JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

YouTube has become the most popular video-sharing platform in the world. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster caused public anxiety regarding nuclear power and radiation worldwide. YouTube is an important source of information about the FDNPP disaster for the world.

Objective:

This study's objectives were to determine the characteristics of YouTube videos related to the FDNPP disaster, analyze the content and comments of videos through a quantitative method, and evaluate which features will make the video popular with the audience. This study was the first to examine FDNPP disaster-related videos on YouTube.

Methods:

We searched the term “Fukushima nuclear disaster” on YouTube on 2 November 2019. The first 60 eligible videos in relevance, upload date, view count, and rating categories were recorded. Videos that were irrelevant, non-English, had inappropriate words, were machine synthesized, and less than 3 minutes long were filtered out. One hundred and eleven videos meet the inclusion criteria. Parameters of the videos including a number of subscribers, length, days since upload, region, video popularity (views, views/day, likes, likes/day, dislikes, dislikes/day, comments, comments/day), the tone of the videos, top ten comments, affiliation, whether Japanese people had participated in the video, whether the video recorder visited Fukushima, whether the video contains theoretical knowledge and whether the video contained information about the recent situation were recorded. Using criteria comprising content and technical design, two viewers scored videos and grouped them into useful(11–14 scores), slightly useful(6–10 scores) and useless(0–5 scores) videos.

Results:

Out of the 111 videos, 43 (39%) videos were useful, and 43 (39%) were slightly useful, 25 (22%) were useless. Useful videos had good visual and aural effects, provided vivid information on the Fukushima disaster, and scored (mean ± SD, 12 ± 0.9). Useful videos have more view/day, likes/day or comments/day than those of useless and slightly useful videos (P<0.05). The popularity of videos (views, likes, comments) had a significant correlation with video quality (clearly sounds, vivid, engaging) or understanding (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in popularity between negative and neutral/mixed tone videos. Videos about the recent situation had more likes and comments/day. Video recorder who personally visited Fukushima Prefecture had more subscribers and received more views and likes.

Conclusions:

The possible reasons which making videos popular to the public included: (1) the quality images and visuals, (2) sounds without noises, (3) vivid and engaging (4) understandable, (5) made in Fukushima (personal experiences), (6) with the recent situation, (7) more subscribers. During risk communication on new forms of media, health institutes should increase publicity and try to be more approachable to resonate with international audiences.