Bullying discussions in UK female influencers’ YouTube comments

Thelwall, Mike; Cash, Scottye J.

doi:10.1080/03069885.2021.1901263

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…This article introduces a new method to automatically assess a social media video's sPSI potential through semi-PSIs in its audience comments, validates the method, and uses it to identify factors associating with sPSI potential in UK female influencers' YouTube videos. Female YouTube lifestyle influencers seem likely to elicit PSIs because they have large audiences, frequently adopt a direct, personal style and may influence their (presumably young female) audiences (Ladhari, Massa, & Skandrani, 2020;Lee & Lee, 2022;Thelwall & Cash, 2021;Torjesen, 2021). The restriction to the UK is a practical decision to increase homogeneity and reduce the chances of interpretation misunderstandings.…”

Section: Journal Of Data and Information Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

I’m Nervous about Sharing This Secret with You: Youtube Influencers Generate Strong Parasocial Interactions by Discussing Personal Issues

Thelwall

Stuart

Makita

et al. 2022

Journal of Data and Information Science

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Purpose Performers may generate loyalty partly through eliciting illusory personal connections with their audience, parasocial relationships (PSRs), and individual illusory exchanges, parasocial interactions (PSIs). On social media, semi-PSIs are real but imbalanced exchanges with audiences, including through comments on influencers’ videos, and strong semi-PSIs are those that occur within PSRs. This article introduces and assesses an automatic method to detect videos with strong PSI potential. Design/methodology/approach Strong semi-PSIs were hypothesized to occur when commenters used a variant of the pronoun “you”, typically addressing the influencer. Comments on the videos of UK female influencer channels were used to test whether the proportion of you pronoun comments could be an automated indicator of strong PSI potential, and to find factors associating with the strong PSI potential of influencer videos. The highest and lowest strong PSI potential videos for 117 influencers were classified with content analysis for strong PSI potential and evidence of factors that might elicit PSIs. Findings The you pronoun proportion was effective at indicating video strong PSI potential, the first automated method to detect any type of PSI. Gazing at the camera, head and shoulders framing, discussing personal issues, and focusing on the influencer associated with higher strong PSI potential for influencer videos. New social media factors found include requesting feedback and discussing the channel itself. Research limitations Only one country, genre and social media platform was analysed. Practical implications The method can be used to automatically detect YouTube videos with strong PSI potential, helping influencers to monitor their performance. Originality/value This is the first automatic method to detect any aspect of PSI or PSR.

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Section: Journal Of Data and Information Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

I’m Nervous about Sharing This Secret with You: Youtube Influencers Generate Strong Parasocial Interactions by Discussing Personal Issues

Thelwall

Stuart

Makita

et al. 2022

Journal of Data and Information Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…To compensate, the changes in average sentiment were considered significant only when CIs did not overlap. As a slight overlap between 2 associated CIs is consistent with statistically significant differences, our methodology is somewhat conservative [ 28 , 29 ]. Sentiment trends were also studied from 2011 to 2023.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Appraising Unmet Needs and Misinformation Spread About Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in 85,872 YouTube Comments Over 12 Years: Big Data Infodemiology Study

Malhotra,

Kempegowda

2023

J Med Internet Res

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Background Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy in women, resulting in substantial burden related to metabolic, reproductive, and psychological complications. While attempts have been made to understand the themes and sentiments of the public regarding PCOS at the local and regional levels, no study has explored worldwide views, mainly due to financial and logistical limitations. YouTube is one of the largest sources of health-related information, where many visitors share their views as questions or comments. These can be used as a surrogate to understand the public’s perceptions. Objective We analyzed the comments of all videos related to PCOS published on YouTube from May 2011 to April 2023 and identified trends over time in the comments, their context, associated themes, gender-based differences, and underlying sentiments. Methods After extracting all the comments using the YouTube application programming interface, we contextually studied the keywords and analyzed gender differences using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure. We applied a multidimensional approach to analyzing the content via association mining using Mozdeh. We performed network analysis to study associated themes using the Fruchterman-Reingold algorithm and then manually screened the comments for content analysis. The sentiments associated with YouTube comments were analyzed using SentiStrength. Results A total of 85,872 comments from 940 PCOS videos on YouTube were extracted. We identified a specific gender for 13,106 comments. Of these, 1506 were matched to male users (11.5%), and 11,601 comments to female users (88.5%). Keywords including diagnosing PCOS, symptoms of PCOS, pills for PCOS (medication), and pregnancy were significantly associated with female users. Keywords such as herbal treatment, natural treatment, curing PCOS, and online searches were significantly associated with male users. The key themes associated with female users were symptoms of PCOS, positive personal experiences (themes such as helpful and love), negative personal experiences (fatigue and pain), motherhood (infertility and trying to conceive), self-diagnosis, and use of professional terminology detailing their journey. The key themes associated with male users were misinformation regarding the “cure” for PCOS, using natural and herbal remedies to cure PCOS, fake testimonies from spammers selling their courses and consultations, finding treatment for PCOS, and sharing perspectives of female family members. The overall average positive sentiment was 1.6651 (95% CI 1.6593-1.6709), and the average negative sentiment was 1.4742 (95% CI 1.4683-1.4802) with a net positive difference of 0.1909. Conclusions There may be a disparity in views on PCOS between women and men, with the latter associated with non–evidence-based approaches and misinformation. The improving sentiment noticed with YouTube comments may reflect better health care services. Prioritizing and promoting evidence-based care and disseminating pragmatic online coverage is warranted to improve public sentiment and limit misinformation spread.

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“…Furthermore, it is worth noting that risks not only exist for users of social media, but also for the influencers themselves. Although very little literature can be found regarding this point, some of the risks faced by influencers include: the anxiety suffered by influencers as a consequence of the constant need to publish content and be up to date (Lehto, 2022); bullying and discussions about the work of influencers and their bodies (Thelwall & Cash, 2021); and more general perspectives concerning the vulnerability of influencers (González-Larrea et al, 2021).…”

Section: Risks Of Influencer Marketingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is Accountable for the Negative Effects of Influencer Marketing? Voices of the Influencer Ecosystem

Sanmiguel,

Sadaba

2024

icono14

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La investigación sobre el marketing de influencers (IM) destaca los beneficios de los influencer para las marcas en términos de visibilidad, compromiso y ventas. No obstante, estudios en el campo de la psicología y de la salud señalan algunos comportamientos negativos de los influencers que afectan a sus audiencias, especialmente entre los menores. Entender estos efectos requiere una comprensión más profunda de las interacciones, el entorno y los comportamientos en los que trabajan los influencers. Este artículo pretende profundizar en el negocio del IM destacando a todos los actores involucrados (consumidores, influencers, medios, marcas, plataformas, agencias, reguladores, instituciones) y evaluando su capacidad de influencia . El estudio muestra un análisis exploratorio de los actores involucrados en la industria del IM, basado en una metodología cualitativa que incluye 42 entrevistas en profundidad y 5 focus groups. Los resultados nos permiten avanzar tanto en la investigación como en la práctica del IM, permitiendo obtener una visión más profunda de los posibles efectos negativos, no sólo con respecto a las audiencias, sino también con respecto a todo el entorno de influencia.

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Bullying discussions in UK female influencers’ YouTube comments

Cited by 7 publications

References 73 publications

I’m Nervous about Sharing This Secret with You: Youtube Influencers Generate Strong Parasocial Interactions by Discussing Personal Issues

I’m Nervous about Sharing This Secret with You: Youtube Influencers Generate Strong Parasocial Interactions by Discussing Personal Issues

Appraising Unmet Needs and Misinformation Spread About Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in 85,872 YouTube Comments Over 12 Years: Big Data Infodemiology Study

Who is Accountable for the Negative Effects of Influencer Marketing? Voices of the Influencer Ecosystem

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