I know I’m not the only one a bit overwhelmed at times by the amount of good, interesting, and important academic work there is coming out. Just about every day I get another content alert from a journal I like, and there’s usually at least one or three that I really want and need to read.

This means that I often have to read selectively. I don’t like this, actually. It’s much nicer to sit and be with a paper for a time. And of course I make time for that too, but too often I have to be rather more brutal than I’d like. I don’t think I’m the only one, either. I suspect that most people read academic articles like this:

The bump there in the empirical section really depends on how interesting I find the paper overall. But really, if I’m honest, there shouldn’t be a dip at all. And this is if I even get to the paper in a decent amount of time! I’m too embarrassed to share my “read this now!” list…

With all that out of the way, I’m really happy to share my video abstract for my most recent paper, Blogging the Virtual. Antipode has what I think is a brilliant idea to help people with exactly my reading problem.

They’ve got a great collection of video abstracts – short, snappy, and accessible clips – that help you get a taste of what each article is about. I really like them. It feels innovative and fresh. Good for shaking off the dust. (They’re also scary to make, I’m not gonna lie. I love giving talks, but recording a compelling video is a pretty different beast. But that’s good, right? Pushing yourself in new directions…)

Anyway, here’s my video abstract. It was very cold but I had a good time. I hope you enjoy! And maybe you’ll take a gander at the article too, and that your reading thoroughness graph will look better than mine!