DISCUSSION:
Social media is an increasingly far-reaching but affordable communication channel (Casola et al., 2020). Other social media platforms such as Twitter (Bombaci et al. 2016), and Instagram (Hines 2019) have been shown to effectively communicate science including conservation to wider audiences. With over 4 billion views on YouTube, it is clear that BraveWilderness on is also highly successful. The lessons learned in the production of BraveWilderness content can be used by other groups seeking to provide scientific information to broad audiences.
Although we view overall success as reaching a wide audience, the astronomical viewer numbers need not be the only metric to claim a particular science video as successful outreach. Inspirational content on a smaller but focused scale can be an effective cumulative tool in reaching future conservation minded individuals.
Much speculation has gone into what makes the successful telling of a story (Huang and Grant 2020); some components are clearly vital, while the importance of others is less clear. Science on social media is often popular if it shows unusual species (Hines and Warring 2019), or ones less often highlighted in media. When views on a given video are proportionately high this is used as a proxy for its popularity (Welbourne and Grant 2016). Once videos attain certain metrics that indicate above average interest and viewer behavior, the YouTube algorithm then “serves” these videos to an increased number of positions on the YouTube platform where they gain higher visibility and thus attract an exponentially reinforcing viewership loop. This is essentially how a video goes “viral”. Additionally, the ‘trending’ page on YouTube highlights the most recent top performing videos in terms of views, where BraveWilderness often competes with top pop culture content.
All BraveWilderness videos have educational content even though this may not be immediately obvious from the entertainment style of narrative which has become the mainstay of the channel. More traditional wildlife footage, sometimes called “in situ”, cut to narration, has been tried but is less successful: YouTube is a visual platform for channels where people tune in to see something amazing, this is the format which is now used by BraveWilderness. Popular content on BraveWilderness includes interactions with diverse ‘amazing’ creatures, venomous organisms, charismatic megafauna, and unusual taxa (Figures 1, 2). Elements of fear/danger and the unknown are natural parts of good storytelling, as is evident by videos featuring stings or perceived danger which gain a high view count on BraveWilderness (Table 1). This does not detract from the science, or from the overarching message of the video; their use should not be avoided simply because such elements are absent in traditional academic outputs. A story involving a perceived emotional element actually enhances user engagement, and therefore provides a connection to a message and respect for the featured creature. Videos such as these also answer questions so that they need not be repeated; for example, what would an accidental sting feel like?
As videos of wildlife and their behavior continue to be uploaded to the platform, information about unusual species or from sparsely studied areas can be enhanced and provides new insights and novel behaviors (Jagiello et al. 2019, Dylewski et al., 2017). Educators, academics and enthusiasts at all levels can benefit from the growing portfolio of content.
In an increasingly digital age, it is important to provide on-demand educational content that is entertaining; the wildlife content produced for the platform allows a trip beyond the classroom by providing free content for educators to share with interested students. Academic scientists are well-positioned to contribute to the advancing frontier of entertaining on-demand educational content. Social media allows outreach that can inspire viewers from diverse backgrounds and demographics far beyond those who would be present at a given lecture. Wildlife content will remain popular on platforms such as YouTube, and this content can be enhanced by direct collaboration with experts. Academics can also benefit from using social media for their outreach and can learn from other content creators as to what strikes a viral interest.
From a conservation perspective, showing a creature in a positive light in YouTube videos has been shown to affect the viewer’s positive attitude towards that species (Casola et al., 2020). Conservation practitioners can benefit from understanding content that resonates with the general public (such as Figure 1). Videos in the BraveWilderness portfolio highlight a wide array of taxa with various features (Figure 3,4). Those that are most popular should be considered by conservation practitioners at all levels from outreach to policy.
The very act of filming a creature can be invasive at a minimal level, but were the creature to be left alone, it may continue to be poorly understood by a broad audience which has an extremely negative impact for conservation (Kidd et al. 2018). The temporary annoyance a film crew may have upon a habitat and its creatures is negligible compared to the potential for a creature to be seen by millions of viewers, creating the mainstream awareness which aids in conservation efforts. Care is taken to ensure wildlife is not harmed, having never occurred as a result of filming.
Social media outreach efforts are an evolving and expanding route for scientists, particularly those interested in underrepresented taxa, to highlight their organisms and strive for enhanced conservation initiatives through increased awareness.