2023/12/20 by Ryan McGrady, Kevin Zheng, Rebecca Curran +2 · 1 voice · 4 citations
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Media Influence and Politics #Music and Audio Processing
paper · doi:10.51685/jqd.2023.022
openalex publication_date 2023/12/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
YouTube is one of the largest, most important communication platforms in the world, but while there is a great deal of research about the site, many of its fundamental characteristics remain unknown. To better understand YouTube as a whole, we created a random sample of videos using a new method. Through a description of the sample’s metadata, we provide answers to many essential questions about, for example, the distribution of views, comments, likes, subscribers, and categories. Our method also allows us to estimate the total number of publicly visible videos on YouTube and its growth over time. To learn more about video content, we hand-coded a subsample to answer questions like how many are primarily music, video games, or still images. Finally, we processed the videos’ audio using language detection software to determine the distribution of spoken languages. In providing basic information about YouTube as a whole, we not only learn more about an influential platform, but also provide baseline context against which samples in more focused studies can be compared.