Abstract: YouTube influencers can attract huge audiences for a new personal style of infotainment. Female UK lifestyle influencers are particularly successful, having collectively garnered billions of video views. This talk shows how the comments left by viewers on these influencer’s videos can be harnessed to assess some of the factors behind their success. The results suggest, for example, that sharing very personal information is an effective way to generate a sense of intimate connection with audience members, a type of parasocial interaction. Examples will also be given of successful chemistry-related YouTube channels.
Bio-sketch: Mike Thelwall studied at Lancaster University (BSc and PhD in Maths), was an honorary research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute and is currently Professor of Data Science at the University of Wolverhampton. Mike's research is broad ranging (Bibliometrics, sentiment analysis, online research methods), he is involved in all sorts of activities (including for guidance on responsible research metrics use) and sometimes features in the Times Higher Education.
Bio-sketch: Mike Thelwall studied at Lancaster University (BSc and PhD in Maths), was an honorary research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute and is currently Professor of Data Science at the University of Wolverhampton. Mike's research is broad ranging (Bibliometrics, sentiment analysis, online research methods), he is involved in all sorts of activities (including for guidance on responsible research metrics use) and sometimes features in the Times Higher Education.
