Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Loneliness Assuaged: Eye-Tracking an Audience Watching Barrage Videos
Published on: May 29, 2020
Opioids in Satirical News Shows: Exploring Topics, Sentiments, and Engagement in Last Week Tonight on YouTube
Muhammad Ittefaq1, Ali Zain2, Hasnain Bokhari3
1School of Communication Studies, James Madison University, Harrisonburg ,Virginia, USA.
Abstract:
Prescription drug misuse and opioid overdose have become one of the most serious health crises in the US health system. In this study, we examined Last Week Tonight as hosted by John Oliver in order to explore topics, sentiments, and reactions by referring to online comments on YouTube. Using an unsupervised machine learning approach, we analyzed 33,741 user generated comments taken from three selected episodes published between 2016 and 2021. Our results revealed 13 topics: the politicization of the opioid crisis, side effects of opioid use, seeking help, legal issues, reactions to the John Oliver show, drug addiction, the US in comparison with other countries, case settlements, the drug business, addiction and pharmaceutical companies, profitability of companies from deaths, drugs and elections, as well as general awareness and education. In addition, we found that opioid side effects, seeking help, and the drug business had received the highest user engagements in terms of likes and replies. Our study suggests that comments with positive sentiments were more likely to cause a more widespread engagement from YouTube users than negative comments.
More Related Videos
16:02Demonstration of the Sequence Alignment to Predict Across Species Susceptibility Tool for Rapid Assessment of Protein Conservation
Published on: February 10, 2023
10:13Author Spotlight: An Efficient Methodology to Confidently Differentiate and Characterize Fentanyl Analogs
Published on: November 8, 2024
Related Concept Videos
Opioid Analgesics: Synthetic and Semisynthetic Opioids
Opioid Analgesics: Morphine and Other Natural Cogeners
Analgesia and Pain Management
Opioid Receptors: Overview
Drugs Affecting GI Tract Motility: Opioids as Antidiarrheal Agents
Opioids, widely used antidiarrheal agents, mitigate diarrhea by slowing down...
Depressants
Alcohol is a common depressant that can induce a sense of relaxation and reduced inhibition at low doses. Contrary to its occasional...