Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL - Chapter-14 Images

1Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved

Chapter 14

YouTubeContrasting Patterns of Content, Interaction, and Prominence

Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXLInsights from a Connected World

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Dana Rotman is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland iSchool. She holds an L.Lb in Law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an MA in Information Studies (Cum Laude) from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Her research lies in the intersection of content and structure of social media. Currently she is studying the effect different tools and communication intentions have on the interaction created around videos that are shared online. She is the recipient of the 2009 Yahoo! Key Scientific Challenges Award.

Jennifer Golbeck is an Assistant Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park where she is co-director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. Her research interests are generally artificial intelligence and human computer interaction, specifically addressing social networks, trust, and web science, with a theme of leveraging social information to build intelligent interfaces and improve information access.


FIGURE 14.1C

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A YouTube video page, presenting the video alongside metadata about it and social tools for interaction with other users.


FIGURE 14.2C

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YouTube user channel for the singer Rihanna, presenting latest videos, information about the user, and tools for social interaction.


FIGURE 14.3C

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Examples of different networks found in YouTube.


FIGURE 14.4C

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NodeXL Video network data import dialog box, marked for importing videos that contain the word “makeup” in their title, keywords, description, categories, or username. The number of imported videos is limited here to 100 but can be set higher.


FIGURE 14.5C

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NodeXL YouTube User network data import dialog box, set to import 1.5 levels of the user’s friendship and subscription network. Network size is limited to 200 people and statistics columns about user activity provided by YouTube will be added.


FIGURE 14.6C

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Rihanna’s egocentric YouTube network NodeXL Edges worksheet, after importing 1.5 levels of friendship and subscription lists.


FIGURE 14.7C

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Rihanna’s egocentric YouTube network displayed in NodeXL. The primary layout (a) does not provide any information about the vertices but illustrates a typical single level egocentric layout. After filtering based on degree and edge weight and adding images to the prominent vertices (b), a small number of important connections are revealed.


FIGURE 14.8C

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Leesha Harvey’s egocentric YouTube network NodeXL Edges worksheet, after importing 1.5 levels of friendship and subscription lists.


FIGURE 14.9C

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NodeXL maps of Leesha Harvey’s egocentric YouTube networks. Layout I displays the overall friendship (blue) network and the underlying subscription (orange) network; layout II shows them after filtering based on degree >= 25 and reveals that the friendship network is denser than the subscription network, with only one subscriber who also befriended many other YouTubers.


FIGURE 14.10C

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NodeXL map of Leesha Harvey’s egocentric YouTube network with images, edges filtered by edge weight and vertices by degree. This layout shows the most connected users in Leesha Harvey’s network, most of whom are her friends, with only one subscriber included in the network. Clicking on the images will link to the users’ channels and will show that the majority of them share the same musical genre as Leesha Harvey.


FIGURE 14.11C

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Initial NodeXL visualization of the YouTube video network for the tag “makeup,” limited to 200 videos. This initial, incomprehensible, visualization is a starting point for exploration of the video network.


FIGURE 14.12C

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NodeXL network maps of the YouTube “makeup” tag, showing gradual filtering based on edge weight. (a) The network after filtering where edge weight >= 2. (b) The network after filtering where edge weight >= 4. Filtering reveals the network patterns from the mass of overall data.

(a) (b)


FIGURE 14.13C

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NodeXL graph of the YouTube Makeup video network after filtering for edge weight >= 5, opacity mapped to edge weight, and clusters computed. You can observe five major clusters of videos, two of which (pink and green) are visibly denser hubs of interconnections that span outside the cluster to include videos that belong to other clusters; and the other three (blue, red, and orange) are more sparse and less interconnected. Several isolates are placed at the bottom of the graph.


FIGURE 14.14C

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The position of “Natural makeup” within the NodeXL graph of the YouTube makeup video network. Vertex opacity and size are mapped to views and comments, respectively. The betweenness centrality of this video indicates that it bridges between one otherwise isolated cluster and several other clusters. It is a boundary object that connects several communities of interest in the network; however, this role is not reflected in overall popularity of the video in the YouTube network.


FIGURE 14.15C

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NodeXL maps of the “Queen of hearts” (a), the highest rated video in the YouTube makeup video network is an isolate, whereas “Beau Nelson’s Essential Makeup Tips” (b), the most favorited video in the network, is peripheral to the core of the network, connected to only one other video.

(a) (b)


FIGURE 14.16C

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NodeXL chart with vertex size mapped to degree, opacity to number of views, and vertex visibility to the number of comments a video received, Panacea81’s “Leona Lewis ‘Bleeding Love’ inspired makeup look” video stands out as combining the highest centrality metrics as well as the highest overall popularity measures in the YouTube network. This video, and its author, can be a good starting point for exploring the network and for commercial efforts.


FIGURE 14.17C

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Preliminary layout of NodeXL map of YouTube “healthcare reform” video commenter’s network, using the Harel-Koren layout. This layout is relatively unhelpful in revealing network patterns but is a starting point for further analysis.


FIGURE 14.18C

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NodeXL map of YouTube healthcare reform videos with color and size corresponding to views and comments, respectively. The number of comments and views do not necessarily correlate: red vertices, which generated many comments, are not always the most viewed (mapped to larger size), whereas several blue vertices (low number of comments) were viewed as many times as the more commented-on videos.


FIGURE 14.19C

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NodeXL map of YouTube healthcare reform video network with color and size corresponding to the number of comments and ratings for each video, respectively. The blue vertices, which are not frequently commented on, received (in general) higher ratings than the more commented-on videos. This may be the outcome of contentious content that generated heated discussion but dissent that was reflected in lower ratings. The highlighted video has the highest betweenness centrality, making it a pivotal video in the online discussion.


FIGURE 14.20C

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NodeXL map of clusters of YouTube videos discussing healthcare reform linked by shared comments. With two exceptions (the yellow cluster reflecting opponents to the administration healthcare plan and the red cluster reflecting videos supporting the plan), most clusters do not portray contextual ties between the videos.

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Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL - Chapter-14 Images