Framing Pro-Anorexia Discourse on YouTube in South Korea: Social Network and Exponential Random Graph Model Analysis of Video Communities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

YouTube, as a participatory platform, allows algorithmic curation and user engagement to shape health information flows. This dynamic amplifies and isolates harmful narratives, producing enclosed "refracted publics." Pro-anorexia (pro-ana) content exemplifies this, glamorizing extreme thinness as self-control and promoting disordered eating while distancing viewers from evidence-based health discourse. Despite concerns about public health consequences, few studies have examined how channel characteristics and framing strategies drive engagement and echo chamber formation.

Objective

This study analyzed how pro-ana discourse circulates on YouTube and identified entry points for intervention. It (1) compared pro-ana, anti-pro-ana, and recovery frames by channel type

SUBMITTER: Oh D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12585130 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature