Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 7;7(6):e26481.
doi: 10.2196/26481.

YouTube Videos Related to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Content Analysis

Limeng Cui #  1 , Lijuan Chu #  2
Affiliations

YouTube Videos Related to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Content Analysis

Limeng Cui et al. JMIR Public Health Surveill. .

Abstract

Background: YouTube (Alphabet Incorporated) has become the most popular video-sharing platform in the world. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster resulted in public anxiety toward 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 examine the characteristics of YouTube videos related to the FDNPP disaster, analyze the content and comments of videos with a quantitative method, and determine which features contribute to making a video popular with audiences. This study is the first to examine FDNPP disaster-related videos on YouTube.

Methods: We searched for the term "Fukushima nuclear disaster" on YouTube on November 2, 2019. The first 60 eligible videos in the relevance, upload date, view count, and rating categories were recorded. Videos that were irrelevant, were non-English, had inappropriate words, were machine synthesized, and were <3 minutes long were excluded. In total, 111 videos met the inclusion criteria. Parameters of the videos, including the number of subscribers, length, the number of days since the video was uploaded, region, video popularity (views, views/day, likes, likes/day, dislikes, dislikes/day, comments, comments/day), the tone of the videos, the top ten comments, affiliation, whether Japanese people participated in the video, whether the video recorder visited Fukushima, whether the video contained theoretical knowledge, and whether the video contained information about the recent situation in Fukushima, were recorded. By using criteria for content and technical design, two evaluators scored videos and grouped them into the useful (score: 11-14), slightly useful (score: 6-10), and useless (score: 0-5) video categories.

Results: Of the 111 videos, 43 (38.7%) videos were useful, 43 (38.7%) were slightly useful, and 25 (22.5%) were useless. Useful videos had good visual and aural effects, provided vivid information on the Fukushima disaster, and had a mean score of 12 (SD 0.9). Useful videos had more views per day (P<.001), likes per day (P<.001), and comments per day (P=.02) than useless and slightly useful videos. The popularity of videos had a significant correlation with clear sounds (likes/day: P=.001; comments/day: P=.02), vivid information (likes/day: P<.001; comments/day: P=.007), understanding content (likes/day: P=.001; comments/day: P=.04). There was no significant difference in likes per day (P=.72) and comments per day (P=.11) between negative and neutral- and mixed-tone videos. Videos about the recent situation in Fukushima had more likes and comments per day. Video recorders who personally visited Fukushima Prefecture had more subscribers and received more views and likes.

Conclusions: The possible features that made videos popular to the public included video quality, videos made in Fukushima, and information on the recent situation in Fukushima. During risk communication on new forms of media, health institutes should increase publicity and be more approachable to resonate with international audiences.

Keywords: Fukushima nuclear disaster; YouTube; disaster; nuclear disaster; public safety; radiation; risk communication; social media; video platform.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart showing the systematic video search and selection processes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of the four key characteristics of videos.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. World Health Organization . Preliminary Dose Estimation From the Nuclear Accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2012.
    1. Burkitt L. Fearing radiation, Chinese rush to buy...table salt? The Wall Street Journal. 2011. Mar 17, [2019-11-27]. https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/17/fearing-radiation-chinese...
    1. Neumann S, Hopf M. Students’ ideas about nuclear radiation – Before and after Fukushima. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education. 2013;9(4):393–404. doi: 10.12973/eurasia.2014.948a. https://www.ejmste.com/download/students-ideas-about-nuclearradiation-be... - DOI
    1. Fukushima Guide. Fukushima City Tourist Information. [2019-11-27]. https://fukushima-guide.jp/event/tokyo-2020-in-fukushima-city/
    1. Denyer S. Radioactive sushi: Japan-South Korea spat extends to Olympic cuisine. The Washington Post. 2019. Aug 23, [2019-11-27]. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/radioactive-sushi-japa....