‘5 secrets they won’t tell you’: The content and rhetoric of YouTube advice videos about searching for a doctoral supervisor

Abstract

Much guidance on how to identify and contact a doctoral supervisor can be found on YouTube. There is a wealth of advice videos presented by ‘insiders’ including students, academics, consultants and institutional representatives. This article explores such ‘find a supervisor’ videos, characterising them as texts in the broader genre of doctoral writing advice. The article examines a sample of these videos thematically and then discursively, offering insight into the advice they give, as well as their positionality and rhetorical constructions of authority. Although potentially helpful to applicants, particularly those without strong networks, these videos nonetheless contribute to a complex advice market which requires critical scrutiny in terms of motivation and message. The article argues that, although supervisor advice videos may provide accessible support, they also capitalise on doctoral anxiety and perpetuate a culture of compliance with higher education norms, rather than encourage institutional and cultural transformation towards inclusivity.