SCIENCE POPULARIZATION VIDEOS BY INDEPENDENT YOUTUBE CREATORS AND USER'S APPROPRIATION STRATEGIES: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF USER COMMENTS

The popularization of science through audiovisual media is not a new concept. Specialized television channels that began airing in the eighties and nineties, such as Discovery Channel (1985), History (1995) and National Geographic (1997) are known worldwide. Through their production of high quality content, they have become a major reference when it comes to communicate Science, History, Technology, Biology, and many other academic fields. Inspired by these role models; independent YouTube creators emerged and became big hits by popularizing science through their videos, which have different narrative structures from those of traditional television networks. Their success is backed by millions of views and subscribers, but most importantly, by having active comment sections on which users share their thoughts on the information presented and discuss among themselves. Modern media platforms are often branded with prefixes such as “inter”, “trans” or “multi”; which do not necessarily describe the communicational processes and the capacity of modern receivers to intervene, question, and critique the audiovisual narrative and information proposed by these senders.

Whereas traditional media only had to worry about sending a message through unidirectional channels, the receivers of these online contents can, albeit sometimes asynchronically, give meaningful feedback. This is useful if the sender wishes to test how the message was understood, and what can be done to further improve their narrative. But how do receivers interpret this information? This study first took a sample of (5) videos belonging to some of the most subscribed independent YouTube creators, chosen due to the diverse audiovisual narrative and themes they each employ.