This document summarizes a study analyzing the limitations of deliberation about anti-drug messages posted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on YouTube. The study observed 23 ONDCP videos over 9 months and identified 3 main resistance strategies in user comments: challenging the logic of drug prohibition policies, criticizing the hypocrisy of drug control policies, and objecting to the disabling of comments which was seen as suppression. However, the conclusions about YouTube not providing serious political discussion are limited due to factors like the self-selecting audience of ONDCP videos and demographics of YouTube commenters. Future research could explore online and offline activism connections and use framing theory to analyze issue framing.

1. Resistance Up in Smoke: Analyzing the Limitations of Deliberation on YouTube Aaron Hess, PhD Christina Locke and Wendy Allen-Brunner

3. Ph.D. from Arizona State University

4. Assistant Professor in Rhetoric Indiana University – Purdue University, Ft. Wayne

6. 23 videos

10. Hypocrisy of drug control policies

12. Copyright Violations

13. Corporate Ownership

14. Environment too playful

19. Consider how online activism affects offline organizations’ agendas, and vice versa

20. Expand on Hess’ mention of framing… possible study using mass communication Framing Theory as theoretical basis