Science communication on YouTube: Factors that affect channel and video popularity

Dustin J. Welbourne; Will J. Grant

doi:10.1177/0963662515572068

Science communication on YouTube: Factors that affect channel and video popularity

Dustin J. Welbourne^*, Will J. Grant

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

224 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

YouTube has become one of the largest websites on the Internet. Among its many genres, both professional and amateur science communicators compete for audience attention. This article provides the first overview of science communication on YouTube and examines content factors that affect the popularity of science communication videos on the site. A content analysis of 390 videos from 39 YouTube channels was conducted. Although professionally generated content is superior in number, user-generated content was significantly more popular. Furthermore, videos that had consistent science communicators were more popular than those without a regular communicator. This study represents an important first step to understand content factors, which increases the channel and video popularity of science communication on YouTube.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	706-718
Number of pages	13
Journal	Public Understanding of Science
Volume	25
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662515572068
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2016

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title = "Science communication on YouTube: Factors that affect channel and video popularity",

abstract = "YouTube has become one of the largest websites on the Internet. Among its many genres, both professional and amateur science communicators compete for audience attention. This article provides the first overview of science communication on YouTube and examines content factors that affect the popularity of science communication videos on the site. A content analysis of 390 videos from 39 YouTube channels was conducted. Although professionally generated content is superior in number, user-generated content was significantly more popular. Furthermore, videos that had consistent science communicators were more popular than those without a regular communicator. This study represents an important first step to understand content factors, which increases the channel and video popularity of science communication on YouTube.",

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AB - YouTube has become one of the largest websites on the Internet. Among its many genres, both professional and amateur science communicators compete for audience attention. This article provides the first overview of science communication on YouTube and examines content factors that affect the popularity of science communication videos on the site. A content analysis of 390 videos from 39 YouTube channels was conducted. Although professionally generated content is superior in number, user-generated content was significantly more popular. Furthermore, videos that had consistent science communicators were more popular than those without a regular communicator. This study represents an important first step to understand content factors, which increases the channel and video popularity of science communication on YouTube.

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KW - channel

KW - content analysis

KW - factors

KW - popularity

KW - review

KW - science communication

KW - video

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Science communication on YouTube: Factors that affect channel and video popularity

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