Usually, students use YouTube as a way of putting off work. Sometimes, though, everybody’s favourite online video platform can actually help you with research! Hard to believe, we know.
But if that weren’t the case, why would MLA have rules for how to cite an online video? Rules, incidentally, that we’re just about to explain…
In-text citations for video sources in MLA can be confusing, as you won’t have page numbers to work with. Instead, you can give a timestamp [PDF] for the section of the video you’re citing:
The distinctive sound can be traced to a recording studio mishap (Caswell 00:01:23).
The citation above, for instance, points to a section 1 minute and 23 seconds into the video. However, if you’re not citing a specific part of the video, the timestamp can be left out.
It won’t always be obvious who you should cite for a video (e.g. if the uploader and the speaker are different people). But as long as you provide enough information for your reader to find the corresponding entry in the ‘Works Cited’ list, this shouldn’t be a major issue.
In the Works Cited list, the basic format for an online video is:
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‘Title of Video’. Platform/Website, uploaded by Username/Organisation, date of upload, URL.
However, this only applies when the uploader and the author of the video are the same person. If the main speaker/author is not the same as the uploader, give their name before the title.
In practice, then, online videos would be listed along the following lines:
Caswell, Estelle. ‘How a Recording-Studio Mishap Shaped ‘80s Music’. YouTube, uploaded by Vox, 18 August 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxz6jShW-3E.
‘Why C Major and A Minor Are Not the Same’. YouTube, uploaded by Michael New, 10 November 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcviIQg_BlU.
The first video above is one where the author and uploader are different people. The second is one where the uploader and the speaker are the same. As with any source, the key is giving enough information for your reader to find the video cited.
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