Building better conservation media for primates and people: A case study of orangutan rescue and rehabilitation YouTube videos

Freund, Cathryn A.; Heaning, Erin G.; Mulrain, Imani; McCann, Jesse B.; DiGiorgio, Andrea L.

doi:10.1002/pan3.10268

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…Jarić et al [ 34 ] introduced a new approach termed ‘iEcology’, proposing that digital data available on social media sites can be an important supplement for studying multiple topics in animal behavioural ecology from temporal and spatial perspectives. The repository of videos uploaded onto one digital platform, YouTube, provides a useful source of information for surveying an array of topics related to wildlife ecology and conservation, including animal behaviour [ 36 , 38 ], threats related to biodiversity [ 40 , 72 , 73 ], attitudes towards conservation [ 74 , 75 ] and hypothesis testing [ 76 ]. In addition, these videos promote public engagement in science.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viewing the rare through public lenses: insights into dead calf carrying and other thanatological responses in Asian elephants using YouTube videos

2022

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Documenting the behavioural repertoire of an animal species is important for understanding that species' natural history. Many behaviours such as mating, parturition and death may be observed only rarely in the wild due to the low frequency of occurrence, short duration and the species' elusiveness. Opportunistic documentation of rare behaviours is therefore valuable for deciphering the behavioural complexity in a species. In this context, digital platforms may serve as useful data sources for studying rare behaviours in animals. Using videos uploaded on YouTube, we document and construct a tentative repertoire of thanatological responses (death-related behaviours) in Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ). The most frequently observed thanatological responses included postural changes, guarding/keeping vigil, touching, investigating the carcass, epimeletic behaviours and vocalizations. We also describe some infrequently observed behaviours, including carrying dead calves by adult females, re-assurance-like behaviours and attempts to support dying or dead conspecifics, some of which were only known anecdotally in Asian elephants. Our observations indicate the significance of open-source video data on digital platforms for gaining insights into rarely observed behaviours and support the accumulating evidence for higher cognitive abilities of Asian elephants in the context of comparative thanatology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viewing the rare through public lenses: insights into dead calf carrying and other thanatological responses in Asian elephants using YouTube videos

2022

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“…In the studies on Teenage Girls, it is stated that the Instagram application harms the mental health of one out of every three teenage girls [153]. Since SM is known to be harmful to adolescent mental health [67], as in these platforms, especially young girls are negatively affected by the content, it is not yet known on which group Meta will have a positive/negative effect [159,55]. In men, it is reported that it is beginning to cause more men to be drawn into the territory of loa ng, pornography, and video games [167].…”

Section: Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Easily actionable results are obtained with text classi cation (Tagging, Categorizing) and extraction models [54]. It has been used in various previous studies [55,56]. In this study, it was used to classify the metaverse articles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploratory Content and Sentiment Analysis of The Guardian Metaverse Articles Using Leximancer and Natural Language Processing

Tunca

Sezen

Wilk

2022

Preprint

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The metaverse has become one of the most popular concepts of recent times. Companies and entrepreneurs are fiercely competing to invest and take part in this virtual world. Millions of people globally are anticipated to spend much of their time in the metaverse, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, or culture. There are few comprehensive studies on the positive/negative sentiment and effect of the newly identified, but not well defined, metaverse concept that is already fast evolving the digital landscape. Thereby, this study aimed to better understand the metaverse concept, by, firstly, identifying the positive and negative sentiment characteristics and, secondly, by revealing the associations between the metaverse concept and other related concepts. To do so, this study used Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods, specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI) with computational qualitative analysis. The data comprised metaverse articles from 2021–2022 published on The Guardian website, a key global mainstream media outlet. To perform thematic content analysis of the qualitative data, this research used the Leximancer software, and the The Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) from NLP libraries were used to identify sentiment. Further, an AI-based Monkeylearn API was used to make sectoral classifications of the main topics that emerged in the Leximancer analysis. The key themes which emerged in the Leximancer analysis, included "metaverse", "Facebook", "games" and "platforms". The sentiment analysis revealed that of all articles published in the period of 2021–2022 about the metaverse, 61% (n = 622) were positive, 30% (n = 311) were negative, and 9% (n = 90) were neutral. Positive discourses about the metaverse were found to concern key innovations that the virtual experiences brought to users and companies with the support of the technological infrastructure of blockchain, algorithms, NFTs, led by the gaming world. Negative discourse was found to evidence various problems (misinformation, harmful content, algorithms, data, and equipment) that occur during the use of Facebook and other social media platforms, and that individuals encountered harm in the metaverse or that the metaverse produces new problems. Monkeylearn findings revealed “marketing/advertising/PR” role, “Recreational” business, “Science & Technology” events as the key content topics. This study’s contribution is twofold: first, it showcases a novel way to triangulate qualitative data analysis of large unstructured textual data as a method in exploring the metaverse concept; and second, the study reveals the characteristics of the metaverse as a concept, as well as its association with other related concepts. Given that the topic of the metaverse is new, this is the first study, to our knowledge, to do both.

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“…Ultimately (whilst there is currently little research on the causal nature of these relationships), how wild animals are portrayed online may, for example, perpetuate misperceptions that certain wild animals are suitable pets (e.g. Freund et al, 2021; Leighty et al, 2015; Ross et al, 2011; Schroepfer et al, 2011) or that it is acceptable, humane or safe (for the animal or the human) to touch and hold wild animals (for example, in Wildlife Tourist Attractions, e.g. Carder et al, 2018; Osterberg & Nekaris, 2015; Van Hamme et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The viewer doesn't always seem to care—response to fake animal rescues on YouTube and implications for social media self‐policing policies

et al. 2023

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Animal‐related content on social media is hugely popular but is not always appropriate in terms of how animals are portrayed or how they are treated. This has potential implications beyond the individual animals involved, for viewers, for wild animal populations, and for societies and their interactions with animals. Whilst social media platforms usually publish guidelines for permitted content, enforcement relies at least in part on viewers reporting inappropriate posts. Currently, there is no external regulation of social media platforms. Based on a set of 241 ‘fake animal rescue’ videos that exhibited clear signs of animal cruelty and strong evidence of being deliberately staged (i.e. fake), we found little evidence that viewers disliked the videos and an overall mixed response in terms of awareness of the fake nature of the videos, and their attitudes towards the welfare of the animals involved. Our findings suggest, firstly, that, despite the narrowly defined nature of the videos used in this case study, exposure rates can be extremely high (one of the videos had been viewed over 100 million times), and, secondly, that many YouTube viewers cannot identify (or are not concerned by) animal welfare or conservation issues within a social media context. In terms of the current policy approach of social media platforms, our findings raise questions regarding the value of their current reliance on consumers as watch dogs. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Building better conservation media for primates and people: A case study of orangutan rescue and rehabilitation YouTube videos

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 14 publications

References 37 publications

Viewing the rare through public lenses: insights into dead calf carrying and other thanatological responses in Asian elephants using YouTube videos

Viewing the rare through public lenses: insights into dead calf carrying and other thanatological responses in Asian elephants using YouTube videos

An Exploratory Content and Sentiment Analysis of The Guardian Metaverse Articles Using Leximancer and Natural Language Processing

The viewer doesn't always seem to care—response to fake animal rescues on YouTube and implications for social media self‐policing policies

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