Eighteen Textual Features in Comedy Videos Produced in Puerto Rico for Dissemination in YouTube

• In Event: Economics and Politics in Puerto Rico’s Mass Media Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore the textual properties of 18 programs from the comedy genre, which are produced in Puerto Rico, and transmitted on the YouTube platform. The sample was based on the channels classified as comedy and that generated content during 2013. The assumption that new digital technology has allowed for new ways of representation that transform the genre of narrative properties is the base for this research. This study was done under Lev Manovich’s theoretical framework of the new media concept, and supported by the participative culture concept proposed by Henry Jenkins. The textual analysis was done using the analysis model developed by Daniel Chandler, and supported by Ángel Carrasco Campo's definitions of genre and formats of television comedy, in order to observe the textual characteristics of the comedy that is being produced through YouTube. To take into account the textual properties of these productions, formal methodology was used. A template was designed with the purpose to observe content duration, visual narrative aspects (audio and vocabulary/language, included), themes, programing quantity, and the characteristics of the comedy genre they exhibit. Some of the most important characteristics of these productions are in the scripts, due to the fact that they followed a classic scheme of the story where an idea was created, there was description of the characters, and a situation was created and then resolved.

Although it is very hard to pinpoint if the scripts did follow some technical guides, it was found that they were true to a professional audiovisual production. These comedy productions that are made for Internet platforms like YouTube, are created with multiple narratives that do not always follow one that is specific, although they do maintain some television programing technical values that once incorporated to the new technology, take on their own unique style. The analysis of the comedy channels that were selected, demonstrated the marks that new technologies have made in textual genres broadcasted in digital platforms.

Author

• Diana Betancourt Caballero, U de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras