Comment by haunter a day ago
This is my main problem with the modern Youtube meta, every single "serious" topic video is +30 mins length. 10 years ago we were perfectly fine with 10 mins stuff but of course algorithms and advertising and nowadays most Youtuber is pushing longer and longer videos as if we are watching peak evening television reporting...
And people click on the those videos, and YouTube recommends them because people like them.
Evening television reporting spends about 30s on any one topic, so much so that the dominant effect on the viewer is however the presenter framed the topic initially. This is nothing like that.
Typical package in the U.K. is about 3 minutes, the main story will have 10-15 minutes on it, with probably two pieces from different correspondents on different angles, an in studio interview, and a live.
There’s then the in depth programs which spend half an hour or an hour on a specific subject (dispatches, panorama etc)
People are less interested in long form news though, so public service broadcasters in the U.K. have a duty to reach as many people in as many ways.
There's a perfectly good format for long-form dives: An article. But no, everything needs to be a video because otherwise, how would anyone bother to consume it.
I can read an article about 10x faster than watch a video. I don't have a problem with Alec's videos per se, but it's crazy to claim that video is the medium with higher information density. Text is always going to be the better medium for transmitting information, except for cases where the unique advantages of video (moving pictures and sound) help.
there are things you can communicate well in text as well as things that make more sense with visuals.
Please, stop thinking in binaries.
No, for the kind of content he produces video is absolutely essential, since much of it is either demonstrating audio and video playback (including things like artifacts and color distortions), and showing how the internal mechanisms operate on partially disassembled machines.
Some creators still do 10 minute videos but whenever I watch one I feel I'm left with more questions than answers, I really prefer the deeper dives.