Photo credit: Lucy Enge
(Oak Meadow Archives)
Recently one of my students found it interesting to support her ideas about music by submitting some examples in YouTube videos that she found on the internet. I thought it was a great idea! It can be supportive of your thoughts and opinions in lesson work by including a YouTube video, an Instagram photo or video, a Ted Talk, Tweets, or any other video or photograph from a social media site.
Social Media has a lot to offer in the way of credible information. It may seem like a fun way to spend time for entertainment, but there are also times when a video, a photograph, or something on a social media post can be suitable for a research report or persuasive essay. These types of resources have to be cited in your written work, just as any resource used for research is cited in a bibliography. There is a special MLA form (which Oak Meadow uses) to cite these types of resources.
Based on MLA standards for other media formats, Oak Meadow asks that you use the following format. Make sure you include all the quotation marks, commas, italics, and periods in the proper places.
To cite YouTube videos:
Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Video.” Name of Website. Name of Website Publisher, date of posting. Medium. Date retrieved.
Example:
“Lunch Hour NYC: Hot Dog Carts.” New York Public Library, 5 July 2012, www.nypl.org/audiovideo/hot-dog.
To cite an Instagram post:
Account holder’s Last name, First name or Username. “Photo Title or Description.” Instagram, Other contributors, Date photo was published, URL (without http:// or https://).
(If no title is available, create a simple description and do not place it in italics or quotation marks.)
Example:
National Geographic. Photo of Bering Sea. Instagram, photographed by Corey Arnold, 2 Apr. 2017, www.instagram.com/p/BSaisVuDk7S/?taken-by=natgeo.
To cite an Instagram video:
Poster’s Last name, First Name or Username. “Video Title.” Instagram, Other contributors, Date published, URL (without http:// or https://).
(If no title is available, create a simple description and do not place it in italics or quotation marks.)
Example:
@itsdougthepug. “I Climb All The Time…Into Bed.” Instagram, April 2, 2017, www.instagram.com/p/BSWo9-0j940/?taken-by=itsdougthepug&hl=en.
To cite a TED Talk:
Cite a TED Talk as you would a lecture:
Author. (Year, Month). Title [Video file]. Retrieved from URL
Cain, Susan. “The Power of Introverts.” TED. Feb. 2012. Lecture.
To cite a Tweet:
Last name, First name (Username). “Tweet Message.” Date posted, Time Posted. Tweet.
Example:
Timberlake, Justin (jtimberlake). “USA! USA!!.” 16 June 2014, 8:05 PM. Tweet.
Last name, First name (Username). “Tweet Message.” Date posted, Time Posted. Tweet.
All of the above examples were taken from the EasyBib site: http://www.easybib.com/guides/
If you are looking for a quick guide to help you cite a source, this may be helpful:
http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/how-do-i-cite-a/
