YouTubers Creativity in Creating Public Awareness of COVID-19 in Indonesia: A YouTube Content Analysis Ferane Aristrivani Sofian Marketing Communication Program, Communication Department, Faculty of Economics & Communication Bina Nusantara University Jakarta, Indonesia 11480 ferane.sofian@binus.edu Abstract—The Government of Indonesia has designated COVID-19 as a national disaster. Until now, many people are still not fully aware of the risks of COVID-19. On YouTube, the most widely used social media platform in Indonesia, information about COVID-19 is available. However, much misleading information has caused public worry and low public trust in the government in overcoming this pandemic. Popular YouTubers who have many subscribers can reach many viewers. Some of them made videos about COVID-19. This study aims to analyze how individual Indonesian YouTubers present the issue of COVID-19 in creating public awareness in Indonesia through their YouTube video content based on ethos, pathos, and logos. The research used qualitative content analysis methods includes planning, data collection, data analysis, and finally, creating a report and presentation of the result. This study analyzes YouTube video content created by five individual Indonesian YouTubers who have the most subscribers ranking. The unit analysis is video content about COVID-19 of the YouTubers through a visual image, audio, and text. The study results show that YouTubers use credible speakers on the ethos aspect (such as a pulmonologist, government spokesperson for COVID-19, doctors, and public figures) to convey information to their audience. The pathos aspect appears in serious nonverbal messages to influence the emotions of the audience. The logos aspect is verbal messages (arguments and pieces of evidence) that contains information about the characteristics of COVID-19, health protocols during a pandemic, critics to government decision making, and socioeconomic impacts of coronavirus pandemic. Keywords—YouTube, YouTubers, awareness, content creator COVID-19, public I. INTRODUCTION Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a constant stimulus from various media platforms that have hit the public worldwide. The stimulus has caused many responses from the public. The affection of worry is the response most felt by the public. Worry and trust are two factors that can influence people's perceptions of health risks [1]. Worry of disease is an affection response that one feels to threats that will predict behavior to protect oneself regardless of the severity of the risk. While scientists from various nations across the globe are actively working to find solutions, lockdowns, and social distancing identified as possible standard solutions. It means limited, or no outdoor activity, no physical meetings with outsiders, and people advised to remain indoors. This condition affects businesses, offices, educational institutes across the globe to shut, and online communication is the way to either run businesses or conduct classes. This situation also has a lead surge in the usage of the internet and television. People are online most of the time, either for work or on social media. In this pandemic, virtual space, digital media, and mass media are vital, not only as a means of information diffusion but also as the media that most facilitates social interaction [2]. Indonesia is one of the countries affected by COVID-19. The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is increasing day by day. These conditions provide many public perceptions of COVID-19. There is also public perception about the handling carried out by the government. The latest government regulation to stop the spread of COVID-19 is to establish "Big Scale Social Restriction for Accelerating COVID-19 Eradication" (Government Regulation No 21/2020) [3]. However, public perception of COVID-19 may still be low despite much information spread on various media platforms since last January. The public needs time to process information about coronavirus and take appropriate action in responding to this situation. Indonesia, the world's largest island country and the 14th largest country by land area, at 1,811,570 square kilometers (699,451 square miles), has over 273 million people and is the world's 4th most populous country in the world [4]. With the rise of coronavirus globally, Indonesia was expected to have a high number of transmissions. However, as of 1st July 2020, the country had 57770 cases [5], which is the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia, so this study focuses on Indonesia. It also shows that Indonesia has responded reasonably well to the given situation compared with many nations of a similar population. This study analyses the situation in terms of Indonesia's response to policy, social media, and science journalism concerning primarily content created by YouTubers on YouTube as a platform. Social media is one of the new media that plays a vital role in disseminating of information about COVID-19. In January 2020, active social media users increased to 3.8 billion people worldwide [6]. In Indonesia, there are 160 million people who actively use social media [6]. YouTube is the second most used social media in the world after Facebook [7]. While in Indonesia, YouTube occupies the first position as the most-used social media platform by 88%, followed by WhatsApp in the second position with a percentage of 84%, then Facebook in the third position by 82%. [6]. In research on COVID-19 infodemics on social 978-1-7281-7071-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 13-14 August 2020 2020 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) 881 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Brighton. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 07:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. media, YouTube is a social media platform that has the highest level of interaction in terms of posting and commenting compared to other mainstream platforms such as Twitter and Instagram [8]. YouTube, a platform for all the video content, has played a unique role in creating awareness and spreading it. Be it travel, historical places, different forms of reviews, shows, or educational content. YouTubers always play a vital role in communicating the message and use YouTube as the medium. This study's research question is, "how individual Indonesian YouTubers present the issue of COVID-19 in creating public awareness in Indonesia through their YouTube video content based on ethos, pathos, and logos?". Therefore, this study aims to analyse the video content of YouTubers Indonesia, which contains the issue of COVID19. Content analysis is carried out based on the three modes of proof of Aristotle's persuasive communication method (the rhetoric). The three modes of proof are ethos, pathos, and logos [9]. Ethos referred to the reputation, authority, and integrity of the speaker; pathos referred to the use of emotional means of persuasion, and logos referred to persuasion by using logical argument [10]. This study’s results are expected to provide enrichment in communication theory, especially in the context of public communication and mass/media communication. Also, it could be a public reference for assessing the positive side of YouTubers. Then, as a motivation to utilize the strength of YouTube as a popular social media platform to effectively communicate the current communication crisis. Moreover, as a reference for social media content creators, how to create content about COVID-19, especially, and other content that aims to create public awareness of the risks of a disaster effectively. This study further discusses how YouTube is not only a repository of culture, music, art, and related entertainment content but also acts as a medium to reach the audience with specific messages in specific times, currently COVID-19. Also, the role of YouTubers, who create these content, as socially responsible citizens, not only creates glamor or entertainment content for more followers and money but also makes content with a specific message according to the taste and style of their followers and theme they follow. II. LITERATURE REVIEW YouTube, which was launched in 2005, rapidly grew as the second-largest used media platform. Arthurs, Drakopoulou, and Gandini (2018) stated that while YouTube has been widely known as a platform for entertainment and media, political views, and platform that are encouraging different user-generated content for the audience [11]. The research missed talking about the social responsibilities of the content creators, especially the top 3% who get 85% of the views. The focus of the current study is to recognize the role of the platform and YouTubers as a socially responsible and equally participating in causes with authentic information. Primarily to youth who do not go to the conventional medium of the source of information, that is, television or radio and look for that online, through various platforms like YouTube. Another researcher, Cunningham and Craig (2017) talked about the authenticity of content made in various forms like gameplay, DIY beauty, vlogging, personality development [12]. They did talk about the authenticity of the content. However, they missed throwing light on the role and responsibility of the YouTubers, especially for social awareness content, which has a viral effect because of reviews the content gets. Schwemmer and Ziewiecki (2018) talked about the increasing role of YouTubers on product promotion as influencers having vast followers [13]. This issue also is one significant revenue-generating activity. As said in this study, this proves the point of accountability of content created by YouTubers, as it affects their perception of a particular topic. At the same time, the journal did talk about the increased role of product promoters. The current study acknowledges that YouTubers' role in case of adversity also gets vital in creating the right awareness to their fan followers in this study. A study by Miller (2017) discussed a critical topic of education about transgender through YouTube [14]. While it explored the work of eight popular transgender YouTubers, their content and awareness create a similar effort for emergencies. This study focuses on creating awareness and reaching more people, similarly through popular YouTubers in Indonesia. Research by Ayub, Manickam, Hamzah, Suanda, and Yusoff (2017) discussed health-related campaigns in social media and its practical aspect for youth in Malaysia. Its focus was on creating preventive health awareness through it. Its impact on youth divided into digital natives (born after 1980) and digital immigrants (born before 1980) [15]. The current study takes the scope to a different tangent. It discusses the remedial action being taken for a pandemic situation and role of YouTubers in creating awareness to all, irrespective of age, as a ripple effect. Another research by Nguyen and Allen (2017) discussed the importance of an online archive of patients' testimonials to a particular clinic or doctor in evaluating a health service provider [16]. Reassures people's trust on the YouTube platform and content, thereby the creator focus on Government's direction, policy, and health issues during a pandemic were not discussed there, which is the focus of the current study. Kankanamge, Yigitcanlar, and Goonetilleke (2020) discussed the engagement of disaster management related to social media channels [17]. The examination was done through popularity, commitment, virality, engagement, and utilization. Their study talked about the platform’s content reach and awareness about disaster management as a preventive manner. In contrast, the current study identifies the need to know the role of content creators (YouTubers) in response to the current pandemic. Another study was done by Ehnis (2018) close enough to talk about the role of social media during disaster management operations mode [18]. While this study focused on social media platforms, the current study concerning the current situation talks about YouTube and, in particular, the role of Youtubers. A previous study by Niebler (2020) emphasized the collective strength of YouTube content creators against the monopolistic approach of YouTube [19]. The context given was around an algorithmic recommendation engine by YouTube, which recommends videos to users for increased engagement leading to extremist and misinformation channels. While the study showed the collective strength of YouTubers, the current study focuses on the strength of individual YouTubers and their subscribers' reach. Another previous study by Walker (2020) discussed the medical professionals whose YouTube channel has become a vital 978-1-7281-7071-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 13-14 August 2020 2020 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) 882 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Brighton. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 07:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. source of information during the current pandemic [20]. While the study talks only about health and medicinal value through doctors, the current study focuses on the role of YouTubers on policy, social media, and science journalism around COVID19. III. METHOD This study uses a qualitative approach with a semantic content analysis research design. A qualitative approach used to construct the reality of the Indonesian YouTuber amid a coronavirus pandemic and semantic content analysis used to interpret the meaning of video content related to COVID-19 created by Youtubers. “Fig. 1.” describe the research process of this study. Planning Aim: To analyse how individual Indonesian YouTubers present the issue of COVID-19 in creating public awareness in Indonesia through their YouTube video content based on ethos, pathos, and logos. Sample and unit analysis: Video content about COVID-19 of Top five individual Indonesian YouTubers. Data Collection Observation of video content about COVID-19 of YouTubers through visual images, audio, and text Data Analysing Latent analysis (What intended to be said?) Stage 1: Decontextualisation (Identify meaning units: ethos, pathos, logos) Stage 2: Recontextualitaion (Examine all content that fits the purpose of the study) Stage 3: Categorisation (Breakdown of meaning units) Stage 4: Compilation (Draw realistic conclusions) Creating A Report and Presentation of The Result Fig. 1. Research Methodology Process The research process using qualitative content analysis methods includes planning, data collection, data analysis, and finally, creating a report and presentation of the result [21]. In planning, research objectives and unit analysis are determined. The unit analysis is a video content about COVID-19 from the top five individual Indonesian YouTuber Indonesia. The criteria of Indonesian YouTubers selected as unit analysis are individual YouTubers, YouTubers who have no affiliation with any company or organization, YouTubers who have the most ranking subscribers, YouTubers were creating video content about COVID-19 on their YouTube channel (video content contains positive information for the public and uses persuasive communication to create public awareness). There are more than 100 active YouTubers of Indonesia in many categories. However, only ten individual YouTubers in Indonesia based on the number of subscribers of the Nox Influencers version [22]. They are Atta Halilintar, Ricis Official, Jess No Limit, SAAIHALILINTAR, Frost Diamond, MiawAug, Arif Muhammad, Raditya Dika, Dylan PROS, Deddy Corbuzier. Based on the criteria of YouTubers of this study, only five YouTubers found. They are Atta Halilintar, Arif Muhammad, Raditya Dika, Dylan PROS, and Deddy Corbuzier. Then, the data collection stage was carried out with observations on YouTuber's video content about COVID-19 in the aspects of visual image, audio, and text. The next process is data analysis that used latent analysis, consisting of four stages. First, decontextualization, where the meaning of the unit is determined. The Meaning unit for constructing the meaning of video content is The three modes of proof are ethos, pathos, and logos. Second, recontextualization is the stage of checking, classifying, and ensuring that each content analyzed is under the research objectives. Third, categorization, the stage for creating sub-categorizations of meaning units. Fourth, the compilation is the process of inferring data to be presented. IV. RESULT The observations of five individual Indonesian YouTubers show that their video content explicitly and creatively discusses the coronavirus to increase public awareness. The “Table I.” below explains the YouTube channel category and the number of subscribers of every YouTuber. TABLE I. No. TOP FIVE YOUTUBERS WHO CONCERN ABOUT COVID-19 YouTubers Channel Info Category [22] Subscribers [22] Entertainment 22.2M Comedy 9.09M 1. Atta Halilintar 2. Arif muhammad 3. Raditya Dika People & Blogs 8.67M 4. Dylan PROS Gaming 8.65M 5. Deddy Corbuzier Entertainment 8.4M How individual Indonesian YouTubers present the issue of COVID-19 in creating public awareness in Indonesia through their YouTube video content based on ethos, pathos, and logos? (see The “Table II.”) Below is the result analysis of video content about COVID-19 of every YouTuber one by one, which represented in the video by visual images, audio, and text. TABLE II. RESULT OF ANALYSYS BASED ON PROOF ARE ETHOS, PATHOS, AND LOGOS YouTubers Atta Halilintar Arif muhammad Raditya Dika THE THREE MODES OF Result of Analysis Ethos Pathos He invited a pulmonologist as a speaker. Showing a serious expression He chooses a smart and assertive character in his situational comedy to talk about COVID19. He used his popularity as a Logos Discussing the characteristics of COVID-19 and persuade the audience to apply healthy life during the pandemic. Showing a serious expression Explain and persuade the audience of the protocol of a healthy life during coronavirus pandemic. Showing a serious Explain the importance of 978-1-7281-7071-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 13-14 August 2020 2020 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) 883 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Brighton. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 07:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. YouTubers Dylan PROS Deddy Corbuzier Result of Analysis Ethos celebrity who famous as a smart person to talk about COVID-19. He presented a medical student to talk about COVID-19. He invited the government's spokesperson for COVID-19, Governor of DKI Jakarta, a few digital influencers, some public figures, and some doctors (including a pulmonologist). Pathos expression Showing a serious expression Showing some seriousness, sadness, anger, fear, happy, and astonishment expressions. Logos physical distancing during the pandemic. He was giving some advice to be productive while staying at home. Explain the importance of selfquarantine. Explain the characteristics of coronavirus. Persuade the audience to apply healthy life during the pandemic. Discussing the characteristic of coronavirus. Discussing and persuade the audience about protection advice during the pandemic. Talking about critics to government decision making. Discussing the socio-economic impact of coronavirus pandemic. A. Atta Halilintar Atta Halilintar, apply a talk show concept for his video titled “corona…". He invited a Pulmonologist to talk about the coronavirus pandemic. The choice of presenting a professional in public speaking is a way to convince the audience that the material delivered to them is credible because it came from a trusted source. Also, the pulmonologist has experience in treating the COVID-19 patient, and he wanted to clarify misleading information that spread in the society about COVID-19. The material delivered in the video ranged from some explanations about the symptoms of COVID-19, how coronavirus is spreading between humans, especially in Indonesia, some preventive actions that people can apply, and information about the right treatment for COVID-19 patient, and some pieces of advices for governments from a medical view. These materials are delivered with semi-informal language to achieve an understanding of any audience. The vocal aspect sounds relaxed but in a severe tone for building the audience’s trust. The facial expression also shows some seriousness to make the listeners perceive the COVID-19 is a severe thing to handle. However, few smiles and cheerful expressions are also applied in some humor messages to entertain the listeners and reduce their worries about the coronavirus pandemic. B. Arif muhammad Arif Muhammad is a YouTuber who create his video contents in the concept of situational comedy. He created a daily life story about a middle-aged mother whom he named "Mak Beti”. Around the main character “Mak Beti”, he creates other extra characters. Interestingly, he plays the role of all the characters by himself. Binjai, a city in North Sumatra of Indonesia, is a place and cultural setting of the story. The video entitled "Mak Beti Marah-Marah Karena Martha” (Mak Beti gets Angry Because of Martha) is a story that contains COVID-19 contents. Through the daily communication style of the Binjai people, Arif Muhammad tried to remind the audience some pieces of advice for facing coronavirus pandemic. Stay at home, social distancing, handwashing, and a healthy lifestyle are self-protective actions that the community must obey in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The message conveyed in a few of the dialogue scenes of the story. A sign language displayed during the show, so that the audience with a disability would also understand the story's messages. C. Raditya Dika Raditya Dika, YouTuber who is also famous as a public speaker of stand-up comedy, made a video with the title "Jaga Jarak Kuy" (Keep A Distance Guys) to persuade the audience to stay at home during coronavirus pandemic. Using an informal communication style of stand-up comedy speaker, Raditya Dika conveyed the importance of social distancing in the current pandemic situation. He gave some advice on how to spend the time at home properly for an introvert and extrovert people. At the end of his speech on the video, Raditya Dika motivated the audience to be always optimistic about facing coronavirus pandemic and convinced the listeners that the plague would end sooner or later. D. Dylan PROS Dylan Pros specifically made video content about coronavirus with the title "COVID-19". He seems to make this video content seriously and very different from many of his video concepts that focus on games. Dylan starts the video by displaying the flash news about coronavirus from various countries. Dylan stated that initially, the coronavirus issue in Indonesia perceived as a joke. Many Indonesians were very confident that the coronavirus would not come to Indonesia. Then when the coronavirus finally infected Indonesians, competition between the media emerged to increase its profit. However, unconsciously, so much excessive and misleading information from the media causes public anxiety. However, many people are still so careless about COVID-19 because they do not have a good understanding of it. Then, Dylan explained how to overcome anxiety and the importance of self-quarantine for fourteen days. To get a credible source, Dylan presented a medical student to explain the material. Afterward, Dylan informed the characteristics of coronavirus from some data source. He also shows how the coronavirus spreads from one person to another by explaining the 'flattening curve’ quoted by @edwardsuhadi from sciencealert.com which explains why social distancing is critical? At the last minute of the video, Dylan convinced the audience to stay at home, handwashing with soap, reduce the habit of face touching with hands. The language style in this video looks and sounds very serious about creating the audience mindfulness about COVID-19. E. Deddy Corbuzier Deddy Corbuzier, until this paper was written, produced thirteen videos discussing about coronavirus. The video concept is a talk show which invited a public figure. Deddy's 978-1-7281-7071-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 13-14 August 2020 2020 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) 884 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Brighton. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 07:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. video titles about coronavirus are unique and controversial. He invited government personnel who played an important role in dealing with COVID-19 in Indonesia, such as the Government Spokesperson for COVID-19 and the Governor of DKI Jakarta. He also invited other controversial public figures related to this pandemic coronavirus, such as doctors and digital influencers. The material delivered vary in topic, such as the characteristic of coronavirus, protection advises, critics to government decision making, and socio-economic impact of coronavirus pandemic. The expression and tone of language in Deddy Corbuziers’ video are serious, sometimes shows sadness, anger, happiness, and astonishment very honestly without censor. All these expressions look like a representation of the audience feeling in facing this pandemic. So, the content could affect the audience’s emotions more effectively. V. DISCUSSION According to the video content about coronavirus made by YouTubers, they perceive that COVID-19 is a severe problem. They want their audiences to have the same perception of it. So, they create some video content to increase public awareness of COVID-19. People need transparent and credible information to increase their awareness about the risk of COVID-19 for their health, so they motivated to do some protective behaviors. Based on the theory of protection motivation, people's significant behavior in protecting themselves from a health threat is influenced by their perception of the threat risk level [1]. Worry and trust are two factors that might influence people's perceptions of health risks [1]. Fear of disease is an affection response to threats that will predict behavior to protect oneself regardless of the severity of the risk. Worries influenced by a few factors, such as socio-demographic, social context, and values possessed by individuals [1]. Then, the public’s trust in the sources of information about the threat also affects their perception of the severity of a health threat. Therefore, informative and persuasive communication by presenting complete information about COVID-19 from the government, health professionals, and the media are needed to raise public awareness. YouTubers could be one of the social support members who help public understand the pandemic better. As pointed out in the literature section, studied journals discussed the popularity of YouTube and freedom it has given to the content creators to upload the content and make it in front of the world [11]. Some studies discussed the authenticity of content, inclination of both YouTube and influencers in product promotion for money [13], and the power of YouTube to force-feed auto content to the user through its automated mechanism [19]. However, later study of some journals also discussed the role of YouTube in educating people of the different societal areas like transgender’s [14] and spreading preventive health awareness among youth for whom social media and internet is the prime source of information [15]. Some studies also shared the importance of testimonials and feedback by patients over those by hospitals and clinics directly, which reassured the fact that YouTube has become a trusted platform among people [16]. Nevertheless, interestingly later studies align with the study conducted here, which talks about the importance of YouTube content and content creators, even medical professionals, as YouTuber’s role in disaster management [17]. While there, the studies focused on preventive measures, the current study discussed when the pandemic is ongoing. The study is done on how YouTubers with the right content are managing and creating public awareness. Interestingly, in one of the studies done by Niebler (2020), the concern of the YouTubers on the platform’s algorithmic recommendation engine was that that time was seen as a mechanism to maximize user engagement steer users towards extremist and misinformation channels has now well solved by YouTube [19]. In current times, it is seen that the users are well guided by YouTube to relatable content around COVID-19 and associated content, making it a classic example of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). To understand HCI studies, the design and use of computer technology focused on the interfaces between people and computers. Researchers in the field of HCI observe how humans interact with computers and design technologies that let humans interact with computers in novel ways. YouTube is a platform that is very influential in building interaction and community virtually [23]. On YouTube, someone can create a video channel, upload videos, watch videos, rate videos, share videos, and comment on videos. There are several freedoms for YouTube users, including freedom of information, freedom of expression, freedom of opportunity, and freedom of ownership. These freedoms invite much creativity and very dynamic human interaction. However, freedom without responsibility will cause social conflict. Therefore, mindfulness communication is essential in every communication activity on YouTube and other social media platforms. In today's digital era, where social media users come from various backgrounds, each user must consider who the target audience is and the context behind the occurrence to deliver some information effectively and ethically. Because what we say and how we say it are both essential [10]. Effective public speakers use several proofs in their presentations [9]. This statement is one of the assumptions of the Rhetoric. That is, a speaker who is interested in persuading his or her audience should consider three rhetorical proofs: ethics/credibility (ethos), emotion (pathos), and logic (logos) [9]. Analysis of three rhetorical proofs on YouTuber's content video about COVID-19 shows that all YouTubers apply it creatively and based on their uniqueness. Nevertheless, it needs some improvement on the logos aspect. A strong argument must be supported by more supporting materials so that it is more effective in influencing the audience. This study also can provide a deeper understanding of the media ecology theory. One assumption of media ecology theory is that the media infuse every act and action in society [9]. This assumption means that humans cannot avoid the media in their lives. YouTubers always seem to transform the events that occur around them into their YouTube channel. However, because they are also exposed to a variety of media, they will tend to be influenced by information from these media. However, from the research results, they are trying to provide information about COVID-19 to create public awareness creatively. This data is associated with other media ecology theory assumptions, stating that the media fix human perception and organize their experiences [9]. 978-1-7281-7071-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 13-14 August 2020 2020 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) 885 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Brighton. Downloaded on November 09,2020 at 07:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. At present, not all social media content harms the public if the public is smart in selecting and interpreting content from the media. One of the assumptions of the uses and gratification theory states that value judgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience [9]. This idea can be applied to new media such as YouTube and other social media. However, the cognitive disparity in Indonesian society is one of the obstacles in providing a homogeneous assessment of media content. Therefore, the role of YouTubers, especially in a global crisis such as coronavirus pandemic, is indispensable. Because YouTubers have different audience classifications, they can convey information according to their respective audiences' culture. VI. CONCLUSION The Five Individual YouTubers with the highest number of subscribers in Indonesia perceive COVID-19 as a pandemic that must be dealt with very seriously but without anxiety. Through videos on their YouTube channel, YouTubers deliver informative and persuasive messages about COVID-19 to create public awareness. Persuasive messages contain proper ethos (credible speakers), appropriate pathos (the right expressions to stir the audience emotion), and good logos (the proper argument and evidence to build the audience trust). Topics presented ranged about the coronavirus characteristics, some protection advises, comments on government policies in dealing with COVID19, and the socio-economic impact of coronavirus pandemic. YouTube is the most influential and most used social media platform in Indonesia. During the pandemic, YouTube provided much information about COVID-19, which invited many viewers. So that the level of visitors from YouTube increased during this pandemic. 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