Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube
We present a large-scale quantitative analysis of anglophone politics channels on YouTube, with three distinct units of analysis: channels, comments, and videos. We demonstrate that although channels have been entering the YouTube system at a roughly constant rate since 2008, there is serious inequ...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
HOPE
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journalqd.org/article/view/8674 |
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| _version_ | 1849404328005074944 |
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| author | Kevin Munger Matt Hindman Omer Yalcin Joseph Phillips James Bisbee |
| author_facet | Kevin Munger Matt Hindman Omer Yalcin Joseph Phillips James Bisbee |
| author_sort | Kevin Munger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
We present a large-scale quantitative analysis of anglophone politics channels on YouTube, with three distinct units of analysis: channels, comments, and videos. We demonstrate that although channels have been entering the YouTube system at a roughly constant rate since 2008, there is serious inequality in the attention received by different channels and videos. Furthermore, prolific commenters are responsible for an astonishing amount of activity: 50% of total comments are written by just over 2% of all commenters. The toxicity for which YouTube comments are famous tends to be more pronounced among these super-users than among infrequent commenters. Our findings have important implications for the way in which YouTube viewers interpret what they see as representative of public opinion.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7c7d9a034ce84b00938ab3750c8d713a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2673-8813 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | HOPE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
| spelling | doaj-art-7c7d9a034ce84b00938ab3750c8d713a2025-08-20T03:37:02ZengHOPEJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2673-88132025-03-01510.51685/jqd.2025.006Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTubeKevin Munger0Matt Hindman1Omer Yalcin2Joseph Phillips3James Bisbee4European University InstituteThe George Washington UniversityUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstCardiff UniversityVanderbilt University We present a large-scale quantitative analysis of anglophone politics channels on YouTube, with three distinct units of analysis: channels, comments, and videos. We demonstrate that although channels have been entering the YouTube system at a roughly constant rate since 2008, there is serious inequality in the attention received by different channels and videos. Furthermore, prolific commenters are responsible for an astonishing amount of activity: 50% of total comments are written by just over 2% of all commenters. The toxicity for which YouTube comments are famous tends to be more pronounced among these super-users than among infrequent commenters. Our findings have important implications for the way in which YouTube viewers interpret what they see as representative of public opinion. https://journalqd.org/article/view/8674YouTubecommentsquantitative description |
| spellingShingle | Kevin Munger Matt Hindman Omer Yalcin Joseph Phillips James Bisbee Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media YouTube comments quantitative description |
| title | Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube |
| title_full | Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube |
| title_fullStr | Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube |
| title_short | Pressing Play on Politics: Quantitative Description of YouTube |
| title_sort | pressing play on politics quantitative description of youtube |
| topic | YouTube comments quantitative description |
| url | https://journalqd.org/article/view/8674 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kevinmunger pressingplayonpoliticsquantitativedescriptionofyoutube AT matthindman pressingplayonpoliticsquantitativedescriptionofyoutube AT omeryalcin pressingplayonpoliticsquantitativedescriptionofyoutube AT josephphillips pressingplayonpoliticsquantitativedescriptionofyoutube AT jamesbisbee pressingplayonpoliticsquantitativedescriptionofyoutube |