Making Sense of Videos on Social Media: A Cross- platform Analysis

Sensemaking plays a critical role in social media, which features ambiguous, equivocal, and dynamic information, views, and opinions. While existing research has focused on sensemaking with respect to text entries related to extreme events, we examine sensemaking with respect to video content on social media. Drawing on sensemaking theories, we investigate the relationships between video features and sensemaking activities. Specifically, we analyze how information control, cue, and noise in YouTube videos affect sensemaking activities on YouTube and Reddit. Our findings reveal both similarities and differences in how these factors relate to sensemaking activities across the two platforms. This research enriches the current literature on social media sensemaking and provides insights for designing videos that better facilitate sensemaking activities and enhance user experiences.