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.