Digital Drama Unfolded: A Linguistic Analysis of Public Reactions to Online Celebrity Controversies

This thesis examines how technological affordances and social dynamics shape linguistic strategies in YouTube comment sections, focusing on user expressions of disappointment and sarcasm during celebrity controversies. Drawing on Susan Herring’s Faceted Classification for Computer-Mediated Discourse (CMD), the study analyzes comment threads from videos about the 2024 Blake Lively and 2025 Sydney Sweeney controversies. The research employs mixed methods: quantitative frequency analysis of Netspeak features across six videos (pre- and post-scandal) establishes patterns, while qualitative discourse analysis examines how medium (technological) and situation (social) factors interact to shape communicative strategies. Additionally, Blommaert’s perspective sheds light on how globalization and orders of indexicality and polycentricity influence user online behavior. The theoretical framework situates YouTube within CMD research, tracing digital communication evolution from SMS messaging to contemporary multimodal platforms. Analysis reveals that users strategically use capitalization as an emphatic tool, punctuation as illocutionary markers, emoji as tone modifiers, and formulaic phrases as cultural internet references. Commenters, who are aware of netiquette, receive significantly higher engagement, suggesting that online users prefer the well-established online commentary over original but strongly critical viewpoints. This research contributes to Internet Linguistics by systematically analyzing how platform design and social dynamics together influence the linguistic strategies users choose when expressing public criticism online, demonstrating that Netspeak represents sophisticated language adaptation rather than deterioration.