Card Stories on YouTube: A New Frame for Online Self-Disclosure

Abstract

This paper deals with the phenomenon of so-called (note) card stories on YouTube. Card stories can be described as self-disclosing videos or confessions, using a new frame for telling one’s own story audio-visually to the public by combining ‘old’ (hand-written messages) and ‘new’ media (video, computer mediated communication). In 2012/13, a qualitative and exploratory study with a sample of 25 card story videos on YouTube was conducted. The content and visual analysis revealed (1) that these videos are bound to a very specific frame of presentation, (2) that they deal with specific topics, and (3) that the presenter does not remain (visually) anonymous. These findings question previous research results that stressed a strong correlation between online self-disclosure and (visual) anonymity; further, the findings show that this special frame of textual confessions via video supports deep self-disclosures.

Stranger on the internet: Online self-disclosure and the role of visual anonymity

“…Our studies show that there are numerous videos that convey very private and sensitive information to the unknown public on YouTube by disclosing their identity visually (Misoch, 2014). Unidirectional settings enhance the processes of initial self-disclosure (like the 'stranger on the train affect') as they increase private self-awareness and also include self-reflexivity.…”

“…can expect. It is shown in our two studies that these frames guide the expectation of the users and their acting, and that particular internet services develop a frame and a contextual norm of selfdisclosing behaviour, which is bound to particular frames within particular services (Misoch, 2014).…”

“…The analysis of these videos indicated that only two sample elements did not seem to use a pseudonym (the name looked real, but this could not be proven by the chosen method of analysis), the other 23 used a name that is clearly and explicitly identifiable as a pseudonym (nick, phantasy, animal, botanic, number code). The topics of the presented videos were depression, suicidal thoughts, death of a parent, mobbing, self-injury, eating disorders, being the child of divorced parents, the parents' separation itself, bisexuality, cancer, alcoholism, panic attacks, rape, shyness and loneliness (see Misoch, 2014). With regard to visual anonymity, the analysis of the sample showed a very clear trend towards not staying visually anonymous.…”

“…The grade of interactivity seems to affect this process. As demonstrated, asynchronic services with low interactivity, such as personal webpages or videos, enhance the willingness to reveal authentic and/or otherwise hidden information about the presenters (e.g., Buten, 1996;Misoch, 2010Misoch, , 2014. The same applies for weblogs, a service that is highly interconnected, but always needs the preparation of the content in advance before publishing.…”

“…Examples are blogs (Hollenbaugh & Everett, 2013;Qian & Scott, 2007;Viégas, 2005) or videos, called 'note card stories' (Misoch, 2014), which generate a particular frame (Goffman, 1974) • The motives on why people want to disclose and which channel/service they use…”