Renee Hobbs And Silke Grafe: A Content Analysis

In their article “YouTube pranking across cultures”, Renee Hobbs and Silke Grafe attempt to analyze recent trend in online prank videos. They study the difference between two distinct cultures, the U.S. and Germany to understand what the results mean. While using content analysis to examine reactions to these videos, the authors also use a literature review of the psychology of pranking and humiliation. Moreover, the issue is popular in the online community but has not received much attention from researchers examining it as a cultural fact. Although the authors show the differences between the American and German cultures in regards to these videos, it appears that part of their thesis is unanswered which drives readers to think with their

The first is a literature review. A lot of the literature reviewed concerns the power relationships and humiliation. This power relationship is based on three different actors or groups of actors. These are “the one who humiliates, the victim, and the witnesses, typically, pranks involve people in unequal power relationships” (Hobbs & Grafe, 2015, p.9.) The literature also looks at what the effects of humiliation are on the victims as well. They talk about the social patterns that exist as a result in places that are usually considered safe places like work and home. Some literature suggests that this emotional need to humiliate others is a result of the person pranking’s need for attention from others. This may have to do with the witnesses (Hobbs & Grafe, 2015, p.10). Next, the authors use the literature to talk about how people may get some sort of satisfaction. They do not from carrying out the actual prank sometimes but from the watching it on the Internet. The authors talk about the German idea of schadenfreude. This is used in English “to describe the emotional response generated in feeling pleasure at another person’s suffering” (Smith, 2009 cited in Hobbs and Grafe, 2015, p.12). The authors try to think about how the idea of the rise of the prank video is a result of this schadenfreude. Maybe it can show a cultural picture of values of joy because of humiliation. They re-state their question, is this different between Germans and Americans? On the other hand, the second method used is a content analysis of YouTube videos. The authors watched around 180 YouTube videos. These videos were based on the scary “maze game” video pranks in both German and in English. They coded for different variables in the video. These variables included demographics of the victim such as age (grouped in three different ranges) and gender. They also looked at if the victims were anticipating the prank. If they were,