O uso da internet como ferramenta educativa para a conservação da fauna
Resumen
The social medias have gained more and more prominence and importance in the academic
environment, being used as a primary source of data or in scientific communication,
environmental education (EE), and citizen science initiatives. However, the range and real
impact of these initiatives on the public are still unknown. To verify the potential of social
networks as a tool for wildlife conservation, an analysis of conservationist profiles present on
Facebook and Instagram was carried out. We evaluated their engagement metrics,
characterized a sample of their audience and identified the impact of their posts. The data were
obtained through active data mining and the application of a structured questionnaire. 201
people who follow the conservationist profiles answered the characterization questionnaire.
We found that a very specific portion of the Brazilian population follows the profiles, this
portion being composed of young, white, female people with a high level of education. We
also observed that more than half of the public sample has a direct relationship with
environmental areas. When evaluating the engagement metrics of the profiles, we observed
that they have low interaction with the public when compared to the total number of followers.
In addition, we observed that video posts had great potential to reach more people. In the
present study, almost all the participants (97%; N = 194) stated that the publications made by
the conservationist profiles were already responsible for new knowledge or for changing their
perception of biodiversity. The data presented here corroborate the importance that social
media have in today's society and demonstrate that they can be an important ally for the
conservation of biodiversity, but the reach of posts to a very limited audience is a problem to
be overcome.
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