<videovortex> YouTube and online dialogue

[Sabine Niederer]

Hi all, 
just noticed a new piece of YouTube research by Liesbet van Zoonen et al., that looks into video responses to Geert Wilders' video Fitna, and tries to make findings about the kind of online dialogue that YouTube offers (they conclude it isn't so much a dialogue, but rather a multiplication of views, as the abstract below states).
I can send you the pdf, should you be interested.
Cheers, Sabine

Liesbet van Zoonen, Farida Vis and Sabine Miheklj, 'YouTube interactions between agonism, antagonism and dialogue: Video responses to the anti-Islam film Fitna', in New Media & Society, 
Published online before print June 16, 2011, doi:10.1177/1461444811405020.

Abstract
Fitna is a 2008 short film made by a Dutch member of parliament to support his fight against Islam. It shows shocking footage of terrorism, violence and women’s oppression and claims that these are inherent to Islam. The film caused immense controversy and mobilized people across the world to produce and upload their own views to YouTube. In this article we analyze these videos using different theoretical models of democratic interaction, and distinguishing between antagonism, ‘agonism’ and dialogue. On the basis of a cybermetric network analysis we find that the videos are mostly isolated reactions to the film. Only 13 percent or fewer of the posters interacted with each other through comments, subscriptions or ‘friendship’. These interactions could be qualified as antagonistic or agonistic, but very rarely involved dialogue. We therefore conclude that YouTube enabled a multiplication of views rather than an exchange or dialogue between them.
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