RSS Channels IndexHomemade YouTube Videos on Immunization Capture Audience Attention
Newswise — YouTube videos about immunization are drawing only a tiny number of viewers, according to a new study, but those that portray vaccines as dangerous have become more popular and well received than public-service announcements.
The pro-vaccine videos do not appear to be as "exciting" as those that warn of dire risks of immunization or suggest government conspiracies, said lead study author Jennifer Keelan, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Public Health Sciences. "We could only speculate that public health officials need to learn a lot about how to use these media so they can bring viewers in."
YouTube, which provides brief videos for viewing on computers, has become a sensation over the last two years. The most popular videos are seen tens of millions of times.
In February, Keelan and colleagues searched for YouTube videos that dealt with immunizations and analyzed their content and viewership. Their findings appear in the Dec. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers found 153 videos. There was a wide variety, Keelan said, including videos posted by parents showing milestones of their children's lives and videos of adults talking about vaccination before traveling or taking new jobs.
A third of the videos were "explicitly negative," with some providing information about risk that contradicts Canadian vaccine guidelines. The negative videos received more hits — an average of 520 — and had a higher average rating by viewers (4.4 out of a possible five stars) than videos deemed to be positive.
By contrast, an average of 181 users viewed pro-immunization videos and gave them an average rating of 3.5 stars; viewers liked public-service announcements even less, giving them an average rating of 2.6 stars.
"Public health officers should be aware of YouTube and the health information that we found on immunization," Keelan said. "We should be thinking about how we could use YouTube to communicate information."
Frank Myers, director of clinical epidemiology and safety services at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, said he is more concerned about anti-immunization Web sites that appear to be "quasi-scientific."
"On YouTube, it's obvious that a non-expert is giving their opinion" on immunization, he said, whereas Web sites can appear legitimate even if they give incorrect information.
The number of people who think immunizations are dangerous is small, perhaps around 10 percent of targeted groups, Myers said. It can be difficult for health workers to change their minds, but "one-on-one personal communication is shown to be the most effective way to combat it."
JAMA. Journal of the American Medical Association. Contact Media Relations at (312) 464-JAMA (5262) or mediarelations@jama-archives.org
Keelan J, et al. YouTube as a source of information on immunization: a content analysis. JAMA 298(21), 2007.
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