approach to research design we depict motivations of users to consume the content and engage in digital communication. Data has been collected through two consequent stages: first an online survey was run to gather the data regarding main trends of media consumption (N=347, university students, convenient sample). For the second stage, we conducted 40 in-depth interviews with content consumers of YouTube. The research depicts and discusses major motifs of users: entertainment, parasocial connection with bloggers and searches for new information. Still, the perceived affordances of the platform structure usage patterns, as individuals are focused on the content consumption and tend to avoid further discussion or online interaction with the interface or other users. On the contrary, YouTube is perceived as the trusted source of information, which is further taken to the offline or familiar for the user online surrounding. The study opens the discussion on the further potential of YouTube as a collaborative platform for societal change and argues on the influence of digital culture to the practices of elaboration and deliberation of information.
Communication Dynamics of Candlelight Protests in Korea: Tweets Analysis using Dynamic Topic Modeling
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Choi SunYoung, Eunji Ko, Kumhee Jung
The candlelight protests of south Korea from 2016 to 2017 became a new milestone in the history of modern democracy. First, we set an unprecedented record of scale. The first candlelight vigil attendance was about 50,000 people, but over seventeen million people participated twenty-three times. Second, these mass demonstrations were held peacefully for seven months without armed conflict or bloodshed. The protests were held at various events such as rock music performances and free speech on the outdoor stage, and many family members participated together in a festive atmosphere. Third, the peaceful candlelight protests in Korea are the result of Internet grassroots democracy. The first candlelight vigils in Korea in the twenty-first century began in 2002 when a citizen reporter from the Internet newspaper ‘Oh my News’ proposed a memorial service for the schoolgirls who were victimized by US military vehicles. This candlelight protest has been displayed for several months in a form of peaceful assembly. From now on, the value of 'peace' is very important as Korea's unique candlelight demonstration culture from 2004 against former President Roh Moo-hyun's impeachment issues, the urging of renegotiation of FTA in 2008, Gwanghwamun protests to identify the truth of ‘Sewol’ Ferry tragedy from 2014 to 2016. This study analyzes tweets from the first through sixth of Korea’s candlelight vigils in 2016. We analyze tweets from this period with Dynamic Topic Modeling (DTM) method, exploring how massive rallies can be held regularly and peacefully every week.
Comparative Twitter Content Analysis of International Broadcasters: A Case Study of Boko Haram in 2014
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amon Rémy Mallet
Under which conditions are some tweets more likely to be forwarded or retweeted than others? This is the core question of the present research, as retweet stays for the most important feature for information propagation on Twitter. Drawing on my Master thesis in which I have analyzed 157 tweets from international media broadcasters accounts this paper reflects on "retweetability“ (the likelihood of a tweet to be forwarded or shared) of news media companies. Research studies on factors that influence “retweetability” have largely targeted the marketing field or the accounts of prominent individuals. I elaborate in this study on the understanding of virality on Twitter by examining tweets displayed by four international media broadcasters (CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera and RT) in 2014 when covering the attacks of the Nigerian religious group Boko Haram. Variables mobilized to give an answer to our query includes sources, emotions, and other textual attributes.
