ANALYSIS OF VIEWERS' COMMENTS ON A VIRAL VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

Abstract

YouTube is a medium for two-way communication, where a variety of videos are shared on social media every day. Viewers are making various videos viral by sharing on social media and those videos are also becoming the focus of discussion at the national and international levels. In this study, the comments on YouTube have been investigated to understand the viewer’s opinion, ideology and their thinking. Active audience theory has been used as the theoretical framework of the study. The study has been conducted by the discourse analysis method. As a sample of the qualitative research, a viral video is selected by purposive sampling from YouTube and all comments (N=365) of the viewers have been analyzed from the YouTube comment box. The results of the study show that viewers have responded extensively to the viral video and the issues. Some comments are very informative which create a huge meaning for thinking and learning and show many unknown and hidden issues which are not directly available in the video. In the comment box, viewers post some data visual evidence to prove their argument and sometimes share an information source. Most of the comments are in Bangla, but there are also comments in English sentences using English words. There are memes, photos, data visual, screenshots, other video links, and Emoji which shows emotion like anger, and sarcasm in the comments. The average word count of the comment is one to three words. But the word count of the meaningful comment is 10-20 words. Viewers provide comments on the entire video, focus on specific parts and related issues, or sometimes even comment on irrelevant matters using slang and meaningless words; considering those issues, commenters are divided into three categories. Below the video, the light and deep natures of comments have been found in the comment box. It is essential to understand the natures of comments and viewers in order to prevent disinformation and misinformation. Recently, social media has witnessed an increase in rumors, hatred, and bullying through comments, and such comments should be minimized to promote a decent and more positive society.