Seeing past in the DREAM: a computational grounded theory analysis of comments on nostalgic videos
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47989/ir31iConf64205Keywords:
Nostalgic information experiences, Computational grounded theory, Sociocultural, Social media, Information useAbstract
Introduction. The paper adopts computational grounded theory approach to analyse comments on nostalgic videos, noting that the viewers’ information experiences of video-based nostalgia remain underexplored. It aims to identify nostalgic elements in viewers’ comments on nostalgic videos, and to uncover the underlying sociocultural attributes.
Method. Comments were collected from Bilibili videos tagged ‘nostalgia/Chinese retro’ that met view and comment thresholds, yielding 15,734 cleaned comments. Nelson’s computational grounded theory method was applied, integrating BERTopic modeling (silhouette score = 0.55) with iterative human coding by trained coders.
Analysis. BERTopic generated 67 topics and hierarchical clustering supported human coders. Coders reviewed representative comments for each topic, conducted independent coding, and adjudicated discrepancies through comparison and discussion.
Results. Five dimensions of nostalgic information experiences emerged: Dates, Relations, Events, Artifacts, and Milieus. Building upon this, the paper preliminarily developed the DREAM framework. At the sociocultural level, comments revealed the collective memory reproduction, everyday life emotional traces, and reflections on current society.
Conclusion(s). This study provides an initial framework for analysing nostalgic elements in nostalgic video comments and demonstrates the integration of computational and qualitative approaches. Future work will model the mechanisms of nostalgic information experiences in HCI contexts and propose insights for user experience design.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Jinhao Li , Yuxiang (Chris) Zhao , Dawei Wu , Qinghua Zhu
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