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How would one cite a formal talk accessed as a video on webpage? Should one cite the video as an electronic source, or cite the talk as a speech, lecture, an oral presentation and in-turn utilize the physical location and time of the talk?

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Also see answer about citing powerpoints. – jwpat7 Dec 6 '12 at 19:24
For what purpose and what audience are you citing? In formal situations - conferences, publications, &c - there is usually a governing authority (MLA, APA, Chicago, for instance, or house rules at the publisher) which defines the required format. In other circumstances, you are free to adapt an existing format or invent your own. – StoneyB Dec 6 '12 at 20:29

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1 Answer

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Tricky. A videorecording of a live event doesn't seem to me to be quite the same thing as a videorecording prepared specifically for the web; I think you need both citations, the live event and the web republication. MLA doesn't appear to address this specifically, so I'm having to guess how to combine the two references. The links below send you to the relevant pages published by Trinity College, Hartford.

I'd start by giving the standard citation of the lecture, then follow this with the citation for the posted videorecording. That would give you something like:

[SpeakerLastName],[SpeakerFirstName]. "[PresentationTitle]." [Sponsoring Institution], [Location]. [PresentationDate]. Lecture. Videorecording published at [WebSiteTitle]. [WebSitePublisher]. Web. [DateRetrieved].

I've dropped the [PresentationDate] from the second citation, since that would just be a reprise, and I've added the words “Videorecording published at”.

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