본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

Network Analysis on the Diffusion of Fake Medical Information on YouTube: A Case Study of a Fake News “Inserting an Onion in the Ear to Heal Earaches”

Lee, Guiohk 1,  Sohn, Seung Hye 1,  Eunjeong Jeong 2

1세종대학교
2한양대학교 신문방송학과

Candidate

ABSTRACT

The present study explored the diffusion of fake medical information on YouTube, one of the most popular social media for video sharing. Taking the fake news of “insertingan onion in the ear to heal earaches” as a case, social network analysis and semantic network analysis were performed to examine the characteristics and influencers on thesharing network, and the shared contents on YouTube. The social network analysis showed that first, the so-called “the onion effect”, though being related to health andfood contents, was being shared on a variety of shared categories such as people, game, politics, comedy, and leisure on YouTube. Second, influencers on these networks thatshared this fake information were YouTubers who did not possess the professional knowledge in the field of health and food, and were seemed to use the information tohook subscribers. Third, the before and after semantic analysis on the video titles of the fake news revealed that subsequent titles being posted the fake news were exaggeratedor ill-informed the benefits of onions. Through these findings, managerial implications to decrease the negative effects of medical fake news on YouTube and to enhance socialmedia literacy were discussed and suggested.

Statistics

  • 2,570 Viewed
  • 1,263 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search