YouTube as research tool–Three approaches

The present paper provides empirical data to support the use of social media as research environment. YouTube was chosen as a most appropriate format to target adolescents in experimental and cross-sectional designs given its popularity as well as its plasticity. We uniquely applied the YouTube format as (a) an environment to present manipulated media materials in controlled experimental designs; (b) an environment to study effects of peer feedback on various media contents; (c) a format to design a media-based questionnaire, specifically, the Media, Morals and Youth Questionnaire (MMaYQue). Various studies have been conducted that demonstrate the appropriateness of our YouTube transformations for each of these three purposes. The focus in the present paper is on the methodology of these studies to illustrate how we effectively transformed YouTube as a research tool. © Copyright 2013, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2013