"Talking Back" to the Text: Knowledge, Belief, and Justification in YouTube Comments

• In Event: 46.086 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 46.086-26 - Roundtable Session: Media and Meaning Making in Media Production, New and Digital Literacies, and Critical Media Literacy

Abstract

This paper documents an exploration of how users "talk back" to online educational materials. As part of a larger study of online video practices, we examined how users of YouTube employed the comment section of educational video to support or challenge learning resources, to tell their own stories, to provide assistance, or negotiate meaning. We pose the following question: How do users construct authority and respond to authority constructions in online video? We rooted our investigation in The Khan Academy, an open YouTube channel comprising thousands of videos and attracting millions of subscribers. By analyzing 11,366 user comments we gain insight as to how users adapt social media affordances in ways that are both like and unlike classroom-based learning practices.

Authors

• Christian Hendriks, The University of British Columbia

• Eric Meyers, The University of British Columbia