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      Tickled to Death: Analysing Public Perceptions of ‘Cute’ Videos of Threatened Species (Slow Lorises – Nycticebus spp.) on Web 2.0 Sites

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          Abstract

          Background

          The internet is gaining importance in global wildlife trade and changing perceptions of threatened species. There is little data available to examine the impact that popular Web 2.0 sites play on public perceptions of threatened species. YouTube videos portraying wildlife allow us to quantify these perceptions.

          Methodology/Principal Findings

          Focussing on a group of threatened and globally protected primates, slow lorises, we quantify public attitudes towards wildlife conservation by analysing 12,411 comments and associated data posted on a viral YouTube video ‘tickling slow loris’ over a 33-months period. In the initial months a quarter of commentators indicated wanting a loris as a pet, but as facts about their conservation and ecology became more prevalent this dropped significantly. Endorsements, where people were directed to the site by celebrities, resulted mostly in numerous neutral responses with few links to conservation or awareness. Two conservation-related events, linked to Wikipedia and the airing of a television documentary, led to an increase in awareness, and ultimately to the removal of the analysed video.

          Conclusions/Significance

          Slow loris videos that have gone viral have introduced these primates to a large cross-section of society that would not normally come into contact with them. Analyses of webometric data posted on the internet allow us quickly to gauge societal sentiments. We showed a clear temporal change in some views expressed but without an apparent increase in knowledge about the conservation plight of the species, or the illegal nature of slow loris trade. Celebrity endorsement of videos showing protected wildlife increases visits to such sites, but does not educate about conservation issues. The strong desire of commentators to express their want for one as a pet demonstrates the need for Web 2.0 sites to provide a mechanism via which illegal animal material can be identified and policed.

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          Most cited references24

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          The state and conservation of Southeast Asian biodiversity

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            Social internet sites as a source of public health information.

            Social media websites, such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Second Life are rapidly emerging as popular sources of health information especially for teens and young adults. Social media marketing carries the advantages of low cost, rapid transmission through a wide community, and user interaction. Disadvantages include blind authorship, lack of source citation, and presentation of opinion as fact. Dermatologists and other health care providers should recognize the importance of social media websites and their potential usefulness for disseminating health information.
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              The Economic Worth of Celebrity Endorsers: An Event Study Analysis

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1932-6203
                2013
                24 July 2013
                : 8
                : 7
                : e69215
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Nocturnal Primate Research Group, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OXON, United Kingdom
                [2 ]Department of Software Development, Sonicated LTD, Oxford, OXON, United Kingdom
                University of Kent, United Kingdom
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company (Sonicated LTD, Computer and Network Security Department, Swindon, UK). The employment of this individual (which is self-employment) does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: KAIN VN. Analyzed the data: KAIN TGC VN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KAIN NC TGC EJR VN. Wrote the paper: KAIN VN TGC.

                Article
                PONE-D-13-08498
                10.1371/journal.pone.0069215
                3722300
                23894432
                ccfaa771-d32f-4913-a560-15dabad0cf57
                Copyright @ 2013

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 23 February 2013
                : 5 June 2013
                Page count
                Pages: 10
                Funding
                This project was funded in part by grants to Nekaris from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-084, http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/), the Cleveland Zoo Asian Seed Fund ( http://www.clemetzoo.com/conservation/grants/), Dierenpark Amersfoort ( http://www.dierenparkamersfoort.nl/), and People's Trust for Endangered Species ( http://www.ptes.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology
                Ecology
                Biodiversity
                Conservation Science
                Species Extinction
                Population Biology
                Computer Science
                Information Technology
                Databases
                Social and Behavioral Sciences
                Anthropology
                Biological Anthropology
                Physical Anthropology
                Communications
                Media Studies

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                Uncategorized

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