ALTOONA, Pa. — A research paper by Shaheed Nick Mohammed, professor of communications at Penn State Altoona, has been published in the Journal of Latin American Communication Research.
The paper, titled "Anglo-Caribbean Youtuber Vlogs: An Exploratory Study," examines Anglophone Caribbean content on YouTube with specific attention to identity and other cultural claims and expressions.
Mohammed examined a sample of 520 videos from 52 popular Anglophone Caribbean YouTube content creators and user comments posted in response to those videos. He also conducted open-ended interviews with 14 of these Anglophone Caribbean YouTube content creators based in multiple countries — including the creators' home countries or current resident country — to understand their motivations for posting and their experiences with their audiences.
The investigations revealed dominant categories of content such as cooking and family gatherings with varying levels of identity and cultural claims, but found that measures of identity and cultural claims did not differ significantly between creators who live in the region and those living abroad.
The findings also suggest a diverse set of motivations among producers that include the promotion of national and regional identities, but which often demonstrate more pragmatic and practical considerations with overwhelmingly supportive and positive comments from viewers.
Penn State Altoona supported the work in part. The paper has also been translated into Spanish.