From Comment to Data: A Multimodal Case Study of Datification in Public Online Discourse

This dataset documents the intentional transformation of a public social media comment into a persistent, citable research artifact. Rather than serving as a corpus for statistical analysis, the dataset functions as a demonstrative and methodological case study illustrating how everyday digital speech becomes “data” through archival intervention, context collapse, and formalization. The dataset is anchored to a single public YouTube comment and the subsequent interaction that followed its reframing as data via Digital Object Identifier (DOI) assignment and archival storage. The event is documented across multiple modalities, including textual records, visual infographics, temporal sequencing, audiovisual narration, and a permanent repository record. By foregrounding the mechanics of datification rather than treating data as a neutral given, the dataset exposes how power, permanence, and interpretation are actively produced in contemporary digital environments. The artifact is intended for methodological discussion in digital ethnography, data studies, platform studies, and AI ethics education.