Commenting on Top Spanish YouTubers: “No Comment”

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to analyze commenting activity and sentiment (polarity and subjectivity) in interactions in response to videos by Spain’s most-subscribed YouTubers. An exploratory study was conducted on the content of the comments, their relationship with other social media actions, subjectivity, and polarity, as well as from the perspective of the participatory culture. The results show that commenting is a potential option for interaction that is underused by the communities of users. Replies to comments are found to be limited to the user–user level, while YouTubers themselves and the moderators that YouTube allows them to designate rarely comment or reply on social networks. However, creators do monitor comments and provide feedback to a limited selection thereof in subsequent videos. There thus appears to be a strategic, exploitative use of comments, marked by a delayed response aimed at attracting audiences to new content.