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Volume :39 Issue : 156 2021
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YouTube Arab Bloggers’ Needs and their Gratifications (in Arabic).
Auther : Noha Atef
This article tackles YouTube Arab Bloggers’ needs and their gratifications. The study aims at understanding the motivations that pushed such Arab bloggers to produce and share video content. The study applies the Uses and Gratification Theory to 15 YouTube bloggers, whose channels focuses on the themes of studying and personal care. The study attempts to answer two questions: Why Arab bloggers are creating content on YouTube? (i.e. what are their needs), and what impact does the consistent use of YouTube have on their lives? (The gratifications). The data has been collected through in-depth interviews conducted in three Arab counties, namely, Egypt, Jordan and United Arab Emirates in the period between November 2019 and March 2020. The study concludes that Arab bloggers have five needs to satisfy, when they create and post video material via the YouTube: firstly, to create content in Arabic about the underrepresented topics in the mainstream media as to maximize benefit, secondly, to promote a trademark or a commodity for the financial benefit of the blogger, thirdly, to have a fruitful investment of free time, fourthly, to share one’s own experiences, fifthly, to make financial profits through YouTube by producing content on this social network that attracts a large number of viewers. Having a constant use of YouTube, the fulfillment of these needs can be represented in the following things: firstly, the subjects of the study developed a sense of power and influence, whether on the Internet or in their social circles, secondly, they developed a sense of belonging to a new social circle of followers and fans, thirdly, they made financial profits and relied on blogging as a source of income, fourthly, they acquired new skills, whether technical ones related to the image industry, or personal ones such as speaking to the public, or social ones, such as dealing with critics.
Keywords: YouTube, Influencers, Uses and Gratifications, Social Media.