The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study
Objective The Arabic-speaking world had the lowest vaccine rates worldwide. The region's increasing reliance on social media as a source of COVID-19 information coupled with the increasing popularity of YouTube in the Middle East and North Africa region begs the question of what COVID-19 vaccin...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Digital Health |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231205714 |
| _version_ | 1797663793191321600 |
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| author | Nour Zeid Lu Tang Muhammad “Tuan” Amith |
| author_facet | Nour Zeid Lu Tang Muhammad “Tuan” Amith |
| author_sort | Nour Zeid |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective The Arabic-speaking world had the lowest vaccine rates worldwide. The region's increasing reliance on social media as a source of COVID-19 information coupled with the increasing popularity of YouTube in the Middle East and North Africa region begs the question of what COVID-19 vaccine content is available in Arabic on YouTube. Given the platform's reputation for being a hotbed for vaccine-related misinformation in English, this study explored the COVID-19 vaccine-related content an individual is likely to be exposed to on YouTube when using keyword-based search or redirected to YouTube from another platform from an anti-vaccine seed video in Arabic. Methods Only using the Arabic language, four networks of videos based on YouTube's recommendations were created in April 2021. Two search networks were created based on Arabic pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine keywords, and two seed networks were created from conspiracy theory and anti-vaccine expert seed videos. The network exposure model was used to examine the video contents and network structures. Results Results show that users had a low chance of being exposed to anti-vaccine content in Arabic compared to the results of a previous study of YouTube content in English. Of the four networks, only the anti-vaccine expert network had a significant likelihood of exposing the user to more anti-vaccine videos. Implications were discussed. Conclusion YouTube deserves credit for its efforts to clean up and limit anti-vaccine content exposure in Arabic on its platform, but continuous evaluations of the algorithm functionality are warranted. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T19:20:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-24a53c74ef444abea4af8ccd4897d284 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2055-2076 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T19:20:49Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-24a53c74ef444abea4af8ccd4897d2842023-10-07T09:33:40ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762023-10-01910.1177/20552076231205714The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure studyNour Zeid0Lu Tang1Muhammad “Tuan” Amith2 Department of Communication & Journalism, , College Station, Texas, USA Department of Communication & Journalism, , College Station, Texas, USA Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USAObjective The Arabic-speaking world had the lowest vaccine rates worldwide. The region's increasing reliance on social media as a source of COVID-19 information coupled with the increasing popularity of YouTube in the Middle East and North Africa region begs the question of what COVID-19 vaccine content is available in Arabic on YouTube. Given the platform's reputation for being a hotbed for vaccine-related misinformation in English, this study explored the COVID-19 vaccine-related content an individual is likely to be exposed to on YouTube when using keyword-based search or redirected to YouTube from another platform from an anti-vaccine seed video in Arabic. Methods Only using the Arabic language, four networks of videos based on YouTube's recommendations were created in April 2021. Two search networks were created based on Arabic pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine keywords, and two seed networks were created from conspiracy theory and anti-vaccine expert seed videos. The network exposure model was used to examine the video contents and network structures. Results Results show that users had a low chance of being exposed to anti-vaccine content in Arabic compared to the results of a previous study of YouTube content in English. Of the four networks, only the anti-vaccine expert network had a significant likelihood of exposing the user to more anti-vaccine videos. Implications were discussed. Conclusion YouTube deserves credit for its efforts to clean up and limit anti-vaccine content exposure in Arabic on its platform, but continuous evaluations of the algorithm functionality are warranted.https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231205714 |
| spellingShingle | Nour Zeid Lu Tang Muhammad “Tuan” Amith The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study Digital Health |
| title | The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study |
| title_full | The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study |
| title_fullStr | The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study |
| title_full_unstemmed | The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study |
| title_short | The spread of COVID-19 vaccine information in Arabic on YouTube: A network exposure study |
| title_sort | spread of covid 19 vaccine information in arabic on youtube a network exposure study |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231205714 |
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