Pedagogical Pleasures and Perils of Teaching During the Pandemic: Japanese History and YouTube

In this article, I focus on the role of YouTube as a pedagogical tool and its associated media literacy issues. In the courses I have taught since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have included short videos produced by well-known YouTube history channels alongside required readings to stimulate student engagement with historiographical issues. Students respond positively to these videos, which they also seek out themselves. However, YouTube history channels are increasingly producing polished and entertaining videos that do not clearly cite sources and gloss over historiographical inaccuracies or misrepresentations. YouTube videos on Japanese history should be selected and utilised carefully. Media literacy skills and academic readings are essential to students’ ability to critically view and understand these media representations of the past. Therefore, I argue that it is important for Japanese Studies students to develop critical media literacy skills and be aware of the role and power of social media sites such as YouTube in the creation and representation of Japan and Japanese history.