Linguistic Mechanisms of Viewer Engagement in Cultural Heritage Tourism: A Computational Analysis of YouTube Influencer Transcripts

초록

This study empirically examines the associations between linguistic features embedded in travel influencers' YouTube content and viewer engagement in the context of cultural heritage tourism. Using a dataset of 331 YouTube videos featuring eight major global heritage destinations, we quantified four higher-order linguistic dimensions (narrative, emotional tone, clout, and authenticity) using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. To account for the skewness and overdispersion of the dependent variable, negative binomial regression was employed. Results indicate that narrative language centered on personal experience, confident and authoritative clout, and authentic expression are each positively associated with viewer engagement. An excessively positive emotional tone showed a significant negative association with engagement, suggesting that uniformly optimistic language undermines perceived credibility in heritage contexts that demand historical seriousness. These findings position language as a central mechanism through which heritage meaning is constructed and communicated in mediated environments, demonstrate that emotional tone functions as a signal of informational value and authenticity rather than a purely affective cue, and offer a transcript-based approach to analyzing linguistic features in video-based user-generated content at scale.

키워드