Youtubers for Quality News & Information

Mar 29

Trustworthy youtubers?

Most Australians use YouTube. And around a quarter of Australians go to YouTube for news. YouTube is a great platform for staying informed about the world. Though in an age of information disorder, how can we know which independent youtubers are trustworthy and worth our time and attention? Keeping journalistic standards in mind when watching videos can help us sort the quality information providers from the clickbaiters, rage feeders, and misinformation spreaders.

So what are the standards? Two important ones to keep in mind are:

Verifiable facts

We want those informing us to use facts, and those facts need to be verifiable and able to be assessed. Facts come from primary of secondary sources. Primary sources can be audio-visual materials recorded by the creator, official documents, academic literature, and interviews. Secondary sources include news articles and other YouTube videos. Youtubers demonstrate facts by showing the sources on screen and including links to the sources in the description. The use of verifiable facts from a variety of viewpoints helps give a full picture of a story.

Ethical considerations

Ethical considerations can also be observed in a youtuber’s content. This can come in the form of redactions of sensitive parts of documents, such as the name of an informant. We can see ethical considerations when images have blurred faces of people unrelated to the story. Videos about people should demonstrate fairness, this includes offering an individual right of reply when they are discussed unfavourably. For more on this, check out the MEAA Code of Ethics.

Informative youtubers

Below are some youtubers that I think do a good job of informing and they bring their expertise to their videos. What do you think about this list? Leave a comment below.

Economics & Finance

Science & Technology

Debunk the Funk with Dr. Wilson - Medical & Health focus

Back to the Science - Medical & Health focus

“Basic values often need interpretation and sometimes come into conflict. Ethical journalism requires conscientious decision-making in context. Only substantial advancement of the public interest or risk of substantial harm to people allows any standard to be overridden.”

— MEAA Code of Ethics