Analytical Research Essay

Final Draft

Introduction

Social media, playing such a major role in the way people communicate, has stemmed the main

platforms that many communities base themselves on. As they are such accessible forms of

communication, many resort to these platforms when in need to chat, stay informed, or further share with

each other. Since its debut in 2005, YouTube has been one of the many popular platforms. Being a

predominantly video-sharing platform, YouTube holds unique value in the features it provides for users to

communicate. Simply asking for an email and password, YouTube accounts are effortlessly made,

whether in hopes to become a creator or to subscribe(follow) to a specific community. Once with an

account, features such as uploading, subscriptions, and like/comment sections are accessible with many

others.

Being that it is a social media site, YouTube has always been perceived by society as simply an

entertainment based platform. Yet, as researchers have become more intrigued by the influence/role social

media has had on upcoming generations, they have explored more upon its potential use. Observations as

to how YouTube once incorporated in educational environments has gained positive feedback, started

conversation as to incorporating informal learning in everyday teaching. Results as to how YouTube

played a significant role in influencing cultural competence across subjects (Jung & Lee, 2013; Çelebi,

Selçuk, Peker, 2018) to the very practice of language use (Pascual, 2019) are all promoting the change in

instruction. For as Jenkins himself wrote, that the promoting of such ‘informal learning’ style could very

well be what allows for younger generations to egage indefinitely across world. (2006) Continuing the

conversations, I will analyze as to how a specific communities' interactions affect the potential learning

outcomes.

Great focus upon the Vagabrothers YouTube channel, a ‘Lifestyle: People & Blogs’ channel

where these brothers(travel vloggers) document their journeys to various countries. Main intent with the

channel to create a community of like-minded individuals seeking to discover the world and appreciate all
travel content delivered. This ranges from virtual tours of the destinations to travel tips that should be

considered, all based-off their personal experiences. Analyzing as to how the brothers relay their message

through film to their recent million subscribers and how those viewers thus take in the content(seen

reactions within the channels comments section), I may add to the conversation as to how Youtube may

truly have value in a formal learning environment. Along with answering my initial research question,

“Does social networking platforms, like the Vagabrothers channel on YouTube, provide practicable

means of teaching that can be incorporated into formal learning environments based on the

communications within the community?”.

Methodology

As I ask, “Does social networking platforms, like the Vagabrothers channel on YouTube, provide

practicable means of teaching that can be incorporated into formal learning environments based on the

communications within the community?”, I have tailored my primary sources to be of benefit to this

research. As my annotated bibliography outlined, I have collected three primary sources, all pulled from

the Vagabrothers YouTube channel that I best believe will allow for communication analysis. From

observing the brothers video thumbnail edits, subscriber comments, and brief description boxes I plan to

incorporate the findings of my secondary sources to fully address the research question. The YouTube

platform itself, being video-sharing based, does not allow for much analysis of specific sources yet the

ones I have chosen best reflect the communications within the community, admitting a diverse set of

interactions to analyze influences. From each of the three comes a separate understanding as to how the

brothers in uploading their content have instigated a learning journey, providing community. In viewing

the brothers video thumbnail edits I plan to understand the impact the brothers wish to set upon the

community(intentions with how they portray content in such condensed image). Whereas within the

comments I may view the more so intercommunication that takes place between the members, and

occasionally brothers. Then the description box, a more so one-sided form of communication for the

brothers, simply added as an informative aspect for subscribers further showing how it may be applicable

in education settings. Carrying out these observations I believe that textual analysis will surely be my
primary method of research. Dissecting the pieces of text to deepen the understanding of YouTubes

benefit toward educational purposes while also inspecting the characteristics of “good” and “effective”

writing. Yet, incorporations of multimodal text analysis may be used as each source was

designed/structured differently for their specific purpose, which I would further like to analyze. Being

that the community has focused on the text and visual aesthetic, those are the elements that need to be

concentrated on.

Results

As the research process began, I had to be very particular with the community I was planning on

researching. The community fitting into participatory culture. On surface level, the Vagabrothers proved

to be a well fit for such a culture as their platform, YouTube, allows for a collaborative and engaging

community that takes all members into consideration, acknowledging each action that takes place.

(Jenkins, 2006) Greatly displayed through the efforts the brothers make it first creating the continuous

content, feeding the subscribers with more journeys and knowledge. While also using other forms of

communication with the viewers in the video thumbnail edits, comments section, and description boxes to

best create togetherness. The brothers too exemplify a great participatory community through their

mentorship as they bring such strong influence to how viewers perceive the world around, made evident

in further investigations.

As for the first form of communition

investigated, a much more challenging source,

thumbnail edits which are produced by the

creaters themselves(the Vagabrothers).

Thumbnails are a compact representation of what

the central topic of video will be about. With

countless efforts to display entertaining yet beneficial information, the brothers thumbnail editing tactics

have advanced throughout their YouTube career. As presented in Figure 1, there is much difference in the

brothers capturing of topic. For my researcher has found that brothers earlier content proves to target a
much younger audience with the google image and emoji stickers. Yet as for their more recent content,

displayed with much more safistication proves growth in the brothers intentions to focus upon a wider

audience with credible information. Proof displayed throughout the views and likes, while also amongst

the comments section of these videos. For with the first video, done three years ago, the top comments are

mainly entertainment based. Whereas the most recent

video, from three months ago, shows the brothers

greater influence on spreading information.

 Even as the previous source proved, there is large focus toward the comments section in terms of

investigating communication within the community. They are dominantly written by subscribers, carrying

out multiple “category” like comments. In sorting the

comments by ‘top comments’(as you may also sort them

by ‘newest first’) under each published video, there is the

common tread of appreciation and admiration for what

the brothers produce. Whether it simply be a sit at home

video or the documenting of a grand voyage, such

comments are at the top. To narrow the search, I looked

into the top 10 comments made under a fairly recent video of

the brothers welcoming in the year 2020. As Figure 2 demonstrates, the top two comments relay both

aspects, for the top comment proving the appreciation for the brothers being such inspiration and the

second one admiring all work put toward the channel itself. Out of the 8 coments that

followed, I had to elimate two as they were comments by the brothers and I was wishing

to investigate the subscribers comments. From the eight there were an additional two comments that put

key focus to the brothers being such an inspiration and hard workers.

For with the last source, the Vagabrothers video description boxes, like the thumbnail edits, are

solely produced by the brothers and taken in by the viewers as an informative message on videos content.

In investigating multiple video description boxes, the brothers since June 2018 have a set message put

forth in each description box. Over there 430 videos from the start of their channel it is only in the most

recent 62 videos that they have published a set message, pictured in Figure 3. This script to message what

subscribers should expect to have in content once becoming apart of the

community. Aside from that text the brothers have, since the first video 2014,

linked all other social media platforms for subscribers to go be apart of

whether wanting to see more photographs on Instagram to informational

retweets on twitter.
Analysis

With the now set findings of my own research along with the chosen previous written scholarly

journals, I may further analyze as to how the primary sources have proved their worth toward

understanding the community at a deeper length. Viewing their impact on how YouTube as a whole may

be an implemented learning strategy in formal learning environments. Looking into the Vagabrothers

YouTube channel and identifying writing within was, as mentioned previously, a bit challenging yet from

what was collected with the three primary sources, great relevance to answering the research question I

had posed was shown.

For with the thumbnail edits, this helped decipher as to how the brothers wanted to be seen as,

what their intentions were with having this YouTube channel. From the research conducted, it proved

much on their initial young mindsets to be focused on primarily attracting the crowd with specifc target

images and clickbait titles. Clickbait is the marketing your content with an intriguing title to attract

YouTube users to click on the video. As for in the early years of their channel, the brothers would

capitalize key words(such done in left thumbnail in Figure 1) to entice people in viewing their channel or

even capture an image that caught attention(left you with wanting to see more). This initially viewed as

the brothers simply seeking pay for views but later understood as getting a steady following to build their

channel into a place where people become curious and want to explore. As viewers became subscribers,

more invested in learning about the world(different places, different cultures) thumbnail edits became

more simplistic(showen in right of Figure 1), the study done by Çelebi, Selçuk, and Peker in 2018 was

proven. For YouTube with such range allows for people[focus to students] to become more intact with

other countries and cultures, growing their understandings. Creating further cultural competence skills

that carry on, set by Jung and Lees’ study in 2013 once witnessing how students grew with use of

YouTube in school setting.

Another main primary source that I would like to fully analyze is the subscribers comments in the

comment section of the brothers videos. The comments are ranging in various types of responses that are

highly distinguishable in their category. For instance, there are those comments by subscribers that write
with purpose to appreciate and praise the brothers for educating them on new destinations/cultures. There

are then those who write in hopes to add to the knowledge being taught(an insiders scope). These

different means of writing within the comments section expresses the interactiveness of the community,

sharing their want to learn. With common purpose in the community, all interactions are for the whole of

the community, with the further ability to even like or comment on a specifc message written(as shown

with green rectangle in Figure 2). Careful with their word choice, as a means of being respectful to other

people(with different cultures and backgrounds). With each new video comes a different set topic in the

comments section that is being primarily addressed yet do come comparisons/contrasts on different topics

to add more enlightenment. Being that the subscribers even use the comment sections of the videos

establishes the idea of YouTube as being more than a social entertainment platform, as they would like to

voice their thoughts, even if not being initially from America and speaking a different language. As a

worldwide of viewers are wanting to comment on a topic of high interest to them, research from Pascual

proves communicative competence is practiced and higher achieved. (2019) Allowing for the interest to

drive and motivate students in writing, proves the importance of informal teaching strategy.

The description boxes, written solely by the brothers is one of few areas in which we find great

writing from them. Being that YouTube is their main platform, content and information are primarily

done through video instead of writing. Yet, it is within the description boxes that they brothers write a

brief summary on what to expect from the video. Standing out from the video titles, description boxes are

also where the brothers offer links to their other social media platforms, companies they have

used/recommended, and as results showed an automated message on the breakdown of Vagabrothers

channel. Analyzing as to how they express such elements demonstrates the reciprocating of even more

information which is a main reason people are inticed to use social media platforms, especially YouTube

explained by all previous researches. Describing their channel is of importance as well as with the use of

inviting language and intriguing lifestyle the brothers are able to get viewers to subscribe and view more

of their content. It is once on the journey through their channel that the brothers will take you around the
world, appreciating the differences that make us all! That being of true necessity in the way we adapt

participartory culture into society.

Conclusion

YouTube, known for being a popular video-sharing platform, is not normally where one goes

looking to read engaging work yet more so to appreciate the visual. However, as my research has shown,

there is much more to YouTube. Whether users are even apparent of it or not, there is “good” and

“effective” writing that allows for prosper of the community, especially in a participatory way. Staying

engaged from the thumbnail edits, fellow comments, and creaters description boxes allows for such

continous flow of communication. Majority held by subscribers as more of a reaction is still to be

appreciated in its ability to intercommunicate with others from around the world. Interacting through the

interest of curiousity and want to grow with the understandings of new countries and cultures. What has

been able to develop through this community shows forth the opportunity YouTube has allowed for such

communities to have an interactive space where knowledge may be spread. Further advancing the

conversation of allowing YouTube to be used within formal learning environments.

With Youtube constraining the amount of writing I was able to research, there may be areas in

need to further observation in terms of what may categorize as those of non good and effective language.

Yet, continuing the conversations of past studies, I was able to deepen the understanding of what factors

determine YouTube to be beneficiary in the formal learning environments. Going from the interactions on

knowledge based within the comments to the credible information provided in description boxes, building

up the community! For communications held through social media platforms truly shape the ways in

which we are advancing as a society, yet should not be saught as a replacement to face-to-face

communication, only seen as a new approach to adapting a participatory society.

References

Ayling, A., Ayling, M. [Vagabrothers]. (2018, June 9-2020, February 8). [Description Boxes]. Retrieved

from: https://www.youtube.com/user/vagabrothers/videos

Ayling, A., Ayling, M. [Vagabrothers]. (2020, January 25). How Our Lives & Channel are Changing in

2020 [Comments Section]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxwTxxVc1YM

Ayling, A., Ayling, M. [Vagabrothers]. (2017, March 2). 10 Best SPRING BREAK Travel Destinations |

Cheap & Unique [Thumbnail]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9A-

eanwo2k

Ayling, A., Ayling, M. [Vagabrothers]. (2019, December 28). 20 Essential Paris France Travel Tips

[Thumbnail]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Yu6CGPaqA

Çelebi, N., Selçuk, G., Peker, H. (2018). A study on the use of social networks by turkish and german

university students in the globalization process. Journal of education and training studies, 6(11a),

88-97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v6i11a.3804

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st

century (part one). Retrieved from

http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html

Jung, I., Lee, Y. (2013). YouTube acceptance by university educators and students: A cross-cultural

perspective. Innovations in education and teaching international, 52(3), 243-253. DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2013.805986

Pascual, D. (2019). Learning english with travel blogs: A genre-based process-writing teaching proposal.

Teachers' professional development, 21(1), 157-172. DOI:

http://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v21n1.71253