A dual-trigger model of online affective appraisal in whale shark tourism: the case of Oslob, Cebu

Controversial wildlife tourism is shaped not only by on-site encounters but also by emotional appraisal through digital media. Whale shark tourism in Oslob, Cebu, has been widely studied in ecological, managerial, and participant-centered terms, but less is known about how remote viewers appraise it through unsolicited online commentary. Using Semantic Space Theory as a light analytic scaffold, this research note analyzes 7,808 YouTube comments through qualitative sentiment analysis and Phronetic Iterative Qualitative Data Analysis. The findings show a dual-trigger affective structure in which non-social emotions attach to two distinct appraisal objects: the vlogger as human mediator and the vlog as mediated artifact. The note contributes a bounded account of how digital spectatorship helps affirm, unsettle, or contest legitimacy in controversial wildlife tourism.