Just Turn on the Faucet: A Content Analysis of PSAs About the Global Water Crisis on YouTube

ABSTRACT

Water is essential for human life, yet safe drinking water is a limited resource. Critical to fighting the global water crisis are public awareness campaigns, including Public Service Announcements (PSAs). While YouTube has become a popular medium for disseminating prosocial content such as PSAs, environmental communication efforts on this platform remain largely uninvestigated. This study examines the content and characteristics of global water crisis PSAs on YouTube by applying two communication models: the Extended Parallel Process Model, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model. These models are used to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the PSAs. Content analysis reveals that threat messages often outweigh efficacy messages in the videos, central route processing cues are more prevalent than peripheral route cues, and a focus on quality or quantity issues differed by sponsoring organization (non-profit, for-profit, government). Implications and avenues for potential future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental communication
• persuasion
• YouTube
• public service announcements
• content analysis
• Extended Parallel Process Model

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ms Tammy Walkner for her invaluable effort and assistance with coding the YouTube videos.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (grant no. 1505309). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.