유튜브 ‘투병 브이로그’ 콘텐츠 시청행태에 대한 연구: 라포(Rapport)를 중심으로 (An Investigation into the Viewing Behavior of YouTube Illness Vlogging Content: A Focus on Rapport)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 강원대학교 사회과학연구원
· 수록지 정보 : 사회과학연구 / 62권 / 3호 / 129 ~ 155페이지
· 저자명 : 홍세인, 정윤혁

초록

죽음이 병원에서 관리되면서 일상생활에서 죽음을 접할 기회가 줄어듦에 따라, 사람들은 미디어를 통해 간접적으로 죽음을 경험하게 되었다. 최근에는 투병을 다루는 브이로그, 즉 투병 브이로그가 죽음에 대한 다양한 이야기를 전달하고 있다. 투병 브이로그는 한 사람의 투병 과정과 죽음에 이르는 과정을 세밀하게 보여주며, 질병과 죽음에 대한 이해를 높인다. 투병 브이로그에 대한 관심이 높아짐에 따라 생산자와 콘텐츠 효과에 관한 연구가 수행되었지만, 시청자 측면에서의 논의는 상대적으로 부족하다. 특히 이전 연구들은 주요 시청자를 투병자로 가정하였고, 이는 일반 사람들이 시청행태를 설명하지 못한다. 본 연구는 18명의 투병 브이로그 시청자에 대한 인터뷰를 통해 투병 브이로그의 시청행태를 탐색하였다. 브이로그의 업로드 방식이나 화면 구성 등의 인터페이스 요소뿐만 아니라, 투병자의 태도와 외모 변화도 제작자와 시청자 사이의 라포를 형성에 영향을 미쳤다. 이러한 라포는 시청자들이 지속해서 투병 브이로그를 시청하게 만들고, 댓글 작성, 좋아요 누르기 등의 시청자 참여를 촉진하였으며, 투병 브이로거와 시청자 간, 그리고 시청자들끼리의 연대감을 형성하게 하였다. 결과적으로, 강화된 라포는 시청자들이 브이로거의 죽음에 직면했을 때, 그 죽음을 ‘타인’의 죽음이 아니라 ‘나와 가까운 사람’의 것으로 인식하게 하였다.

영어초록

Conversations about disease and death have traditionally been challenging. Since hospitals started managing disease and death, people lost opportunities to encounter them in their everyday lives. The separation between daily life and the specter of disease and death has fostered fear and avoidance. To address these subjects, video content emerged as a platform. However, existing video content, such as movies and dramas, has further solidified negative perceptions of disease and death by utilizing them to heighten tragic sentiments or associating disease directly with death. These depictions have led people to avoid conversations about disease and death even more. Yet, with the advent of vlogs that share personal experiences with illness, people have started to discuss disease and death actively over the Internet. These days, people are uploading vlogs about fighting disease and sharing their attitudes toward death with viewers.
In 2018, only three 'Disease fighting vlogs' were identified in South Korea. However, by 2022, the variety and number of these videos have significantly increased. Nonetheless, research on 'Disease fighting Vlogs' remains insufficient. While some studies have explored the characteristics of this content or the motivations of vloggers who share their experiences with illness, little research has been conducted on the motivations of viewers, especially given that they are often unacquainted with disease and death. However, understanding viewers and their perceptions, participations, and sympathies with the lives of sick people is essential in the vlog genre. Although many studies have discussed the interaction and intimacy between producers and audiences within the Disease fighting Vlog genre, they mainly focused on 'informative aspects' of these contents, assuming 'people with similar diseases' as the primary audience. No studies have concentrated on the 'emotional aspects' of the vlog or examined the emotional support of viewers who are not directly affected by these diseases. Consequently, this study defined the interaction and intimacy between producers and audiences in previous studies as 'Rapport' and revealed that rapport functions as a primary viewing factor and means of content acceptance for a broad audience.
The study interviewed 18 vlog viewers to identify their viewing motivations and the ways they accept this content. It divided the viewing factors into initial and continuous viewing factors. YouTube technologies, such as algorithms and search engines, enabled voices of the few who post about their illnesses to reach many. These technologies have not only expanded the scope of the community, which was previously limited to those directly affected by disease, but have also allowed the voices of marginalized minorities to reach a larger audience. The study found that the novelty and provocation of the subject (disease and death), and the similarities between the viewer and the vlogger (in terms of age, gender, etc.) drive people to watch these vlogs, even if they are not personally affected by disease. These findings contradict previous research (Liu et al., 2013) suggesting that vlogs are primarily used by cancer patients for information acquisition. It implies that understanding the 'emotional aspect', rather than the 'informational aspect', of vlogs is crucial for engaging viewers unrelated to cancer.
Several characteristics distinguish Disease fighting V-logs from other media and vlogs. These characteristics, which make viewers feel closer to the vlogger and support them, serve as continuous viewing factors. The feelings of intimacy and solidarity that viewers experience through continuous watching, characterized as "personal connections" and "enjoyable interactions" by Gremer & Gwinner (2008), lead to the formation of rapport between viewers and vloggers. The continuous viewing factors foster rapport between the producer and the viewer, leading to active viewer participation and engagement. Viewer engagement is demonstrated through various behaviors such as leaving video comments, clicking the 'like' button, reading and reacting to others' comments, and more. This engagement behavior, grounded in rapport, strengthens viewers' intimacy with not only the vlogger but also other viewers. It affects how viewers perceive the death of vloggers battling disease and changes people’s perceptions of death and disease. Ultimately, rapport makes viewers perceive the vlogger's death not as that of a distant "other," but as the death of a "you" close to them.

참고자료

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