198. Name: Steven Buckley Title: YouTube and the Public Sphere: What Role does YouTube Play in Contributing towards Habermas’ Notion of the Public Sphere? (A Comparison between the Content of CNN, Fox News, BBC News, Al Jazeera English and the Young Turks) Institution: Cardiff University Country: United Kingdom Date: 2020 Language: English Abstract: The introduction of the video sharing platform YouTube in 2005 combined with improving internet speed provided a new platform from which a wide variety of content could be easily consumed by audiences. Habermas’ concept of the public sphere provides a conceptual framework to analyze how YouTube may be contributing towards a healthy democracy. By examining how various aspects of videos on YouTube uploaded to the channels of the news organizations CNN, Fox News, BBC News, Al Jazeera English and The Young Turks, this thesis aims to examine what role YouTube may play in contributing to Habermas’ concept of the public sphere. The study’s sample comprises a total of 1239 videos uploaded by the five news organizations over two separate weeks. A mixed methodological approach was taken where a content analysis and an automated sentiment analysis was conducted. The findings showed that the topic of the news videos did seem to play a role in the levels of user engagement. Similarly, the sentiment of the language used in the titles of the videos also had an impact, with negatively sentimented titles generated more engagement.
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