"Do it for the viewers!" Audience engagement behaviors of young YouTubers

Sarah A McRoberts, Elizabeth Bonsignore, Tamara Peyton, Svetlana Yarosh

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

Online user-generated video sharing communities, such as YouTube, are becoming more popular than conventional studio-produced content. These communities provide every user with the opportunity to create and promote their own video content-a compelling venue for children and teenagers to share their stories and voices. In this study, we investigate the practices of youth video creators on YouTube. To do so, we conducted a content analysis of the audience engagement practices of 100 youth author channels, comparing them to adult and professional YouTubers when appropriate. We found that most youth authors are aware of and actively engage with their imaginary or real audiences on YouTube. They emulate the conversational and audience engagement practices seen in professional quality YouTube channels, but may not have the video editing or other meta-content skills or experience to do so. Based on our findings, we point to a number of implications for future research and design in this space.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of IDC 2016 - The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages334-343
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781450343138
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 21 2016
Event15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2016 - Manchester, United Kingdom
Duration: Jun 21 2016Jun 24 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of IDC 2016 - The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Other

Other15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityManchester
Period6/21/166/24/16

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 ACM.

Keywords

  • Authorship
  • Children
  • Online video
  • Teenagers
  • YouTube

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