Analysis of the Dissemination Mechanism of "Viral" Videos on Social Media Platforms: Taking Women's Safety Science Popularization as an Example

Abstract

With the increasing attention paid to women's safety issues, social media has become the core carrier for safety science popularization. However, there is a significant divergence in the dissemination of women's safety science popularization videos, and the mechanism for their going viral remains unclear. This study focuses on the key variables for the breakout of female safety science popularization videos and conducts the research by using the literature analysis method and case comparison method: through literature review, it clarifies the current situation and gaps of short video dissemination and female science popularization research; select the Bilibili viral video "Chasing the Culprit for 48 Hours, Personally Exposing the Pervert Who Sexually harassed Me for a Year" and the non-viral video "[ Girls, Please Come In ] Five Hidden Dangers You Don't Know!" and conduct a comparative analysis from the dimensions of dissemination data, content design, user interaction and platform adaptation. Research has found that the core variables for a video to go viral are the blogger's fan base, content design that combines "true narrative and practical skills", the adaptation of user interaction to platform characteristics, and highly recognizable title covers; non-viral videos are restricted in their dissemination due to insufficient scene-based content and lack of algorithm adaptation. The research conclusion indicates that multi-dimensional collaboration is the key for women's safety science popularization videos to break through the dissemination differentiation, which can provide references for the creation of related content and the optimization of dissemination strategies.