Will It Blend? YouTube: Where Mass Communication and Social Connection Mix
In “Social Interaction and Co-viewing With YouTube: Blending Mass Communication with Social Connection”, Haridakis and Hanson discuss the findings of their study that examined whether motives and individual characteristics predicted the viewing of YouTube videos and the sharing of them with others. The findings, claim the authors, suggest that, while people watch videos on YouTube for many of the same reasons they watch television, “there is a distinctly social aspect to YouTube use that reflects its social networking characteristics” (317). Specifically, the findings show that entertainment, information-seeking, co-viewing and social interaction are the primary motivators behind viewing and sharing YouTube content, while social activity predicted both watching and sharing and locus of control predicted the sharing of videos. Refuting previous research that suggested the Internet was blurring the lines of mass and interpersonal communication, Haridakis and Hanson posit that these motives behind these forms of communications are actually blended in the age of social networking with websites like YouTube where users moving “seamlessly between traditional mass communication activity of watching mediated content, and interpersonal or social connection activity of sharing with others” (318).
Comparing this study’s findings with four of my own recent uses of YouTube, I have to agree with the claims that Haridakis and Hanson make in their paper. Four specific examples from this last week alone seem to align nicely with the four primary motivators that the authors highlight in their findings:
1. Information-seeking – “How to install Google Analytics to WordPress”: Sought a video to show my brother how he could do this with a music blog he recently launched.
2. Entertainment – New Era’s “The Trash Talking Begins”: While not a baseball fan, but rather a fan of both TV shows 30 Rock and The Office, was interested in seeing how New Era used these two celebrity personas to get people excited about the new baseball season and promote their line of sports caps. The video was published on New Era’s sponsored YouTube channel.
3. Co-viewing – peSeta’s “The Bicycle Cap”: The video came up in conversation so watched it with a group of fellow bicycle enthusiasts on a Saturday night. The idea from the video came from Leo Burnett Iberia and was published on Spanish textile brand peSeta’s YouTube channel.
4. Social interaction – Cute Roulette website: Heard about this website on Facebook and simply had to pass it along (i.e. share on their Facebook wall) to a friend who I knew would also enjoying viewing it. A stand alone website, Chat Roulette aggregates cute videos from YouTube in a roulette format.
Looking back and through the lens of this assignment, I can say that, with each instance, I used YouTube out of a distinct and specific motivation and was aware, at least subconsciously, which content role – the consumer or the purveyor – I was playing.
As a marketer, I’m also interested to hear Haridakis and Hanson’s call for future research to “flesh out profiles of those most likely to use YouTube and other social network media channels primarily to receive information, and those most likely to take advantage of social aspects of use reflected in sharing videos and information about them with others” (331). A deeper understanding of this behavior presents a huge opportunity to advertisers and marketers who wish to distribute branded messages online. I have my doubts as to whether or not this is reliably feasible, i.e. whether marketers can effectively leverage social aspects of websites like YouTube in order to raise brand awareness or drive product sales. But I do find it interesting that two of the four examples that I mentioned above were specifically produced as promotional content (a fact that I’ve noticed is lost on many of the video’s viewers) and achieved significant “viral” results.
View my discussion slides on SlideShare here.
Oh, and here is the SlideShare embedded:
**APA Citation
Hanson, G. & Haridakis, P. (June 2009). Social Interaction and Co-Viewing with YouTube: Blending Mass Communication with and Social Connection. Journal of Broadcasting and Electric Media. 53(2), 317-335.
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Nice presentation Mike. In reading your post, I like the way your brought in your recent experiences to validatge the findings in the study. And, as a marketer, I am also interested in further segmentatin to understand how to best use YouTube for marketing purposes. My concern is the accurracy of this if it becomes too narrow. For example, the findings from this study were very narrow (narrow age group, narrow segment – Kent State)…I’m assuming the findings would change as the segment changes.
This is interesting, Mike. I think that we will still use mass communication for entertainment but the social aspect is bringing a new twist into it. We share what we view, and we view what we share.
I really don’t think the lines between mass communication and interpersonal communication are blurring or blending. For me, these two types of communication are completely separate. I don’t share interpersonal communication on my Facebook wall and likewise, I don’t send public messages via email (unless it’s to a mailing list). In any case, your presentation was flawless and I think you had a very interesting perspective.
Nicely done. Cool flow. Enjoyed linear approach to backgrounding and presentation of researched information as it relates especially to YouTube and who uses it for what – namely gender breakdown and relevance to mass communication versus interpersonal communicating. Thanks for laid-back demeanor and easy-to-follow conversational style.
Mike, I didn’t get to see your preso but it looks awesome. I like how you used Slideshare. Also, I like how you gave some real world examples with how you’ve used YouTube over the past week.
Great job!
Eric
I wasn’t able to view your live presentation tonight, but this study was shared in two of my discussion groups.
You did a nice job summarizing, highlighting the most important points, and including your personal perspective. I agree that mass and interpersonal communication are becoming increasingly blended.
Thanks for your attention!
Hi Mike, You did a very nice job with outlining the paper’s findings and then relating their theories to personal interactions. I didn’t realize that New Era worked with Office and 30 Rock recently with product promotion. I did watch Celebrity Apprentice and they had product placement there as well. So in your opinion, is New Era a brand that “gets it?” Do you think that they have successfully leveraged social platforms in this campaign?
Thanks….can’t wait to try cute roulette!
Mike, I didn’t see your presentation but I saw other two leader present the same topic. And glad to see a different perspective upon this.
Personally, I don’t believe there will be a complete blend of mass and interpersonal communication. But they do connect in many ways as we are adopting more social media technologies. Agree with Corey on this point.
Very interesting thoughts. Nice job.
@Karen – Here’s a great post about the New Era campaign. I would say that this particular campaign “gets it” because they know where their audience is watching and what their interests are. From a marketing perpective, understanding what factors predict YouTube use – as the authors outline in this article – is what makes great social/viral campaigns, IMHO.
Hey Mike,
I didnt get to see your presentation but it looks great! There is some great analysis of the paper in your blog as well as nice personal examples that really tie together a great story.
Great Job!
Navni