The US Agricultural Safety and Health Centers’ YouTube Channel: Examining viewership of agricultural health and safety videos.
Kathryn Crawford, PhD, University of Iowa; Cheryl L. Beseler, PhD, Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE; Devon Charlier, B.S., Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center; Athena K. Ramos, PhD, MBA, MS, CPM Center for Reducing Health Disparities, Department of Health Promotion, University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health
kathryn-leonard@uiowa.edu
Kate Crawford is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and is currently working with the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health.
Discuss this presentation with the authors on Wednesday, November 19 from noon – 12:30 on the Zoom Live-stream.
ouTube is a powerful online video sharing platform which can be used to provide accessible health and safety information to the agricultural workforce. The 11 NIOSH Agricultural Centers collaborate on a shared YouTube channel. We examined trends in the channel usage from October 2013 through December 2020 to understand viewership growth and the impacts of the type and number of videos published. Time series analysis of views, watch hours, average duration of watch time, and number of subscribers were assessed. Views were summarized descriptively across time and season. Time series regressions were used to determine the type of video that best predicted growth in channel viewership. Health videos were the strongest predictors of future growth but were not the most watched type of video. Strong seasonality components indicated that videos were most watched during periods of high agricultural activity. Generally, growth in YouTube viewership metrics was explained by past month viewership. Outreach and media content may produce viewership spikes, but to sustainably grow the channel over time, Ag Centers and other agricultural stakeholders should continue to focus on the value of particular content to potential viewers, how and when content is released, and strategic promotion of the channel and videos.
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