COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of popular YouTube videos as an alternative health information platform

Abstract

Dispersal of COVID-19 related information from YouTube plays a vital role in containing the pandemic and diminishes associated anxiety in the population. This study investigated the characteristics of popular YouTube videos related to COVID-19 outbreak. YouTube videos were searched using the COVID-19 related specific keywords with the eligibility of at least 1 million views. The videos were classified as types of videos (News, TV Shows, Educational, and Documentary) and sentiment-based titled videos (Positive and Negative). Total viewership, length of videos, comments, likes, subscribers of the channel, and the number of days since upload was recorded as video and user engagement characteristics. A total of 93 videos were found eligible to include in the study. About 44.1% of videos were educational and 32.3% of videos were news updates related to COVID-19. Furthermore, 45.7% of videos had a positive sentiment-based title whereas 53.2% of videos had a negative sentiment-based title. Viewer’s comment responses were classified into nine various categories; most frequent comments were sarcastic/humorous (21.5%) category. Results revealed the differences in audience behavior in response to different types of videos and sentiment-based titled videos. YouTube has a significant amount of informative COVID-19 videos and incorporating certain characteristics can increase YouTube video popularity.

Predictors of Viewing YouTube Videos on Incheon Chinatown Tourism in South Korea: Engagement and Network Structure Factors

“…Among four factors of user engagement, only the number of subscribers was found to be not associated with the number of views. This finding is in line with a recent study [25] that showed that the views of the YouTube COVID-19 videos were not dependent on the subscriber of the channel. At the most basic level, engagement begins with exposure, but the highest level of engagement is expression.…”

“…For example, the number of comments and likes are significant predictors of video view counts on YouTube, resulting in the greater likelihood of marking a video as a favorite and choosing to rate a video [23,24]. The likes and comments posted on the videos spread by word of mouth, which potentially leads to more views [25]. Channel subscription is also an important measure of user engagement, as it reflects a sustained interest in the channel [26].…”

Effectiveness of Social Video Platforms in Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination Among Youth: A Content-Specific Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccination Topic Videos on Bilibili

“… 81 In health communication, positive content is likelier to be liked by the audience. 82 In terms of vaccine-related content communication, positive emotions of the communicators could improve users’ attitudes towards vaccines and thus promote vaccination. 40 , 83 , 84 For young people, when receiving health information, both positive and negative emotions could be identified by perception.…”

People’s Perspectives on Covid 19, Fake News and the Vaccination Drive in South Africa

“…Apart from the challenges around vaccine hesitancy, there was also the issue of anti-vaccine, which came up strongly during the peak of the spread of COVID-19 and the global drive towards vaccination. South African media generally and most importantly the various social media outlets such Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube among other were filled with related print and audio-visual information on COVID-19 [38].…”