Our project focuses on the sociological impacts of YouTube and their role in influencing social media entertainment (SME), defined as innovative content produced for cultivating fan communities and developing celebrity brands. Our research highlights YouTube as a cultural force through which key measures of human experience – play, creativity, labor, trust, and conspiracy – are actively channeled and made meaningful.
Content
Focusing on the developmental benefits of toy play videos, with attention on the detrimental effects for consumer socialization and unregulated exposure to content.
User Interviews
Highlighting the phenomenon of mis/disinformation, identifying perceived metrics of legitimate content on YouTube, related to the proliferation of conspiracy theories on social media.
Creator Interviews
Analyzing motivations of YouTube content creators, ranging from intrinsic (personal) to extrinsic (communal), emphasizing the limitations of YouTube’s organizational structure in supporting creativity.
Literature Review
Research rooted in traditional media studies theories, such as reception theory and audience studies, as well as emerging scholarship on social media, including creator economies and platform capitalism.