YouTube brings awareness to important issues, but can it compel viewers to take action?

If you’ve ever watched a silly animal video on YouTube, then you’re one of millions of people who have engaged with wildlife content on the world’s preeminent video hub. Animal-focused content is one of YouTube’s largest categories, but do those videos compel viewers to protect threatened and endangered species?

That is the question a group of researchers posed in a study they recently published in Nature. By classifying and examining wildlife videos on YouTube, the authors of the paper found that YouTube is an effective sounding board for conservation efforts — but it may not be so effective when it comes to inspiring action.

The researchers noted that wildlife videos (a category that includes pet content) account for about 6.4% of YouTube’s library. Within that genre, the study isolated and examined 1,751 videos. Of the nearly 25,000 comments appended to those clips, 32% expressed appreciation for wildlife, but only 2% included explicit calls for action.

The breakdown of wildlife video topics brought more bad news to conservationists. Within the study’s sample, hunting videos were nearly twice as common as conservation videos, which made up just 9% of the total count. “These findings suggest that viewers most often encounter wildlife in domesticated or other human-centered contexts that mirror the everyday lives and habits of typical content creators. This pattern is consistent with YouTube’s user-generated origins and creators’ intuitions about audience interest,” reads the report

These results are somewhat unexpected. After all, YouTube stars like MrBeast and Mark Rober have used their platforms to raise tens of millions of dollars for conservation efforts. Platforms have taken action against climate change by measuring the emissions of digital ads. And consumers from cohorts like Gen Z consistently rate sustainability as one of the issues that is most important to them.

What can be done to turn that animus into more consistent action? Perhaps conservationists can take cues from the political sphere. Politicians are now using platforms like YouTube and TikTok to supercharge their campaigns and turn out voters. As creators become more entrenched in the political world, influencer marketing partnerships can potentially become rallying cries for environmentalists.

If that doesn’t work, some smaller steps can be taken. By continuing to clean up misinformation — and maybe spurning big oil campaigns — digital platforms can become more effective conduits for environmental conservation.