A method for time-varying analysis of YouTube search results and related videos: The case of the war in Ukraine

IF 1.8 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

European Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-06 DOI:10.1177/02673231231190762

João Guilherme Bastos dos Santos

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The increasing relevance of platformization sheds light on the role of algorithms in filtering political content, profiling audiences and defining the rules for the competition between traditional outlets and new content creators online. More importantly, algorithms learn and adapt results based on users’ activities online. But, if algorithms learn over time, how to deal with this time-varying dynamic when analysing them? The present paper brings a method for analysing YouTube search ranking and related video algorithm results over time, applied to a corpus of 1346 videos related to the war in Ukraine connected through 7934 related video links, starting on 21st November and stopping on 5th December. Results show that YouTube search and related video algorithms differ considerably in their behaviours, considering the channels and video clusters they benefited over time. It could be a dangerous bias to focus solely on one of the algorithms or presume its functioning based on collections made after – and not during – the political events they influenced. More than a matter of choosing methods, to understand how algorithms are changing the network structure of the current public sphere, it is important to develop new ones.

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对YouTube搜索结果和相关视频进行时变分析的方法:以乌克兰战争为例

平台化的相关性日益增强，揭示了算法在过滤政治内容、分析受众以及定义传统媒体与在线新内容创作者之间竞争规则方面的作用。更重要的是，算法根据用户的在线活动来学习和调整结果。但是，如果算法随着时间的推移而学习，那么在分析它们时如何处理这种时变动态呢?本论文提出了一种分析YouTube搜索排名和相关视频算法结果的方法，应用于1346个与乌克兰战争相关的视频语料库，通过7934个相关视频链接连接，从11月21日开始到12月5日停止。研究结果表明，考虑到频道和视频集群随着时间的推移而受益，YouTube搜索和相关视频算法的行为差异很大。只关注其中一种算法，或者根据它们影响的政治事件之后(而不是期间)收集的数据来假设其功能，可能是一种危险的偏见。要了解算法如何改变当前公共领域的网络结构，这不仅仅是选择方法的问题，开发新的方法也很重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Communication COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The European Journal of Communication is interested in communication research and theory in all its diversity, and seeks to reflect and encourage the variety of intellectual traditions in the field and to promote dialogue between them. The Journal reflects the international character of communication scholarship and is addressed to a global scholarly community. Rigorously peer-reviewed, it publishes the best of research on communications and media, either by European scholars or of particular interest to them.