Analyzing the Role of YouTube as a Platform for Political Conversation: A Case Study of Same-Sex Marriage

Referendums in North Carolina and Washington

Pooja

1*
Joshi ,

Xiangming

2
Fang ,

Tejas

3
Desai

Raleigh Charter High School1; Department of Biostatistics, East Carolina University2; Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, East Carolina University3

INTRODUCTION
Social media has grown into a global phenomenon
in the 21st century:
74% of online American adults use social networking websites
66% of all social media users report having engaged in some
sort of civic or political activity online
62% of Reddit users, 52% of Twitter users, and 47% of
Facebook users use the sites respectively as a news source

In the age of social media, YouTube has emerged as

an upcoming platform for political conversation,
especially within the younger demographic:
YouTube livestreamed both the presidential and vice presidential
debates for the first time via the YouTube Elections Hub during
the 2012 election.
Barack Obamas victory speech, posted to YouTube by the New
York Times, garnered almost 10 million views in 2012
The Obama Administration turned to YouTube to spread the
message of signing up for the Affordable Care Act in early 2014.

YouTube has been used at a limited level

at the state and regional level, but has still
had a significant effect on regional topics
like same-sex marriage.
We investigated the role of YouTube as a
platform for conversation and news
regarding two same-sex marriage
referendums: North Carolina Amendment
1 and Washington Referendum 74.

CASE STUDY REFERENDA

North Carolina Amendment 1:
AN ACT TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION TO
PROVIDE THAT MARRIAGE BETWEEN ONE
MAN AND ONE WOMAN IS THE ONLY
DOMESTIC LEGAL UNION THAT SHALL BE
VALID OR RECOGNIZED IN THIS STATE
Washington Referendum 74:
AN ACT RELATING TO PROVIDING EQUAL
PROTECTION FOR ALL FAMILIES IN
WASHINGTON BY CREATING EQUALITY IN
CIVIL MARRIAGE AND CHANGING THE
DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP LAWS, WHILE
PROTECTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN 2012

www.PosterPresentations.com

MATERIALS & METHODS

To find videos pertaining to the two pieces of
legislation we studied, we used the search terms:
north carolina amendment 1
referendum 74
We then applied the filters:
Short duration to limit our findings to videos
less than 4 minutes long
Video to eliminate any selections of music
High definition in order to ensure playability
Then, we recorded the publicly available data for
each video:
Title
URL
Sentiment (Positive, Negative, Neutral, or
Unknown as determined by the researcher from
the title and description)
Videos advocating For the given
measure were marked Positive
Videos advocating Against the given
measure were marked Negative
If the video did not advocate for either
side but simply gave information
concerning the measure, it was marked
Neutral
If the opinion expressed by the video
was unintelligible, it was marked
Unknown.
Views
Duration
Likes
Dislikes
Comments
Shares
We also collected data from the results of the two
elections:

RESULTS
Our search terms yielded 285 unique videos:
168 related to Amendment 1
117 related to Referendum 74.
Figure 1: Box
plots displayed
for (clockwise)
Duration,
Views, Dislikes,
Likes
*Interquartile
range only
shown for
Views, Dislikes,
and Likes for
display
purposes

CONCLUSIONS
Our finding that more views of Positive sentiment
videos correlated to a higher likelihood to vote
Against the measure and more views of Negative
sentiment videos correlated to a higher likelihood to
vote For the measure indicates that the messaging
appeals currently being used in YouTube videos
promoting either side of the referendum were not
effective. Further content analysis must be performed to
determine why.
In a divisive political climate, the effects of social
networking are amplified as polarized groups fight to
sway moderate voters onto their respective sides.
As social media overtake traditional media in popularity,
more and more people will turn to outlets like YouTube
for political information.
Persuasive political advertising will play a large role in
future political issues as a large percentage of
Americans remain moderate.

REFERENCES

Table 1: Results from Logistic Regression Model

Sentiment
Positive sentiment videos were associated with a higher
likelihood of voting For a measure
Negative sentiment videos were likewise associated
with a higher likelihood of voting Against a measure
Likes
Number of likes was positively correlated with the
voting outcomes as well
Number of dislikes was negatively correlated with the
voting outcomes
Views
More views of positive videos were associated with a
higher likelihood of voting Against a measure
More views of negative videos were associated with a
higher likelihood of voting For a measure

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Acknowledgements
*Contact at p2007joshi@gmail.com
Thank you to my parents, Dhanesh and Shivangi Joshi, for their undying
love and support through all of my undertakings.