This thesis has studied the frequency and distribution of apology strategies used by YouTube content creators in their apology videos and compared the strategy usage of male and female creators. The aim of this thesis has been to examine YouTubers’ apologies through the lens of traditional apology research in a new context: a public social media platform.
Seven main strategies were found in the data of which two had a few sub-strategies. They are 1.
an expression of apology, 2. an acknowledgement of responsibility with the sub-strategies 2a.
accepting the blame, 2b. self-criticism, 2c. expressing lack of intent, 2d. expressing regret or remorse and 2e. expressing disappointment or shame in oneself, 3. an explanation or account of the situation, 4. expressing praise, gratitude or love, 5. an offer of repair, 6. a promise of forbearance and 7. not acknowledging responsibility with the sub-strategies 7a. denying the offense completely or partially, 7b. criticizing the victim, 7c. denying the need to apologize and 7d. belittling the offense.
The most common main strategies were 3. an explanation or account of the situation and 2. an acknowledgement of responsibility, while the least common were 1. an expression of apology and 6.
a promise of forbearance. The variety of strategies in the data shows that YouTubers recognize and utilize many kinds of strategies to express an apology, although they do have certain preferences.
The study does not confirm the previous notion of women using more apology terms (like “I’m sorry”) than men, but it does indicate that there are differences in the choices of apology strategies between men and women. This might be due to how they have been socialized and consequently have different attitudes towards apologies.
Some cross-cultural apology studies that were introduced in this paper indicate that there are cultural differences in apologies. Since the YouTube community of content creators and viewers is international, future research on YouTube apologies could focus on comparing native and non-native English speakers and see whether there are cultural differences in these apologies as well. Another topic that would be a potentially interesting one to explore is the audience’s
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reaction to these apology videos. Certain kinds of videos might be more successful in having the audience forgive (or not forgive) the offender. Many apology studies have also focused on the relation between the severity of the offense and the intensity of the apology which would be interesting to examine in the case of YouTube apologies as well.
This study has given a look into linguistic practices in social media. It has examined which
strategies long-form, monologue-type apologies consist of and how YouTube creators apologize to their public audiences. This study will hopefully inspire others to continue research on
YouTube apologies, since they are a rich source of authentic, interesting data which can help us understand this speech act better.
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