Analyzing YouTube Videos Shared on Whatsapp in the Early COVID-19 Crisis

Marisa Vasconcelos, Erica Pereira, Samuel Guimarães, Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Philipe Melo, Fabrício Benevenuto

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Whatsapp is the most popular messaging app in the world. It is not only used as a one-to-one messaging app but also as a platform for group discussion. Recently, Whatsapp has gained the spotlight for its role in disseminating (often low-quality) information. Our study focuses on YouTube videos shared by political-oriented public groups on Whatsapp for a month during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a careful analysis of the topical distribution and the lexicon present in the videos shared, we shed light on the COVID-19 debate happening in these groups. Moreover, we compare COVID-19 related videos with other political videos being shared in the groups. We observe that videos that discuss political themes have more emotional attributes as well as topics related to typical right-wing concerns such as family, work, and religion than videos discussing both pandemic and politics.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWebMedia 2020 - 26th Brazilian Symposium on Multimedia and the Web, Proceedings
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages25-28
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781450381963
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 30 2020
Externally publishedYes
Event26th Brazilian Symposium on Multimedia and the Web, WebMedia 2020 - Virtual, Online, Brazil
Duration: Nov 30 2020Dec 4 2020

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference26th Brazilian Symposium on Multimedia and the Web, WebMedia 2020
Country/TerritoryBrazil
CityVirtual, Online
Period11/30/2012/4/20

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computer Networks and Communications

Keywords

  • Chat
  • Groups
  • Mobile
  • Politics
  • WhatsApp
  • YouTube

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