Deliberation analysis on YouTube Maja Turnek Hancic University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Scien

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Deliberation analysis on YouTube?Maja Turnek
Hancic University of Ljubljana, Faculty of
Social Sciences, Sloveniamaja.turnsek_at_fdv.uni-lj.
si
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Presentation Outline

• Theoretical background main research question
• Online deliberation analysis
• Methodological considerations
• -selection of cases
• -unit(s) of analysis
• -authorship and participation
• -transcription and archiving
• -visual, textual and audio modes
• -ethical considerations

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Theoretical background main research question

• Public sphere and deliberative democracy theories
  
• Globalisation
• RQ Are there any processes of international
  publics emerging on YouTube through public
  deliberation on global problems?

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Online deliberation analysis

• Meta-analysis 32 research projects which
  employed content or/and social network analysis
  while analyzing online discussions
• -common selection of cases, selection of unit(s)
  of analysis, and analysis of specific variables
  normative ideals of public deliberation (e.g.
  reciprocity, reason giving, politeness, equality,
  diversity of opinion etc.)
• Previous research
• -textual mode of production
• -analyzed what was percieved as one genre
  individuals expression of opinion
• -small variety of actors (individual citizens,
  political officials, civil society organisations
  representatives)
• Analysis of video sharing portals
• -combination of different modes (e.g. voice,
  music, video, pictures etc.)
• -enormous variety of genres
• -wider variety of different producers of online
  content (individuals, mass media and political
  and civic organisations as collective entitites
  and/or their representatives)

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Selection of cases

• Previous research usually selected threads or
  forums that were percieved as political and made
  a selection of posts
• YouTube
• Word search (YouTubes search engine)
• Selection of theme researcher what should
  they be discussing about?
• Criteria for selection
• - date of publishing (most similar to random
  sampling god for genre analysis)
• view count and rating (analysis of popularity)
• rating by relevance (criteria are not known)
• Other possible criteria type of author, type of
  genre, number of posts, only political videos and
  posts (e.g Graham 2008)
• Snowballing (could be well combined with social
  network analysis)

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Unit(s) of analysis

• Previous research post, thread, forum
• Analysis of YouTube video post, video posts
  thread, network of videos and posts
• Smaller unit (Stromer Galley 2007)
• -change of the author of text
• -change of the theme of text (whether the author
  talks on the specific issue or changes the topic)
• YouTube
• -change of mode of production (e.g combining
  media reports, power point pictures and
  interviews with experts, all in one video)

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Authorship and participation

• Previous research one post, one author
  everything else was a citation or referencing
• Video depends on the genre of video (e.g.
  mashup, individuals mass media posting,
  lecture, documentary, individuals personal
  expression)
• Example of mashup
• original author the video units that are
  recognized as a direct expression of the author
  of the video post will be of specific focus in
  the analysis
• referenced author other sources, that the
  original author employs within the video post
  will be analysed in relation to the expression to
  the original author (in terms of their function
  for original authors claims eg. of providing an
  example for original authors statement)

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Example Any truth? http//www.youtube.com/watch?
vIpFDq8J-8gcoriginal author laqhn, Great
Britain overall theme financial crisis Video
unit Whole video
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Genre anaylsis

• Criteria
• - type of original author,
• - type of referenced author,
• - mode of expression of original author,
• - mode of expression of referenced author (e.g.
  mass media genre)

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Examples

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSUSw1Osr90s -
  original mass media news report
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v1p4YfH74wfY -
  individuals posting of mass media news report
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vZkQ7Y4umjHE -
  Intergovernmental organization (OECD) interview
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vIT2Wg7lVYAs -
  Individuals own speech (visual non-anonymity)

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Transcription archiving
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Textual, audio, video

• Previous research and theory deliberation
  understood as rational verbal expression does
  this exclude emotional appeals for which video
  and audio modes are mostly used?
• Functions of video and audio expressions in
  relation to textual expression should be analyzed
  (genre analysis)

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Ethical  considerations

• Previous research
• -considered online discussion as public
  expression
• -sometimes avoided identification
• -Gaining approval? not in these cases since
  they percived the conversation as political and
  thus public
• YouTube
• -themes which are not considered as personal or
  intimate
• -What about in cases where the author deleted the
  video?