Knowledge-based short videos are building a new space for online learning
Editor's note:
In recent years, with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, short videos continue to deeply affect people's production and life. The 49th "Statistical Report on China's Internet Development Status" released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that as of December 2021, the number of short video users in my country has reached 934 million.
Because of its intuitive, easy, instant, and small size, short videos have become the first choice for many people to fill the fragmented time. It is worth noting that in the past two years, the interest of many people has begun to shift from purely recreational "hunting" to practical "learning", and pan-knowledge short videos have been favored by more and more people.
Which groups do mosquitoes most like to find in summer?
What is the performance of your favorite mobile phone?
Why are matching games always addictive?
What process does a fish go through from rivers, lakes and seas to the dining table?
How to chop stick bones and ribs so that they are not easy to splash?
Why doesn't the Mona Lisa have eyebrows?
All these strange questions can be answered in short knowledge videos.
2020 is known as the first year of the explosion of knowledge-based short videos, and major video platforms have successively launched knowledge-based sections in content construction.
These videos cover professional fields such as humanities and social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as life-related content such as food, fashion, storage, and evaluation.
Broadly speaking, videos that can enable people to acquire knowledge or skills in fragmented time and are useful to the audience can be called "pan-knowledge short videos".
Video creators include professional institutions and media units, as well as some enthusiasts and Internet celebrities. They use their expertise to add light wings to the dissemination of knowledge through visual presentation methods and popular and interesting narration methods.
The audience of pan-knowledge short videos prefers to obtain valuable information on the short video platform. Because of their interests, they gather under relevant content and participate in discussions together, forming a loose online learning space in the exchange.
What are the characteristics of these videos?
How to ensure the professionalism of these videos?
Why is it difficult for some people to concentrate on reading a book for a long time, but they can learn related knowledge in such videos?
To this end, the reporter interviewed a number of content creators who are active in video platforms such as Station B, Tencent WeChat Video Account, and iQiyi, and learned about the concepts and stories behind the creation of pan-knowledge short videos through their stories.
I can't find it, only I can't think of it
——Tens of thousands of content creators responded positively to the diverse needs of netizens
"I can't find it, only I can't think of it." This sentence can be used to describe the massive and rich content of pan-knowledge short videos.
When a little confusion arises in your mind because of a thought, someone may have prepared an interesting answer for you with enthusiasm - tens of thousands of content creators are responding to the diverse knowledge needs of netizens Positive response.
Why can't I remember the knowledge points taught by the teacher when reading, but I can remember the classic scenes in the comics?
Maybe it's just the wrong way to learn.
This is the original intention of creating the WeChat public account of "Hunzhi" in 2014.
From the earliest graphic products to publications, audio courses, animations and other knowledge popularization products, "mixed knowledge" makes the obscure and boring knowledge points vivid and interesting in the form of comics, which puts a lot of pressure on many people in work and life. The young man who had difficulty nibbling down obscure books opened a window.
According to Li Xiang, chief content officer of "Hunzhi", contextualization, visualization, and entertainment are several key points that the team follows in the content production process.
"When teachers teach knowledge in the classroom, they often throw out a term first and then explain its definition. We will find a starting point for cognition and string together all the key points with the logic of 'because', weakening unnecessary information, Strengthen key information and organize contextualization; in the process of imageization, we have always emphasized the informational nature of pictures, rather than blindly pursuing fun, it is our way of quickly conveying knowledge to the audience; entertainment is through some funny bridges , 'personal' style and other fun elements to catch everyone's attention, so that it is possible to attract audiences to watch in the massive information." Li Xiang said.
According to the "curator", the chief editor of the video account "IC Lab", for creators of knowledge-based content, a very important point is curiosity.
Those phenomena that are accustomed to on weekdays, there is a lot to do if you dig deeper, and these stories triggered by curiosity are often loved by many people.
"For example, during the epidemic, people began to stock up on refrigerators, and we made a special issue of the topic of refrigerators. From a brand to its similar brands, and then to the development of China's refrigerator industry, and finally to the development of China's white goods, the story is getting more and more The more." The "curator" said.
On the content page of "IC Lab", there are hundreds of thousands of videos on topics such as "Memoirs of 10 Years of Mobile Internet", "How Many Years It Takes Chinese to Bring Fish to the Table", "How Capital Creates the Concept of Light Food", etc. Millions of views.
"There is a dark line behind our video, which is China's development and changes. From history to modern times to nearly two decades, and the new changes after the Internet wave, the starting point of such a line is often things that are very familiar to us in our lives." Introducing the "curator".
"Brain-opening", "You did something I wanted to do but didn't dare to do", "Practice of Internet celebrity recipes"... These are high-frequency comments in the comment area of the video account BiteClub.
"Use the air fryer to make dry fried beef", "sugar and orange jelly", "salmon with glutinous rice cake"... whimsical topics are matched with exquisite editing, plus bloggers "Mr. Chen" and "Rong Stem" With the humorous language of "in place", BiteClub has become a "happy choice" for many food lovers in their spare time.
"We want to share what we are doing with everyone. At the beginning, we focused more on practicality in the video to help you distinguish between good and bad, true and false. Later, we made it clearer that our goal is to highlight creativity and bring you new ideas with unexpected content. "Mr. Chen" likes to try new things, he introduced: "Bite means to try and take a bite, as well as food and early adopters. Club represents people who love food and life as much as we do. Together they form BiteClub." In the series of "Internet Celebrity Goods Unboxing", "Exploring Stores" and "Tasting" series, the real shooting and experience have played a role in "avoiding pits" for many people, and many people are more aware when watching. smile.
Among the short videos of pan-knowledge, those boring majors and even unpopular and difficult knowledge content that were once difficult to enter the vision of popular video open courses, as well as the details of daily life experience, have gained a wide audience in the process of precise and differentiated dissemination.
Let people understand and learn
——Experts and scholars become popular science bloggers, and the team "translates" knowledge, making it possible to explore professional fields
The production threshold for pan-knowledge short videos does not seem to be high, and everyone who has received professional training in related fields or has relevant experience may become the subject of shared knowledge.
In fact, behind the intuitive video form and relaxed and interesting expression, what is needed is a sufficient amount of professional knowledge reserve and solid theoretical support.
How to accurately and rigorously convey the "dry goods" of knowledge, without relying on radical speech to output extreme emotions to attract traffic, is crucial to the long-term survival of pan-knowledge short video content producers.
The "Mixed Knowledge" team has formed a set of learning mechanisms, that is, first learn knowledge by reading literature, consulting experts, etc., and then digest, absorb, process, and "translate" knowledge into texts, comics, animations and audio that are popular with the public.
Contrary to the audience's imagination, Li Xiang said that "Mixed Knowledge" is not a team of "scholars", "If a person is a 'scholar' in a certain field, he may feel that what he writes can be understood by others as a matter of course. , the content production of team creators does not strictly correspond to their professional background. They also learn a certain professional problem from a non-professional perspective and can understand the difficulties of everyone in the learning process, so they will be carried out when producing this part. Strengthening, if the logic is unreasonable, you will search for new information instead of writing based on your previous experience.”
The "Hundred Knowledge Research Institute" in the team is composed of experts in various fields, who teach the creators collectively and are responsible for professional audits.
As an evaluation video account, in order to ensure the scientificity and rigor of the evaluation results as much as possible, the production cycle of each video program of "Huangjia Laboratory" under Phoenix Network is at least one month, and the most time-consuming and laborious part is to do the testing. experiment.
Zhao Xinyu, editor-in-chief of the evaluation department of Phoenix.com, said: "Checking papers and the national standards of related industries is the standard for each issue. On this basis, we enter the testing link, and please have a laboratory with testing qualifications to do it. Waiting for the results is one aspect. In many cases, the laboratory may not have tested a product in this way, which items to be tested and the indicators related to the items need to be put forward by us, which will make our testing cycle longer."
For some laboratory tests that are not suitable for shooting, "Huangjia Laboratory" will design its own experimental methods.
In the video of the first issue of evaluating the thermal performance of down jackets in November last year, the team directly built a cold storage that can simulate an environment of minus 20 degrees Celsius. Two testers, male and female, measured the temperature changes in the chest, abdomen and arms after entering and leaving several times. , The thermal insulation capacity of the down jacket is obtained comprehensively.
"We want to keep the fun in the hardcore evaluation process, so we also need to consider the presentation effect of the video. The down jacket is usually removed in the laboratory and then a few reports are given, so that the viewability of the video will be greatly reduced." Zhao Xinyu explained.
In the Internet era, especially after the rise of short videos, simplified emotional output has become the "traffic password" for some content creators.
The emotions wrapped under the subjective, intense and slogan content quickly attract audiences to stand in line for discussion, and obtain considerable traffic, which is tied to realizable commercial benefits.
Wang Xiao, who has worked in the media, is familiar with the process and mechanism of news production and dissemination. In his self-media video account "Xiao Wang Albert", he pays special attention to the objectivity of the content.
Wang Xiao, who has a background in history and international relations, hopes to share his knowledge system, explore learning methods, and provide more people with a perspective to understand and analyze the times and the world, "I hope to provide as much knowledge as possible 'dry goods' , rather than 'rhythmically' from a personal standpoint."
Wang Xiao firmly believes that the success of self-media accounts is not about how "exploded" at a certain point in time, but how long a brand can survive in a certain field, especially for knowledge-based accounts.
From the early days of the development of pan-knowledge short videos to today, not only a group of academicians, professors, experts and scholars have become popular science bloggers, but also more ordinary people have formed professional teams.
They are not professionals in a certain field themselves, but through a set of learning mechanisms, they can quickly "translate" knowledge, lower the threshold of knowledge, and give more people the possibility to explore professional fields.
From one-way output to two-way interaction
——Netizens continue to integrate and supplement knowledge, and build a complete learning scene together with the video itself
In addition to the anchor's explanation, in many short video interfaces of general knowledge, the barrage and comments are like a pulsating river, constantly gathering and inspiring new inspiration, as well as more comprehensive and diverse thinking.
The content released by these "fans" and the replies of bloggers continuously integrate and supplement knowledge, and together with the video itself, build a complete learning scene.
The dissemination of knowledge is no longer a one-way output, but knowledge sharing is formed in the interaction.
Wang Xiao designed a symbolic spoken phrase for himself in the video - "to become stronger together", which is the effect he hopes the show can achieve.
In the video, Wang Xiao repeatedly encouraged everyone to have their own thinking and bring different views.
He said: "I want to make the comment area a page worthy of repeated viewing. Even if a certain news is no longer a hot topic, netizens will still find new discoveries in the comment area when they come back a year later. It is always open, everyone You can keep adding new information to it.”
In a video for Huawei's 2021 annual report conference, Wang Xiao led "fans" to start from the current state of a company's existence and use a development perspective to discuss "how China should explore the value of talents in the current domestic and international environment."
"The effect of the comment area is very good. Many students and young people in the workplace leave messages, or share the industries they want to be involved in in the future, or share their problems and solutions at work. The discussion page is very positive and healthy." Wang Xiao I feel that this is the comment area he expected.
Yang Fan, a young art teacher at Capital Normal University, "moved" the classroom online, with a grand goal, "I hope my content can become a high-quality art education resource, so that more people can establish aesthetic habits and hobbies, especially Let more Chinese people understand the painting art of their own nation.”
In the class, Yang Fan found that if he asked which painters they knew, many people could name Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, and Van Gogh right away, but only a small number of them would think of Chinese painters such as Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong. This made him a little worried.
In the video account "Yang Fan talks about art", he used the way of talking about cross talk to tell the history of art in a humorous way, showing everyone the charm of Chinese art in the comparison of Chinese and Western painting art.
Someone left a message and said: "After what you said, teacher, I am a layman who likes art so much!"
Yang Fan believes that there is a seed of beauty in everyone's heart, and it depends on who can water it.
Regarding the messages in the comment area, Yang Fan basically answered all questions, "I use videos to stimulate everyone's interest. Maybe some people will become painters because of this, and maybe some people will have more thinking and understanding about beauty because of this."
He compares art creation to the competition of athletes on the field, and art science is like leading the elderly and children to exercise in the park. "The two are equally important."
For subscribers of pan-knowledge short videos, they do not always recognize the content published by content creators, and it is normal to have disagreements and disputes.
It is precisely because of "the truth is always clearer and clearer" that the relevant knowledge pages can continue to be enriched and become more beautiful.
"Some netizens will leave a large paragraph of text under our video to share their views. Indeed, we will also face some challenges. Everyone will seriously consider whether our evaluation link is scientific enough, and our chief writers will take the initiative to communicate with netizens. exchange." Zhao Xinyu said.
He mentioned that a very important concept of the "Huangjia Laboratory" is to hope that the audience can have independent thinking on the pros and cons of a product, "On the one hand, we must jump out of the consumption promotion, and on the other hand, we should not judge because of our evaluation. A product is 'killed with one stick'".
In the online learning community based on common interests, the audience not only obtains knowledge, but also obtains emotional satisfaction in watching and interacting.
For BiteClub blogger "Mr. Chen", this kind of emotional communication is also two-way: "I will read the comments in every issue, but to be honest, I am very afraid to read the comments. Even five comments in a row are positive. , there is a negative one, and it will also be very sad." In response to some questioning voices, he who was originally funny and humorous in front of the camera will also seriously explain.
Some netizens left a message and encouraged: "Don't be tied down because of their denial. It's good to learn a lesson from this failure and actively adjust it in the next action. I like this not perfect, but it can bring joy to everyone's Friday. Teacher Chen."
This kind of message makes "Mr. Chen" cherish: "Our relationship with fans is more like friends, and there is a natural sense of closeness. Sometimes people who have seen my video on the road will take the initiative to say hello, although I can't name my exact name, but it makes me happy to remember the jokes I made on the show."
Under the positive and positive guidance, because of common interests, short videos of pan-knowledge gathered to form a virtuous circle of learning community.
Make people willing to pay for knowledge
——To achieve the balance between creation and revenue while ensuring the gold content of the content
Since the rise of pan-knowledge short videos, major platforms have launched incentive plans to encourage high-quality content creation through the support of funds and traffic.
For non-public welfare accounts, it is difficult to achieve sustainable development only by platform subsidies, especially under the head effect, some small and medium-sized content creators have difficulty making ends meet.
At the same time, under the dissemination attributes of the Internet and the logic of platform operation, the survival of content creators depends on the dissemination power of the content and the attention of the audience.
How to ensure the knowledge content of the content and achieve a balance between creation and revenue at the same time is a problem that pan-knowledge short video creators have to consider.
Building content payment and knowledge payment models is a means for many platforms and content creators to achieve business value conversion.
Li Yuanyuan, the founder of the knowledge creation agency "Lightyear Classroom", has nearly 20 years of work experience in the traditional publishing industry.
In her view, whether it is traditional content production or content production under the Internet thinking, "content is king" is always the same rule, "creators of paid knowledge content must be carefully polished, responsible for knowledge, and to the audience. Responsible".
"Why are people willing to pay for your content" is a question Li Yuanyuan often thinks about, and her answer is to increase the added value of the content.
During the popular TV series "The World", "Lightyear Classroom" launched a series of content "Interpretation of the Fate of the Characters in the Original Book of "The World", starting from the original creative ideas, combined with a large amount of historical background knowledge, to interpret the problems faced by each character. Reality and predicament convey the normal state of life that "imperfection is life".
"We will not be the 'porters' of knowledge. We must convey new content and inspiration in the artistic processing, and we must give the in-depth content that is involved but not shown in the film." Li Yuanyuan said.
She admitted that she also encountered a crisis in the process of starting a business. "But in the end, you will find that it is the content itself that gives us the power to break through the crisis from the inside out. This also makes us firmly believe that doing a good job in content is the foundation of everything." .
At the same time, transforming knowledge in videos into products or services is also one of the ways to realize the sustainable development of knowledge-based video creation.
Li Yuanyuan introduced that "Lightyear Classroom" has also achieved good results in converting paid content into book publishing.
"Even if it is an advertisement, I will make it in line with the content tone of 'IC Lab', ensure the authenticity of the content by checking the information, and share my thoughts and thoughts based on this advertisement information, and everyone will still see the video. I will find it useful. This is a question of sincerity. If you treat the commercial content as an advertisement and finish reading it, then you will not be responsible for Party A and the audience. I show the audience the content and then watch the advertisement, everyone can express Support, in fact, is also an exchange." The "curator" said.
For the evaluation account "Huangjia Lab", the choice of commercial content is particularly prudent.
"We will strictly separate evaluation and business. If it is a horizontal evaluation comparing multiple products, then we will definitely not accept business activities, because you put a product that belongs to commercial promotion, so it is not fair. For the commercial promotion of a product, we will definitely try it out first, and if it is really good, we are willing to do some analysis, but generally we will not choose a product with too much risk." Zhao Xinyu said.
In the online community formed around pan-knowledge short videos, content creators not only provide knowledge, but also play a leading role to a certain extent.
In the process of transforming knowledge advantages and learning ability into commercial value, several content creators interviewed mentioned that "content is king". Under the relaxed and interesting representation, knowledge content itself is still pan-knowledge The core competitiveness of short videos to attract audiences is also what they cherish the most.
(Our reporter Li Xiaomeng)