Education Is Entertainment? Zoo Science Communication on YouTube
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Sample of Zoo-YouTube Channels
2.2. Data Extraction
2.3. Data Analysis
2.3.1. What Do Zoos Post about?
2.3.2. Does the Nature of the Animal Collection within Each Zoo Influence YouTube Content?
2.3.3. What Predicts the Number of Educational Points in a YouTube Video?
3. Results
3.1. Are there Differences in the Representation of Zoo Animals on YouTube?
3.2. Does the Nature of the Animal Collection within Each Zoo Influence YouTube Content?
3.3. What Are Zoos Posting: Now and Then?
3.4. What Predicts the Number of Educational Points in a YouTube Video?
4. Discussion
4.1. Representation of Zoo Animals on YouTube
4.2. Education and Entertainment
4.3. Video Structure
4.4. A Changing Focus
4.5. Further Extensions and Limitations for this Research
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Zoo-YouTube Channel | Region | Subscribers * | Total Views |
---|---|---|---|
ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo | Europe | 50,000 | 30,846,578 |
Chester Zoo | Europe | 6000 | 3,403,544 |
Copenhagen Zoo | Europe | 35,000 | 20,147,461 |
Edinburgh Zoo | Europe | 20,000 | 9,932,246 |
Zoo und Tierpark Berlin | Europe | 6000 | 3,403,544 |
ZooParc de Beauval | Europe | 6000 | 10,895,142 |
ZSL-Zoological Society of London a | Europe | 46,000 | 27,602,288 |
Brookfield Zoo | North America | 38,000 | 23,483,706 |
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium | North America | 30,000 | 17,415,837 |
Dallas Zoo | North America | 14,000 | 12,159,760 |
Houston Zoo | North America | 30,000 | 14,320,031 |
Oregon Zoo | North America | 67,000 | 40,127,138 |
San Diego Zoo | North America | 98,000 | 74,482,771 |
The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden | North America | 197,000 | 115,881,113 |
Wildlife Conservation Society b | North America | 18,000 | 15,302,849 |
Woodland Park Zoo | North America | 24,000 | 32,420,234 |
Toronto Zoo | North America | 34,000 | 31,738,217 |
Taipei Zoo | Asia | 168,000 | 86,765,137 |
Auckland Zoo | Oceania | 11,000 | 5,134,575 |
Zoos Victoria | Oceania | 14,000 | 10,964,408 |
Video Theme * | Theme Description |
---|---|
Advertisement | Videos presenting information relating to the advertisement of the site i.e., admission discounts, sponsored content or commercials. |
Behavior | Videos presenting an animal expressing a specific behavior. |
Compilation | Videos presenting multiple animal species within the same content or from multiple compiled videos. |
Conservation | Videos presenting associated conservation projects, managed breeding program or a new discovery within the fields of conservation, ecology and animal management. |
Enclosure | Videos presenting animal enclosures, plans to develop existing enclosures or aspects of enrichment introduced by the zookeepers to enhance the enclosure. |
Full Profile | Videos presenting multiple topics of information designed to give a comprehensive view of the species, genus, family, order or taxonomic class. |
Infant Animals | Videos presenting the birth of an animal, infant animals or animals in juvenile stages of development. |
Named Individuals | Videos presenting an individual zoo animal that has been named in either in the video title or within the duration of content. |
Work of Zoo Staff | Videos clearly presenting the work of zookeepers, non-husbandry-based zoo roles or veterinary staff. |
Class | Correlation Coefficient | p Value |
---|---|---|
Amphibian | −0.439 | 0.05 * |
Bird | 0.150 | 0.528 |
Fish (all) | 0.654 | 0.02 * |
Fish (four institutions only) | −0.949 | 0.051 |
Invertebrate | 0.241 | 0.306 |
Mammal | 0.061 | 0.799 |
Reptile | −0.159 | 0.503 |
Predictor | Estimate (±SE) | Z Value | p Value | Q Value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Age of the post (years since posting) | −0.03 (0.000047) | −6354.9 | <0.001 | 0.0033 |
Maximum number of views | 0.000000201 (0.000000000010) | 19814.3 | <0.001 | 0.0067 |
Subscribers to the YouTube channel | 0.0000052 (0.000000003) | 1882.62 | <0.001 | 0.0100 |
Visitation | 0.00000017 (0.00000000012) | 1353.14 | < 0.001 | 0.0133 |
Species diversity | −2.99 (0.0033) | −915.70 | <0.001 | 0.0167 |
Total number of species in the zoo’s animal collection | −0.00031 (0.0000005) | −610.41 | <0.001 | 0.0200 |
Proportion of mammals in the zoo’s collection | 0.61 (0.0011) | 539.88 | <0.001 | 0.0233 |
Did the video feature a popular species? | −0.13 (0.00014) | −947.51 | <0.001 | 0.0267 |
Taxonomic class (Bird) | 0.0348 (0.003) | 13.08 | <0.001 | 0.0300 |
Taxonomic class (Fish) | −0.59 (0.0044) | −133.04 | <0.001 | 0.0333 |
Taxonomic class (Invertebrate) | −0.95 (0.0035) | −273.89 | <0.001 | 0.0367 |
Taxonomic class (Mammal) | 0.198 (0.0026) | 75.69 | <0.001 | 0.0400 |
Taxonomic class (Reptile) | 0.86 (0.0027) | 324.13 | <0.001 | 0.0433 |
Taxonomic class (Mixed taxa) | −0.24 (0.0027) | −88.12 | <0.001 | 0.0467 |
Taxonomic class (non-animal) | 0.405 (0.0026) | 153.53 | <0.001 | 0.0500 |
Theme | Category | Posts (Number) | Educational Points (Total) | Duration (Seconds) Mean ± SE |
---|---|---|---|---|
Advertisement | Popular | 17 | 13 | 56.59 (14.3) |
Recent | 30 | 6 | 76.33 (11.7) | |
Behavior | Popular | 40 | 25 | 87.65 (7.62) |
Recent | 33 | 23 | 83.52 (7.99) | |
Compilation | Popular | 3 | 0 | 107.00 (21.9) |
Recent | 6 | 0 | 76.00 (16.7) | |
Conservation | Popular | 8 | 26 | 82.63 (23.7) |
Recent | 40 | 139 | 142.55 (24.5) | |
Discovery | Popular | 1 | 0 | 65.00 |
Enclosure | Popular | 12 | 10 | 97.89 (14.4) |
Recent | 52 | 60 | 125.21 (16.3) | |
Full Profile | Popular | 23 | 200 | 126.61 (8.66) |
Recent | 3 | 20 | 83.33 (24.5) | |
Individual Animals | Popular | 3 | 1 | 336.67 (264) |
Recent | 3 | 0 | 84.67 (22.7) | |
Infant Animals | Popular | 179 | 221 | 138.06 (10.2) |
Recent | 93 | 52 | 104.37 14.3) | |
Named Individuals | Popular | 7 | 18 | 88.57 (16.7) |
Recent | 20 | 11 | 77.20 (16.7) | |
Other | Popular | 1 | 6 | 262.00 |
Recent | 5 | 7 | 339.00 (155) | |
Profiles | Popular | 1 | 10 | 251.00 |
Zoo Staff | Popular | 5 | 16 | 142.00 (14.6) |
Recent | 14 | 15 | 80.86 (15.1) |
Predictor | Estimate (±SE) | Z Value | p Value | Q Value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Theme (Behavior) | 0.911 (0.301) | 3.030 | 0.002 | 0.0300 |
Theme (Conservation) | 1.368 (0.230) | 5.202 | <0.001 | 0.0033 |
Theme (Enclosure) | 0.902 (0.288) | 3.138 | 0.0017 | 0.0267 |
Theme (Full Profile) | 1.81 (0.270) | 6.710 | <0.001 | 0.0067 |
Theme (Infant Animals) | 0.644 (0.273) | 2.355 | 0.019 | 0.0467 |
Theme (Named Individuals) | 0.926 (0.324) | 2.863 | 0.004 | 0.0333 |
Theme (Profiles) | 1.823 (0.456) | 3.994 | <0.001 | 0.0100 |
Theme (Zoo Staff) | 0.866 (0.309) | 2.804 | 0.0051 | 0.0433 |
Taxonomic class (None) | −1.22 (0.315) | −3.865 | <0.001 | 0.0133 |
Duration of video | 0.019 (0.00021) | 9.252 | <0.001 | 0.0233 |
Popular or Recent? | 0.038 (0.115) | −2.075 | 0.038 | 0.0500 |
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Llewellyn, T.; Rose, P.E. Education Is Entertainment? Zoo Science Communication on YouTube. J. Zool. Bot. Gard. 2021, 2, 250-264. https://doi.org/10.3390/jzbg2020017
Llewellyn T, Rose PE. Education Is Entertainment? Zoo Science Communication on YouTube. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens. 2021; 2(2):250-264. https://doi.org/10.3390/jzbg2020017
Chicago/Turabian StyleLlewellyn, Thomas, and Paul E. Rose. 2021. "Education Is Entertainment? Zoo Science Communication on YouTube" Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 2, no. 2: 250-264. https://doi.org/10.3390/jzbg2020017