Researcher/YouTuber
A workshop that asked "what is a research video?"
A question I’ve started to ask researchers is, what is a research video? What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
From ECRs to professors I hear things like “corporate”, “PR”, “marketing”, even “boring”… What I don’t hear are words like “interesting”, “inspiring”, or even “entertaining”. And, unfortunately, I’ve never been told “knowledge translation”, or “social impact”1.
Most researchers have limited exposure to video production, and for many this is still through either an institution’s media-comms team or through the mainstream media. And while relationships between scholars and journalists are incredibly valuable, its just one approach to engaging audiences beyond circles of academics.
These relationships, at least it is my view, leave a researcher somewhat beholden to the media. Relying on a journalist or media outlet to take interest in and publish on your work. And this can also result in a handful of media darling academics getting all of the attention. Because this approach to engagement is relationship based, it rewards academics (and media-comms professionals) who have been lucky enough to establish these relationships.
So what’s an alternative? How can researcher’s take control of their own story, their own engagement, and find their own audience?
While my research is interested beyond platforms, for the sake of keeping this simple we’re going to take a look at researchers on YouTube. Studying YouTube is valuable because it is still the primary platform through which most people engage with online video2. And what we learn from YouTube, and academic YouTubers, can be applied across other platforms such as LinkedIn and, though perhaps to a lesser extent, even Instagram and TikTok3.
Researcher/YouTuber
Let’s take a look at each of these channels, starting with Dr Becky Smethurst of Oxford University.
Clearly, with 721,000 subscribers and 75,928,372 views4, she’s popular. Mind you, space and astrophysics is generally quite popular on YouTube. And the intersection between science research and popular culture is huge.
These videos have received millions of views. As well as thousands of likes and comments, and have no doubt been shared.
Smethurst is no stranger to engaging in popular discourse.
Her first video was about a fashion trend at the time: so-called ‘galaxy print’, where pictures of space dust and gases were printed on everything from leggings to posters. “It was annoying me so much. It’s not a galaxy, it’s a nebula.”5
This approach isn’t unique to Smethurst.
Searching “the science of rick and morty multiverse” on YouTube, a reference to one of Smethurst’s own video topics, we find videos like Biophysicist Explains The Science Behind "Rick and Morty", StarTalk x The Film Theorists – Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Science of Rick and Morty, as well as Smethurt’s own take on the subject.
Institutions are even getting in on the action.
Search “science of last of us”6. The top result (for me at least) is Cordyceps, Zombies and Fungal Infections - Doctor Explains the Science Behind "The Last of Us" from UC Davis Health with 40,000 views. This isn’t the most popular result. That’s: The Biology Behind The Last of Us | WIRED with close to two million views.
Before calling your institution’s video team and churning out your own science of… pop-culture mash-up video, compare your own channel to UC Davis Health’s YouTube engagement more broadly. With 205,000 subscribers and 52 million views YouTube’s algorithm is likely to consider UC Davis Health a trustworthy source, ranking their video highly7.
So, there’s clearly opportunity. But it isn’t as easy as just cranking out a few videos and waiting for the hits.
POPSICULE is ANU’s Science in Popular Culture and Entertainment Hub, a research group I had hoped would create great content and lead the conversation in this space. And while I applaud their intentions, and the fact that this hub even exists, their only published video has received just 153 views and five likes in eight months8.
So, there’s huge potential for engagement at the intersection of academia and popular culture (as well as niche- and sub- online cultures).
Medlife Crisis is Dr Rohin Francis’ channel, a cardiologist and UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science PhD candidate.
I’ve previously used health as an example of a discipline which might require an intermediary between research and impact9. But Francis and others, like Dr Mike10 who even has his own take on The Last of Us, are evidence that social impact is possible through effective health communication.
Looking at Francis’ videos, he’s interested in topics like:
His own take on pop-culture, Doctor Reacts To CONTAGION (2011) - Did It Predict Coronavirus? and Real life X-men: Biology of the world's greatest climbers - the Sherpa
A Student Drank 2L Of Energy Drink A Day. This Is What Happened To His Heart
But spending some time watching medical videos on YouTube, we have to acknowledge some concerns that YouTube videos aren’t of scholarly merit. And potential ethical considerations as academics pursue online stardom.
Doctor Youn does enjoy over five million subscribers for his parasocial reaction videos. But I think this stretches the intersection of professional expertise and popular-/online-culture into realms of potential exploitation.
So care must be taken when melding scholarship and cultural commentary.
What is, perhaps, most striking about Prof James Ker-Lindsay’s YouTube channel is that his videos are very normal. His presentation style is not too dissimilar to how he might present an online class or webinar.
The second notable difference between Ker-Lindsay’s and Smethurst’s or Francis’ videos is that Ker-Lindsay does not rely on what some might consider click-bait. He does not relate his research to movies or video games.
That being said, with over 176,000 subscribers and 13,327,906 views Ker-Lindsay is still reaching a massive audience.
Ker-Lindsay’s latest video, BASHKORTOSTAN | Russia's Rebel Republic?, has received 256,659 views, 884 comments and 7300 likes in only six days11.
The most popular videos on the channel, all with between 300,000 and 530,000 views, include:
Ker-Lindsay doesn’t rely on outlandish concepts. Bold titles and wild thumbnails. There is a complete lack of parasociality to Ker-Lindsay’s approach.
Considering the scholarly value of Ker-Lindsay’s videos, read some comments.
“I did a bachelor in geography at the university of Rimouski some twenty-or-so years ago and watching your channel is like having an even better quality version of the courses free of charge. Thank you, your analysis are systematically captivating.”
“Always find your content more than helpful Prof!”
“Thanks Prof! Good analysis!”
It is clear that, at least of the handful of the 884 comments that I read, Ker-Lindsay’s videos are engaged with at a reasonably academic level.
Ker-Lindsay also engages with commenters, much like he would his students.
Ker-Lindsay’s content might not appear exciting. But it’s encouraging, and frankly inspiring, that you don’t have to be a YouTuber to engage with your audience and build a community on the platform.
The academic who owns and hosts the channel Unlearning Economics is illusive, I’m not sure of his name, academic title, or even his host institution12.
Behind the mono-yet dulcet-tone of his delivery is an intellect and wit that is lacking in many YouTubers’ video essays. Below, he addresses what can sometimes be the shallow depth of many YouTubers in his sub-genre of left-wing economics.
He’s extremely thorough in his approach. Many of his videos are over an hour long. His content is candid, and considered. With a lot of thought, time and effort going into each video Unlearning Economics isn’t a self-serving populist content creator.
What stands out is that Unlearning Economics uses his platform to challenge ideas. And with over five million views, he’s obviously tapping into something that audiences are feeling.
Planned Obsolescence Will Kill Us All (the video embedded above)
He creates his videos with scholarly rigour.
“I plan to do many more videos which are focused on or at least mention leftist policies that have sound, empirical, theoretical reasoning behind them.”
And it appears he’s doing it for the right reasons. It’s worth listening to his introduction.
Explain it to me like I’m five
You might have been asked, “explain it to me like I’m five”. For many research projects this can be an effective approach to research dissemination. At least when the aim is reaching ultra-broad audiences with a climate science breakthrough or a new treatment for cancer.
But, as illustrated by these researcher/YouTubers, a delicate balance must be struck.
Dr Becky is an immensely talented science communicator. If anybody can explain black holes to five year olds it’s probably her. But her content, especially when viewed as a whole, has a great level of subject matter depth.
Instead of “explain it to me like I’m five”, how about, “explain it to me, and keep me hooked for an hour”.
This goes against other conventional wisdoms you might’ve heard like keep it short and sharp. Which, again, like “explain it to me like I’m five” has its place.
But what niche audiences are demanding is rich, deep, and meaningful content. These audiences love to go down internet rabbit holes. And at the bottom of every internet rabbit hole there’s a researcher waiting to come out.
All of this is particularly important for humanities and social sciences scholars. Often, these disciplines aren’t a strategic priority for institutions’ media and marketing teams. So with limited resources, you’re on your own.
But across music, film, literature and games, there are countless examples of academic papers (that, due to both how they are written and how they are published, might have quite limited reach) with the potential for tens of thousands of views on YouTube.
However, “Heaps of views” isn’t the goal. The aim is meaningful knowledge translation for social impact. And thousands of views are the result of meaningful engagement.
Time.
Workload and job pressure.
The required skills.
The lack of resources and support.
This isn’t easy. But it’s possible.
To make it a little easier, ask yourself the following three questions and start to think about what creative translation could look like for your research.
Who will most benefit from your research?
Try to detach from your colleagues, supervisors, and peers. Who are you trying to serve with your work, why do these people matter and how can you help them?
Thinking beyond the academy, what does social impact mean to you?
What does the world look like now, before your project, and how about after? What is the change you want to see in the world, change that you intend to realise through your research?
What do you enjoy, where is the intersection you want to explore for your research? E.g.: visual or performing arts; podcasts; videos and films; hiking etc. Doesn’t have to be something we’ve discussed.
Non-traditional research outputs (NTRO) is way bigger than YouTube videos. Do you have any hobbies or creative pursuits that intersect with your research? There are so many lifestyle sub-genres online, from gaming to gardening. How can you take your research out of your computer and into the real world?
Leave your answers in the comments.
This was originally presented as a workshop at the Digital Media Research Centre and ARC Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society Summer School, 2024.
Photo credit: Natalie Campbell, DMRC and ADM+S Summer School 2024
Check this out if you’re interested in making better research videos.
This isn’t to say that all research videos are rubbish, check out A Different Lens from Monash University. But, at least compared to the examples we’ll look at in this article, A Different Lens would have been phenomenally expensive and is well beyond the reach of most institutions. Let alone researchers themselves.
TikTok, particularly is its own thing. So, to figure out what does well there you’re better going straight there. But that’s for another article and I still think YouTube is the best place to start when thinking about creative approaches to research videos.
All data collected February 9 2024.
How one astrophysicist conquered YouTube – and you can too By Kylie Ahern.
The popular video game turned TV show.
I actually came across this topic when I saw a UK university create a similar science of Last of Us video. And I think even that had a few thousand views. The problem is that I can’t find it now, and that’s because it isn’t ranked well by YouTube’s algorithm.
Popsicule does appear to be publishing and hosting research engagement events. It’s not for me to judge their engagement priorities, but I will try to connect with them and see what they think.
Dr Mike has 11 million YouTube subscribers and more than three billion views, and describes himself as a family medicine doctor.
Published February 3 2024.
Though I was told by a colleague who knows the academic behind Unlearning Economics that he’s recently academia to become a full-time YouTuber. However, as far as I know, all of the content currently hosted on his channel was created while still working in academia.
This is great. Shows there are so many avenues on YT to translate research into popular discourse. Thanks for giving me a few more channels to look into!