Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles (한국의류학회지)

The Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles (한국의류학회)
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A Study on Perceptions of Virtual Influencers through YouTube Comments -Focusing on Positive and Negative Emotional Responses Toward Character Design-

유튜브 댓글을 통해 살펴본 버추얼 인플루언서에 대한 인식 연구 -캐릭터 디자인에 대한 긍부정 감성 반응을 중심으로-

  • Hyosun An (Dept. of Fashion Industry, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Jiyoung Kim (Dept. of Clothing and Textiles, Chungbuk National University)
  • 안효선 (이화여자대학교 의류산업학과) ;
  • 김지영 (충북대학교 의류학과)
  • Received : 2023.05.29
  • Accepted : 2023.08.17
  • Published : 2023.10.31
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Abstract

This study analyzed users' emotional responses to VI character design through YouTube comments. The researchers applied text-mining to analyze 116,375 comments, focusing on terms related to character design and characteristics of VI. Using the BERT model in sentiment analysis, we classified comments into extremely negative, negative, neutral, positive, or extremely positive sentiments. Next, we conducted a co-occurrence frequency analysis on comments with extremely negative and extremely positive responses to examine the semantic relationships between character design and emotional characteristic terms. We also performed a content analysis of comments about Miquela and Shudu to analyze the perception differences regarding the two character designs. The results indicate that form elements (e.g., voice, face, and skin) and behavioral elements (e.g., speaking, interviewing, and reacting) are vital in eliciting users' emotional responses. Notably, in the negative responses, users focused on the humanization aspect of voice and the authenticity aspect of behavior in speaking, interviewing, and reacting. Furthermore, we found differences in the character design elements and characteristics that users expect based on the VI's field of activity. As a result, this study suggests applications to character design to accommodate these variations.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 논문은 충북대학교 국립대학육성사업(2022)지원을 받아 작성되었음.

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