‘Serious’ youtubers: public intellectuals or a new breed of journalist?
There is a category of content creator on YouTube that I’m struggling to find an appropriate label for. I am not the only one as they themselves are often torn between labels such as educator, video essayist, or, of course, youtuber. This label of youtuber is often reluctantly used as there is a feeling that society looks down on the profession as one not worthy of respect, though this seems to be an attitude of people above a certain age. Youtuber is generally settled on as there is no other term that seems to encapsulate the job. A youtuber is a professional running a small business. A ‘serious’ youtuber is a researcher, a script writer, a presenter, a fact-checker, an audio-visual producer, and often an expert in a specific field.
These youtubers are motivated to share their expert knowledge and educate people. They are also often motivated to correct misinformation that seems to proliferate on platforms such as YouTube. Misinformation that is often published by people lacking expertise in the topic area, lacking adequate research skills, or perhaps lacking a care-factor for facts.
Perhaps these ‘serious’ youtubers could be thought of as public intellectuals, much in the way tenured university researchers have been in the past. They are quite educated, some have even been university lecturers themselves (See list below).
Many channels of ‘serious’ youtubers seem to be evolving. Where content started as pure education, more and more these creators are producing videos that engage with contemporary issues of public interest. And these videos display journalism principles such as source attribution, verifiable facts, and ethical considerations. Perhaps this is some kind of youtuber platform journalism?
So who are some of these ‘serious’ youtubers and what are their credentials?
Money & Macro - PhD in economics. Recently quit his job as a university lecturer of economics to do YouTube full-time.
Zoe Bee - Lecturer of education for five years before quitting the uni life to work full-time on her channel.
Practical Engineering - Experienced and certified engineer. Quit his job as a Civil Engineer to go full-time on YouTube.
Anders Puck Nielsen - A military analyst at the Royal Danish Defence College
Auto Expert John Cadogan - Did a 6-year engineering degree at UTS. Former career journalist in print, TV, and radio news media before becoming a full-time youtuber.
Ryan McBeth - Former IT specialist and former anti-armour infantryman.
Tom Nicholas - Quite good at research as evidenced by his PhD.
The Present Past - Masters Degree in History.
Donna (Formerly known as Psych IRL) - A psychologist.
Vlad Vexler - A philosopher .
Dr Becky - An astrophysicist.
The list goes on, though lists can be boring so that’s enough for now.
What do you think? Who is your favourite fact-based ‘serious’ youtuber?
Leave a comment below.