Data and Methods
For my research, I analyzed archival data. Because I researched quantitative popularity, I used data found from nine different YouTube channels. I chose to use only public information, including follower counts and time between public postings.
This data is appropriate to my question of how different forms of social media can correlate with the amount of viewership and popularity a YouTube channel can gain.
The nine YouTube channels were chosen because they have different, yet established levels of popularity. They were also split into three groups: Bloggers, Musicians, and Inadvertent Viral Videos. I wanted to see if the effects of social media applied to all internet users, or only users that use YouTube in a certain way.
This is the list of YouTube personalities I chose to take data from:
Bloggers
• Tyler Oakley (tyleroakley)
• Jenna Mourey (jennamarbles)
• Lucas Cruikshank (Fred)
Musicians
• Justin Bieber (kidrauhl)
• Rebecca Black (rebecca)
• Grayson Chance (greyson97)
Inadvertent Fame (viral videos)
• Team Starkid (starkidpotter)
• Harry and Charlie Davies-Carr (HDCYT)
• David De Vore Jr (booba1234)
For each YouTube channel, I found data from the following questions:
- What is the name of the YouTube channel?
- What date was the channel created?
- How many social media platforms are utilized (officially and publicly promoted)?
- Does the channel post on a Tumblr account?
- Does the channel post on a Facebook account?
- If so, how many likes does the page have?
- Does the channel post on a Twitter account?
- If so, how many followers does the account have?
- How often was the YouTube channel updated between May 20, 2012 and May 27, 2012?
- How often was the Tumblr page (if applicable) updated between May 20, 2012 and May 27, 2012?
- How often was the Facebook page (if applicable) updated between May 20, 2012 and May 27, 2012?
- How often was the Twitter page (if applicable) updated between May 20, 2012 and May 27, 2012?
- How many subscribers did the YouTube channel have on May 20, 2012?
- How many subscribers did the YouTube channel have on May 27, 2012?
- How many subscribers did the YouTube channel gain or lose in the time period between May 20, 2012 and May 27, 2012?
After this, I looked at twenty of the most recent comments on the most popular video from each channel. I coded each of the comments to see if the response was positive, negative, or indifferent.
Ethics
All of the information I gathered was public information. The archival data I gathered was screenshot on my computer and will be deleted after the research is completed.
Based on ethical and logical decisions, I decided to exclude some information from my presentation. For example, the YouTube channel booba1234, which features David De Vore Jr., they date the account was created was only available if you signed in with a private YouTube account. Because this was not public information, I chose to withhold it.
I also chose to exclude data that included the number of times a video had been seen. This is because YouTube accounts for multiple views per person. For example, if I watched “Charlie bit my finger – again” on the YouTube channel HDCYT thirty times, the view count would increase thirty times. On the other hand, an individual can only subscribe to a channel once, therefore giving a more accurate representation of how popular a channel really is.
I also chose to exclude spam comments when analyzing the positive or negative comments in the most popular videos.