Medical video abstracts and their subgenres: a phase-based approach to the detection of generic structure patterns

ABSTRACT In recent years, digital platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and ResearchGate have broadened the range of genres used in specialised knowledge dissemination. This paper focuses on the Video Abstract (VA), a four-to-five-minute presentation of what lies behind the production of a specific research article (RA). This emergent genre transcends the confines of the RA allowing researchers to reinterpret their research making use of multiple information flows thanks to the meaning-making affordances created by the videotrack, the soundtrack and, above all, their simultaneous interplay. The extent to which researchers make full use of these affordances is examined in relation to the generic structure of a small specialised video corpus of medical VAs published in ten international journals. The study shows that the VA tends to replicate the generic structure typical of the RA but does so by using different subgenres which address a wider audience than that of the RA.