Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing
To what extent movie viewers are swept into a fictional world has long been pondered by psychologists and filmmakers. With the development of time-synchronic comments on online viewing platforms, we can now analyze viewers’ immediate responses toward movies. In this study, we collected over 3 millio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1040755/full |
| _version_ | 1797947770043105280 |
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| author | Wenjing Ni Christophe Coupé Christophe Coupé |
| author_facet | Wenjing Ni Christophe Coupé Christophe Coupé |
| author_sort | Wenjing Ni |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To what extent movie viewers are swept into a fictional world has long been pondered by psychologists and filmmakers. With the development of time-synchronic comments on online viewing platforms, we can now analyze viewers’ immediate responses toward movies. In this study, we collected over 3 million Chinese time-synchronic comments from a video streaming website. We first assessed emotion and cognition-related word rates in these comments with the Simplified Chinese version of the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (SCLIWC) and applied time-series clustering to the word rates. Then Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (HDBSCAN) was conducted on the text to investigate the prevalent topics among the comments. We found different commenting behaviors in front of various movies and prototypical diachronic trajectories of the psychological engagement of the audience. We further identified how topics are discussed through time, and tried to account for viewer’s engagement, considering successively movie genres, topics and movie content. Among other points, we finally discussed the challenge in explaining the trajectories of engagement and the disconnection with narrative content. Overall, our study provides a new perspective on using social media data to answer questions from psychology and film studies. It underscores the potential of time-synchronic comments as a resource for detecting real-time human responses to specific events. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:32:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a8b5cd2465ce4c4785f655984b13a3ce |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T21:32:59Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-a8b5cd2465ce4c4785f655984b13a3ce2023-01-19T13:12:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-01-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.10407551040755Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewingWenjing Ni0Christophe Coupé1Christophe Coupé2Department of Linguistics, School of Humanities, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaDepartment of Linguistics, School of Humanities, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaLaboratoire Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596-CNRS, Université Lyon 2, Lyon, FranceTo what extent movie viewers are swept into a fictional world has long been pondered by psychologists and filmmakers. With the development of time-synchronic comments on online viewing platforms, we can now analyze viewers’ immediate responses toward movies. In this study, we collected over 3 million Chinese time-synchronic comments from a video streaming website. We first assessed emotion and cognition-related word rates in these comments with the Simplified Chinese version of the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (SCLIWC) and applied time-series clustering to the word rates. Then Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (HDBSCAN) was conducted on the text to investigate the prevalent topics among the comments. We found different commenting behaviors in front of various movies and prototypical diachronic trajectories of the psychological engagement of the audience. We further identified how topics are discussed through time, and tried to account for viewer’s engagement, considering successively movie genres, topics and movie content. Among other points, we finally discussed the challenge in explaining the trajectories of engagement and the disconnection with narrative content. Overall, our study provides a new perspective on using social media data to answer questions from psychology and film studies. It underscores the potential of time-synchronic comments as a resource for detecting real-time human responses to specific events.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1040755/fullsocial mediapsychologynatural language processinghuman media interactionmedia psychology |
| spellingShingle | Wenjing Ni Christophe Coupé Christophe Coupé Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing Frontiers in Psychology social media psychology natural language processing human media interaction media psychology |
| title | Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing |
| title_full | Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing |
| title_fullStr | Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing |
| title_short | Time-synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing |
| title_sort | time synchronic comments on video streaming website reveal core structures of audience engagement in movie viewing |
| topic | social media psychology natural language processing human media interaction media psychology |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1040755/full |
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