Lot of people doing the second thing. I prefer the first thing, but I'm having a hard time telling the difference before wasting 20 minutes of my time.
i dont think there's a standard, but the structure feels similar to a written essay. intro, thesis, supporting evidence and sources, conclusion. when I watch, it feels less like someone just chatting off the cuff.
I'd say citations/sourcing. If you see a bunch of cites in the description, that's a pretty good indication you're watching an essay not a rant. But not everybody puts their cites on their videos, so it's not 1:1 unfortunately
I want there to be a point to talking about the thing, some reason to talk about it besides "info dump". Nothing wrong with infodump, but to be an "essay" there has to be some insight, some conclusion. A reason to choose THESE facts, and THIS sequence of information.
Personally, I can't see myself watching too many video essays. But I've really enjoyed audio essays from smart people that I really respect and can learn from.
Probably depends on the context, but I think the high-quality ones are well thought out and written in advance (as an essay would be) and then read or performed. The lower quality ones are just as you said. The lowest quality ones are probably just streaming rants.
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The other half is not understanding the difference.
I want there to be a point to talking about the thing, some reason to talk about it besides "info dump". Nothing wrong with infodump, but to be an "essay" there has to be some insight, some conclusion. A reason to choose THESE facts, and THIS sequence of information.