Analysis of user-generated comments posted during live matches of the Cricket World Cup 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this explorative-qualitative paper is to analyze user-generated comments posted on social media while live matches were being played during the Cricket World Cup 2015. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from Yahoo! Cricket, a website that allows people to submit comments during live matches. The comments were qualitatively analyzed using the grounded theory approach. Findings - The key finding of this paper is that people like to consume live sporting events in an online social setting rather than as isolated individuals. In addition, the use of the grounded theory approach helped uncover several new findings related to people’s use of social media during live matches. Research limitations / implications - Since this paper studied the case of the Cricket World Cup 2015 and collected data from Yahoo! Cricket, caution is advocated in generalizing its findings. Originality / value - Scholarly interest on the use of social media during live sporting events is growing. Building on such works, this paper highlights how user-generated comments posted during the Cricket World Cup 2015—mostly by individuals within the Indian subcontinent—intersected with broader issues such as culture, identity, politics and religion

Conspiracy Theories and Flat-Earth Videos on YouTube

The advent of digital user-created media platforms such as YouTube has made possible the spread of a wide range of information without the constraints of traditional mass media such as editorial gatekeeping. This democratized user-created media environment provides an outlet for subject matter that would otherwise not receive broad exposure–including material that seeks to discredit specific scientific findings and science as a whole. The present paper examines YouTube videos that advocate the idea of a flat earth and tests for conspiratorial ideation using a version of the Conspiratorial Mentality Questionnaire (Bruder, Haffke, Neave, Nouripanah, & Imhoff, 2013). The research finds that flat-earth videos significantly outnumbered debunking videos, were almost twice as long on average and were more likely to include conspiracy ideation, science denial and religious thought and to reference other social media. On the other hand, debunking videos were more likely to reference established science and enjoyed greater favorability ratings from viewers