YouTube Communities and Rankings

While discussing YouTube, José van Dijck argues that the site’s interface influences the popularity of videos through ranking tactics that promote popular favourites (2009: 45). How do ranking tactics impact the formation of online ‘communities’?

Firstly, ‘communities’ in this case refer to the large user groups on YouTube created by YouTube users themselves. The formation of such ‘communities’ happens when large user groups of anonymous people with similar interests come together and share their “cultural experiences” (Dijck 2009). Try logging on to YouTube and you will be amazed with the vast number of communities and channels available. As mentioned by Dijck in his article, examples of such communities include anime-fans and heavy metal adepts. Since YouTube relies mainly on user-generated content (UCG) platforms, it is also catered to non-produsers (YouTube users who do not create their own videos or upload videos). Non-produsers are able to comment and carry out discussions with fellow members within the communities below the videos. They are able to like or unlike the video, and rate the videos too.

I find the ‘Recommended For You‘ section on the main page of YouTube really intriguing. It is as if the site has a tracking system of what you have watched so far or seem to be watching. It is also strategically positioned on the top half of the page. Strategic because users will never fail to notice the section once they log on to the page. This results in the tendency to click on the ‘recommended videos’ when a user logs on. Another thing that I have observed is that such recommended videos tend to have high viewing traffic and discussions going on. By appearing under ‘Recommended For You’ section or ‘Most Viewed‘ section, the clip is most likely getting even more traffic.

Dijck’s concern is that such ranking tactics YouTube is functioning single out “‘most viewed’ videos; it also lists ‘most discussed’ videos and has rankings for ‘Top favourites’ and ‘Top rated’ – familiar categories deployed by most commercial radio stations” (2009: 45). What about the ‘least viewed’ or less popular videos? My latest log in recommended videos related to J-Rock (short for Japanese Rock), Visual-kei, indie bands, failblog and amongst other stuff that I tend to watch on YouTube. Without having to search for what I exactly want to watch, I have already been recommended on what to check out for. In this way, I am exposed to the sub-communities relating to the specific interest that allows me to interact more. This shows how the ‘ranking tactic’ of a website can do to influence a user to watch a particular clip. Hence, I do not see why there is a “neglect of the substantial role a site’s interface plays in manoeuvring individual users and communities” (Dijck 2009: 45).

Ultimately, I reckon there is not much ranking tactics impacting on the formation of online ‘communities’ on YouTube simply because we choose what we want to watch. We watch because we want to watch it. The interest or genre of the clip plays a great deciding factor on whether the user will click to watch it. To be very frank, the ranking tactics do not matter to me because I am very selective on what to watch. For example, even if a tutorial video on make-up appears in my ‘most viewed’ video page, I will not watch it because I don’t use make-up. It will also not appear under my ‘Recommended For You’ section as I don’t watch videos of such genres on YouTube.

References

Dijck, J.V. 2009, ‘Users like you? Thoerizing agency in user-generated content’, Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 31, No. 1, Sage Publications, Los Angeles, pp. 41 – 58.