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Recommended content is a big part of many people's everyday lives and shapes users' experience (UX) and media consumption on a daily basis. With a varied amount of knowledge about how algorithms affect people's media consumption, the decision-making process is influenced to varying extents. The focus of this study is therefore to examine the diversity of variations that exist around the perception of YouTube's algorithms and its influence on the users’ experience. We conducted a quantitative study in the form of a questionnaire, as well as semi-structured interviews to answer the questions of how the users assumptions regarding the recommendation algorithm on YouTube affects the user experience. The study suggests that the ignorance that arises as a result of the lack of transparency shown between algorithm and user, contributes to the user experience being influenced by the assumptions. To a large extent, we can see that these approaches depend on the mental models that users have built, which are often based on the assumptions made in the light of users' own experience.

Bakgrund: Sociala medieanvändningen har ökat och blivit aktuellt för folkhälsan. Kön, ålder och utbildningsnivå ingår i begreppet socioekonomiska skillnader och kan kopplas till användning av sociala medier. Modellen KASAM används som förklaringsmodell till hur meningsfullhet, begriplighet och hanterbarhet kan kopplas till användning av sociala medier. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka samband mellan användning av sociala medier och utbildningsnivå hos kvinnor i åldrarna 18–30 år samt om det finns några skillnader i användning av sociala medier i åldersgruppen 18–24 år samt 25–30 år. Metod: Genom en kvantitativ ansats samlades data in genom elektroniska enkäter och 109 respondenter besvarade denna. Dataanalysen genomfördes med hjälp av frekvenstabeller, korstabeller och chi-två-test för att finna samband och skillnader mellan variablerna. Resultat: Majoriteten av respondenterna använde Instagram och YouTube i tidsintervallet 31 minuter eller mer medan majoriteten som använde TikTok, Twitter samt Facebook befann sig i tidsintervallet 0–30 minuter per dag. Användningen av Instagram, Twitter, Facebook och YouTube var inte signifikant med utbildningsnivå medan TikTok hade signifikanta samband. Inga signifikanta skillnader fanns i användning av Instagram och Twitter. För Facebook var resultatet nära på signifikant och för TikTok och YouTube fanns signifikanta skillnader. Nyckelord: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, utbildningsnivå, YouTube, ålder / Background: The consumption of internet has increased and have become something that is topical for public health. Gender, age, and education level are included under the concept of socioeconomical differences, which can be connected to the usage of social medias. Sense of Coherence is used to describe how meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability and can relate to social media use.  Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate whether there exist connections between usage of social media platforms and education level among women in the ages 18-30 years old, and if differences in consumption of social media occurs in the age group 18-24 years old and 25-30 years old.  Method: Through a quantitative approach, data was collected with the help of internet surveys, and 109 respondents answered the survey. Data analysis was made using frequency tables, cross tables and by chi-2-tests, to find correlations and differences between the variables.    Results: Most of the respondents used Instagram and YouTube in the time interval of 31 minutes or more, while the majority that used TikTok, Twitter and Facebook were found in the time interval 0-30 minutes per day. The use of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were not found to be significant to education level, while TikTok had significant correlations. No significant differences in usage of Instagram and Twitter were found. For Facebook, the result was close to significant, and for TikTok and YouTube significant differences were found.  Keywords: Age, education level, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube

Generation Z has been in a high-pressure environment for a long time, whether studying or working, and everyone is in a fast-paced attitude of life. The online world, especially video software, is very popular among the Generation Z crowd because these video software can provide fast, convenient, and decompressed content. And when browsing videos, one thing that has to be mentioned is the advertisements. The frequent presence of ads has led to the rapid growth of membership on various platforms. However, YouTube is the most popular video sharing platform in the world. This paper investigates the attitude of the Generation Z user group towards online video ad placement on YouTube. Also, this paper studies and analyzes the value perceptions of Generation Z users. Also, this paper investigates whether users are equally influenced by the experience of ads on similar video software platforms and whether they have common influencing factors. This paper focuses on the impact of three ad delivery methods on Generation Z users' experience, including skippable ads, non-skippable ads, and five-second skippable ads. This paper will use qualitative research methods to conduct one-on-one interviews with respondents to study and analyze the results.

The popularity of Taylor Swift has been growing rapidly on social media after the release of her ‘Midnights’ album on 21 October 2022. The lead single of the album, ‘Anti- Hero’ and the ‘Anti-Hero Challenge’ initiated by the singer inspired 17 thousand fans (Swifties) to share their own anti-heroic stories inspired by the song. The aim of the study is to examine the contribution of the Swifties online fan community to the ‘Anti-Hero Challenge’ on YouTube Shorts. The research interests revolve around Swifties’ prosumption practices in a dialogical relationship with the original music media material, the fan community, the platform, and the artist. The goal of the analysis is to demonstrate how Swifties use YouTube Shorts for both personal and communal expression by means of prosumption. Prosumption refers to the synchronous production and consumption of media content in the field of Media and Communication Studies (Zajc 2015:29). The thesis illustrates how online performances, interactions, and discussions nurtured by prosumption practices shape and maintain the Swifties fan community on YouTube Shorts. The study applies the Uses and Gratifications Theory and Netnography to scrutinize how Swifties reuse Taylor Swift’s song ‘Anti-Hero’ to make their own media products, and give each other feedback. The findings indicate that online fan prosumption and discussion practices not only foster entertaining, humorous, creative, and challenging self-expression but also provide pathways for communal exchange.  Swifties fan community members play a dual role in not only being active audiences and critics of ‘Anti-Hero’ but also of fellow fan prosumers. Swiftie prosumers and commenters of the ‘Anti-Hero Challenge’ videos also draw attention to controversial societal problems and call for change. The findings indicate the beginning of an era where the boundaries between music production and consumption dissolve. The thesis calls for further scientific inquiry into music fan communities’ prosumption practices online and offline.

Today's media landscape is larger and more diverse than ever before. Individuals are fedwith news and information from many different types of media. When competition ishigh, media actors need to stand out to be noticed, sometimes to the extent that the truthis omitted or embellished. The purpose of this essay is to examine the consequences ofthe spread of false information on social media. The material of the essay consists of 25Swedish videoclips from YouTube and is intended to investigate how well the videoportals (headlines & thumbnails) correspond to the actual content of the videos. Themethod used in the essay is a quantitative coding of these videoclips and a multimodalanalysis from a selection of these coded video clips. To fulfill the purpose of the essay,theories and concepts such as misinformation and disinformation, filter bubbles, andselective exposure theory are used. The results of the study showed that many videoportals do not correspond at all to the content that the clip possesses. They oftenexaggerate or add details that make the video clip stand out more or appear moreinteresting for the audience to engage with. The consequences of false information spreadon social media can be many. For example, it can contribute to somewhat distortedworldviews. If individuals in a society are fed with incorrect information, it becomes moredifficult to get a fair picture of the world. It can also become normalized that thingswritten on social media are often not true, which leads to it becoming commonplace tobuy into small lies and not trust the information and news consumed online.

Under det senaste årtiondet har sociala medier använts av mode-influencers till att sprida sina budskap om personlig stil. Med de senaste årens klimatintresse har början till ett skifte skett från att uppmuntra till konsumtion till att i stället skapa medvetenhet om textilindustrins negativa påverkan på miljön. Syftet med denna masteruppsats är att göra en visuell kulturstudie av tre av dessa influencers argumentation genom de filmer de publicerar på Youtube. Den undersöker hur de använder visuell retorik i filmerna för att göra ett trovärdigt intryck och på så vis locka till sig en allt större följarskara och få betalda samarbeten, utan att uppmuntra till onödig konsumtion. I studien ingår sammanlagt nio filmer som publicerades under 2019 och 2020. Filmerna analyseras med hjälp av visuell retorik som kvalitativ metod och tolkas med visuell retorik och produktion av social och kulturell identitet som teoretiska utgångspunkter. En analys av tittarnas kommentarer på filmerna används för att validera resultatet av tolkningen. De tre studerade Youtube-kanalerna ökade sitt antal prenumeranter med i genomsnitt 64 % under den tid som studien pågick och alla tre influencers får betalda samarbeten som de helt eller delvis kan försörja sig på. De undersöker noga de företag de inleder samarbete med och undviker varumärken som inte är accepterade av deras tittare som etiska och miljömässigt hållbara. Alla de tre influencers som ingår i studien använder samma typ av visuell huvudargumentation för att övertyga sina tittare om vikten av en hållbar garderob. De visar exempel på hur de själva kombinerar sina egna kläder på nya sätt för att skapa en personlig stil utan att behöva köpa nytt. Studien visar dock att filmernas innehåll är mindre viktigt än hur trovärdig influencern uppfattas av sina tittare. En tolkning av tittarnas kommentarer ger att de i första hand är intresserade av hur influencern producerar sin identitet med hjälp av kläder och utseende, för att själva inspireras till att hitta sin personliga stil. Genom att efterlikna deras stil kommunicerar de grupptillhörighet med den influencer de följer och får på så sätt del av samma sociala status. / During the last decade, fashion influencers have used social media channels to spread the word about personal style. Due to the global focus on the climate change the content has begun to shift from a consumption culture to creating awareness about the negative influence of the textile industry on the environment. The purpose of this study is to examine three of these influencers’ argumentation in the videos they publish on YouTube. It investigates how the influencers use visual rhetoric to make a trustworthy impression to increase the number of followers and get paid sponsorships, without supporting unnecessary consumption. The study investigates a total of nine videos published on YouTube during 2019 and 2020. The visual content is processed using a qualitative method and analysed with a focus on the theoretical perspectives of visual rhetoric and production of social identity. The written follower comments, of the videos, are used to validate the result of the analysis. The three YouTube channels increased the number of followers with an average of 64 % during the study and the influencers are all in paid collaborations that represent all, or a part of, their total income. They thoroughly research the company before adding a new sponsorship and avoid brands that are not accepted by their followers to be ethical and sustainable. All the three influencers participating in the study use the same principal visual rhetoric arguments to convince the followers of the advantage of a sustainable style. They show a vast variety of outfit combinations using the limited amount of clothes in their wardrobes to create a personal style without the need of adding new clothes. The result of the study indicates, however, that the content of the videos is of less importance than how trustworthy the influencer is perceived by the followers. An analysis of the viewer comments suggest that their primary interest is to get inspiration from how the influencer produces identity through dress and appearance. By emulating their personal style, the followers hope to gain membership of the influencer’s community and achieve similar social status.

This dissertation unites two contrasting phenomena, musical theorizing as practiced on YouTube and dreamlike experiences involving music, under a single rubric: virtual space. While the two phenomena are disconnected in time, geography, and culture, they are nonetheless similar in that they are spatialized in ways that contravene how we typically experience physical space, So, I develop the concept of virtual space as a means of approaching the commonalities underlying these phenomena. Building on a definition of space as a medium in which entities are positionally related, I propose a framework for analyzing virtual spaces that emphasizes a phenomenon’s subjective immersivity and objective relationality. In order to bring out the human dimension of these virtual spaces, I concentrate on the discursive, instrumental, experiential, and generative aspects of embodied virtual spaces that are entangled in social, cultural, and political networks. To that end, in the first half of the dissertation, I discuss how a community of YouTube content creators has carved out a place for practicing, teaching, and learning music theory. I detail YouTube’s affordances as a space for theorizing music and a medium of communication, showing how content creators have leveraged these to great effect in their theorizing of game music. Flitting between the general and the particular, I balance case studies of content creators and close readings of audiovisual content with sociological approaches. In spite of the platform’s self-image and the community’s political positioning, I contend that YouTube’s egalitarian promise has been left unfulfilled in the English-language, Western-centric field of YouTube music theory, which replicates or even exacerbates some of the epistemological issues and unjust social structures that pervade academia and Western society more broadly. The other half of the dissertation concerns the analytical interpretation and precise differentiation of dreamlike experiences centered on music. I demonstrate that much of the discourse on this topic comes from close readings of music as dream. As this perspective locates dreaming in an object, I argue for counterbalancing this discourse towards a dreaming subject, and thus I propose a framework with three interrelated components. First, I carefully distinguish dreaming, as a virtual and spatialized experience, from standard waking consciousness through recourse to neuroscience and phenomenology. After that, I set forth a tripartite scheme that articulates the many permutations of how we might position ourselves, other subjects, and music in this non-dreamer–dreamer dynamic. Last, I classify the various interactions between music, dreamlike experience, and analytical interpretation. Using the music of Fryderyk Chopin as my example, I show that, though this music has accrued much historical and cultural meaning through being read as dreamlike, we have much to gain from the analytical insights unique to our subjective, dreamlike experiences with this music.

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No description available.