The Virtual Tapestry: An Analysis of the Representations of Everyday Life in the Middle Ages on YouTube

September 25, 2026

The Virtual Tapestry: An Analysis of the Representations of Everyday Life in the Middle Ages on YouTube

ABSTRACT:

This study analyses how YouTube creators represent everyday life in the Middle Ages, focusing on how creators balance educational intent and entertainment value within their digital historical content. Drawing on qualitative analysis of twenty-three videos from five prominent historical channels, alongside semi-structured interviews with their creators, this study addresses how creators adopt different engagement strategies and representational choices, while also exploring the ideological implications of their portrayals. The study is motivated by the growing influence of user-generated media upon public historical understanding, as well as the current lack of academic scrutiny surrounding medieval representations on YouTube. Using critical discourse analysis and semiotic analysis, this study reveals a spectrum of edutainment strategies arising from its sample, which encompasses academically enriched representations to sensationalised, entertainment-led storytelling. Moreover, each creator establishes their authority through varied means, including their academic credentials, lived experience or through the use of immersive reenactments. Visual and rhetorical strategies such as thumbnails, titles, and pop-cultural references are shown to shape viewer engagement and frame medieval life as both obscure and familiar, depending on the creator’s creative intent. The study also highlights a growing shift towards the foregrounding of peasant life and gendered experiences online, though notable gaps remain in racial, religious, and queer representation, with these areas needing to be explored further within digital spaces. Ultimately, this research argues that YouTube is an exciting, dynamic new site of neomedievalist discourse and public history, where creators act as cultural intermediaries shaping our collective memory of the Middle Ages within the modern digital world. It also proposes a replicable framework for evaluating digital historical content and calls for greater academic engagement with online historical media, to help foster inclusivity and to further our critical understanding of historical education within the digital age.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Thank you to Frank Mozzotta. For igniting my passion for history.

Thank you to Tom Allbeson. For your advice, time and expertise.

Thank you to Modern History TV, Premodernist, Lindybeige, History Hit and MedievalMadness. For your inspiration, imagination and many hours of entertainment.

Thank you to my family and friends. For your love and support.

There is often a sense of otherness felt when looking back upon the past. A certain feeling of disconnectedness to previous peoples, which leaves history feeling cold, calculated and lacking of a human touch. Amongst historical periods, the Middle Ages perhaps most acutely evokes such estrangement, often being characterised in our popular imagination as a time of strangeness, superstition and barbarism (Haydock 2008). Yet such perceptions stem largely from the manner in which history is represented, as given the right tone and format, historical education can surprise us by how much we can recognise ourselves within the everyday lives of the past (Jonker 2012). When explored with nuance, the medieval world can not only challenge our assumptions about those who came before, but also illuminate the origins of European contemporary life as we know it. Paradoxically therefore, the medieval period also exerts a powerful fascination over our modern collective psyche, as in the words of Paul Zumthor, ‘The Middle Ages besiege and provoke us on all sides’ (1980, p. 120).

With the rise of digital media and user-generated content worldwide, the digital sphere now plays a significant role in shaping public understanding of the medieval period. With YouTube recording over 2.5 billion monthly users in 2024 (Seo.ai 2024), this platform, in particular, has played a sizable role in modern informal education, providing knowledge in an entertaining and accessible manner around the globe (Milikin et al. 2008, p. 5). Thus, it is essential to critically examine digital portrayals of the medieval era through an academic lens, in order to assess how effectively and accurately the everyday lives of medieval people are being represented to contemporary audiences, within this expanding digital realm. Content creators who focus on this period often provide the human touch missing from many academic texts (Kandala 2019, p. 18), attempting to bring the period to life with different formats, visual aids and approachable styles. Thus, as can be seen, digital historical education is an exciting new development, which should be highlighted and expanded upon for future research. With little to no other academic research having been conducted into analysing YouTube’s representations of the Middle Ages, through analysis of such content, alongside the thoughts of leading YouTube creators within semi structured interviews, this is something this study aims to help rectify.

On a personal level, having worked passionately within history communication, I am fascinated by how and why history is often presented to the wider public within certain paradigms. Effective historical education enhances the value we place upon historical sites and artifacts, and fosters public support for the preservation of medieval heritage sites, by attracting tourists and promoting cultural education. Through this engagement and understanding of medieval life, I believe there is much that can be inspired from the period that can aid in tackling many issues of our time. Daily life in the Middle Ages can offer us inspiration in regard to sustainability, community-oriented living and self-sufficiency, all of which are necessary if we are to properly combat the climate crisis (UN Environment Programme 2025), overconsumption and even the growing loneliness epidemic (Campaign to End Loneliness 2024). Thus, through these important lessons, history can not only come alive, but help us to thrive. Moreover, I believe that historical communicators have a moral responsibility to present their work accurately and in a manner which serves the people of today, rather than simply recounting the past for its own sake (Kelly 2018, p. 207). As the YouTube channel The School of Life (2014) eloquently puts it, ‘good history should always mean solutions and consolations for today.’

To analyse whether YouTube channels adhere to this lofty goal, this study will employ a combination of qualitative methods to critically analyse the most viewed content of various YouTube historical creators, to understand how their representations of everyday life in the Middle Ages of western Europe are constructed, and what motivations and objectives shape these constructions. Firstly, this study will analyse the production techniques and engagement strategies used within the content of historical YouTube videos, along with the different styles these videos present themselves in. This research will also explore YouTube’s representations of social class, gender and marginalised communities within the Middle Ages, as well as analyse whether said representations reinforce or challenge popular myths and falsehoods surrounding the period. Lastly, this research will analyse how the creators of this content balance the entertainment value of their videos with its educational validity to maximise engagement.

Like the symbolically and narratively rich woven tapestries of the medieval period, modern digital content forms a sprawling canvas, through which creators stitch together fragments of historical interpretation within visual and rhetorical storytelling. Yet, much like tapestries of time gone by, this canvas does not depict the past itself, but rather constructs an image of the past which is shaped by contemporary values, ideas and voices, becoming a mediated version of history. However, unlike its traditional counterpart, this virtual tapestry is not static in time, but is forever evolving and expanding, shaped by an algorithm and audience retention. By examining its threads, this research seeks to understand how digital creators weave the past into the present, and what patterns emerge in our collective imagination of medieval life because of this.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Although this is a relatively new area of academic study, there are multiple existing areas of literature which can be drawn upon to produce a deep framework of this topic. Thus, to place this study within the appropriate scholarly debates, in this literature review, I will assess theories surrounding medievalism and neomedievalism’s influence on modernity, the Middle Ages in contemporary media, as well as historical education within academia, schools and digital ‘edutainment’. In addition, I will review research conducted on YouTube’s place as a communicational and educational tool and explore previous work analysing YouTube’s historical education specifically. By exploring these scholarly debates in conjunction with each other, this will help to create a framework for further study on historical education and entertainment within digital spaces.

NEOMEDIEVALISM

Firstly, it is important to establish the historically wide-ranging application of academic study into medieval representations, so that this research can place itself within the appropriate disciplines. The term neomedievalism has multiple applications and meanings within numerous fields of academic study. Broadly, it refers to the revival, reinterpretation and integration of medieval culture within modern society (Holsinger 2007). This is separate from the term medievalism, which refers to the fascination and revival of medieval culture throughout past societies, be it the Victorian era or the Gothic revival (Fitzpatrick 2019). With these important distinctions drawn, I will now explore how scholars of political, cultural and literary theory have all applied the term neomedievalism in some capacity, with it now commonly used within debates surrounding pop-culture as a result.

Within political theory, scholars have discussed how the Middle Ages can act as a tool of comparison for modern times, with Hedley Bull in his work The Anarchical Society (1977) coining the term neomedievalism to refer to ‘a sovereignty of state that has become more fluid’ (Robinson and Clements 2012, p. 2). According to Bull (1977), our contemporary globalised world resembles the political order of the Middle Ages, suggesting that the modern erosion of state sovereignty is comparable to the political structures of medieval Europe, where no one ruler or state had absolute power over a given territory.

However, within literary and cultural studies, neomedievalism refers to the reinterpretation of medieval texts, themes and motifs within the new landscape of a postmodern world. These ideas were popularised by Umberto Eco, who saw neomedievalism in terms of cultural ideas rather than any one event or practice, parallelling modern troubles of ‘insecurity’ with that of the medieval (Eco 1986, p. 79). Kobrin (1998, p. 362) likewise argues that a neomedievalist approach can allow us to think beyond the modern world’s inclination to restrict ideas within the tight boundaries of normative modern conventions. Instead, through this approach, we can imagine alternative institutions, practices and customs from the past, unrestricted from the constructed perceptions of modern discourse.

Moreover, a new aspect of neomedievalism has emerged within modern times, as it has begun to refer to the intersection between medieval history and popular culture (Elliott 2017). Within this realm of popular culture, neomedievalism encompasses the general fascination and representation of the medieval period within modern media, such as film, television, books and video games. Scholars such as Fitzpatrick (2019) have highlighted how motifs of the Middle Ages have been reinterpreted within the literary works of writers such as J.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin. Consequently, neomedievalist ideas permeate not only works that strive for historical authenticity, but also those that construct fantastical medieval worlds.

This study will keep in mind these multifaceted ideas of neomedievalism when analysing the YouTube representations of everyday life in the Middle Ages. While it is undoubtedly crucial for this study to acknowledge medieval representations as pop-culture within YouTube spaces, by looking at its use within political theory, this will aid in analysing the ways YouTube historical creators empower people to adopt a critical lens on cultural norms. Furthermore, by adopting the neomedievalist principles of cultural and literary studies, this will aid in establishing when and how medieval YouTube content, through looking back at the past, challenges the established norms of modern society.

THE MIDDLE AGES AND AUTHENTICITY IN MODERN MEDIA

It is important to review the literature surrounding the Middle Ages’ representations within modern media, as understanding the debates concerning modern medievalism and the audience reception to these representations will be crucial for this study. There have been many scholars in recent years who have attempted to summarise and review medievalism’s place within modern culture. Alvestad and Houghton have brought to light modern concerns for accuracy and authenticity within media representations of the Middle Ages, with this forming a ‘core element of popular interaction’ (Alvestad and Houghton 2021, p. 1). There is a distinction to be made between these concerns for historical accuracy and authenticity however, as accuracy refers to the precise and factual representation of a period, whereas authenticity goes beyond these factual details, being the aim to capture the feel, essence and atmosphere of a given period (Fixler 2008, p. 11).

Moreover, Alvestad and Houghton suggest that today there is substantial commercial benefit to presenting what viewers regard as an ‘authentic experience’ of the Middle Ages within media, despite this demand for authenticity often arising from those with an incomplete, modern perception of the period, rather than anything based on reality (2021, p. 1). They use a case study of the hostile discourse surrounding the video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2021, p. 28) to demonstrate how this obsession for historical accuracy can often be used to ‘justify the proliferation of racist, sexist and nationalist rhetoric’ (2021, p. 1). Here, they highlight one of modern media’s most contentious public debates regarding the depiction of the Middle Ages, namely, the presentation of racially diverse characters within them. As a striking example, a Tumblr user advocating for more inclusive representation within the game’s medieval Bohemian setting received rape and death threats, despite scholarly evidence suggesting that such inclusion is far from historically implausible (2021, p. 28). Supporting this, Redfern and Hefner’s (2019) bioarchaeological study of the East Smithfield Black Death cemetery in London uncovered evidence of seven distinct population affiliations, including individuals of Black African ancestry and dual heritage, within a sample of just forty-one individuals. Therefore, this finding directly challenges dominant narratives in popular medievalist media, where claims of historical accuracy are frequently used to exclude racial diversity, regardless of whether such exclusion is truly grounded in the historical record.

Alvestad and Houghton (2021, p. 29) also state that those with ‘polar-opposite arguments’ often use the same justifications of ‘historical authenticity’ for their claims, drawing on Elliott’s(2011, pp. 15-16) assertion that for a piece of media to be considered ‘authentic’ it does not necessarily need to conform to the historical reality, but to simply appeal to an audience’s perceptions of that period. This distinction between media representations of historical realityand incorrectly perceived historical authenticity, is something that needs to be examined within YouTube’s representations of life in the Middle Ages. This is because, as digital media begins to take precedence over more traditional forms of historical education, it is important to assess the pedagogical merit of user-created historical content, and how said educational value is prioritised in relation to accessibility and entertainment value.

BLIND SPOTS WITHIN MEDIEVAL MEDIA

Elliott (2009) argues that the debates of authenticity discussed earlier have called into question our modern ‘belief of monolithic, objective history’ and that now, modern historical debate acknowledges its own subjectivity. Through this admission, he argues for the benefits of ‘history on film’, believing that the process of modern historical filmmaking often mirrors that of academia (Elliott 2009, p. 2), whilst presenting it to a wider audience. Because of this, a growing appetite for medieval themes recurring within cinema and other modern forms of media, is symbiotic with the development of the academic field of medievalism itself (Elliott 2017, p. 13).

However, Elliott points out that this synergistic relationship means that film often contains the same blind spots that have plagued historical academic literature for centuries. He examines how the peasantry and workers of the Middle Ages, who constituted most of the populace, have nevertheless remained the ‘most elusive’ social group to represent on film (2009, p. 209). Moreover, Elliott believes that throughout media, the peasant class has been portrayed within a modern lens, as an ‘eminently recognisable’ (2011, p. 146) stereotype best described by Edward Bulwer-Lytton as the ‘great unwashed’ (1830, p. 14). An unchanging and unnoticed entity begrudgingly working the fields, covered in mud.

Nevertheless, whether this representation is accurate or not, because of the historic invisibility of the working class, it must be constructed from the conjecture of a different time regardless (Elliott 2009, p. 226). Thus, by retrospectively applying Marxist theoretical frameworks of class struggle and oppression on to the feudal model of the medieval period, we can run into problematic assumptions (Elliott 2009, p. 215). Alternatively, Elliott also questions Huizinga’s seminal rejection of such representations (1922, p. 124), asking the question of whether he, likewise, analysed medieval class structures through his own social ideology, without the tangible evidence to support his claims. Reviewing such biases towards and against the peasant class within YouTube’s representations will be a key area of focus for my own analysis, as the user-generated content of digital media has led to an increased spotlight and subsequent public interest in a more nuanced social history. Jason Kingsley OBE’s popular YouTube channel, Modern History TV, is a prime example of this, as his practical experiments and framing of peasant life often challenge popular recurring stereotypes of medieval peasantry (Modern History TV YouTube Channel). With YouTube’s capacity for audience engagement allowing for a more interactive exchange between the creator and viewer, we can see how this spotlight can act as a catalyst for in-depth explorations of topics such as the daily lives of the poor, which have traditionally been overlooked by other media.

THE HISTORICAL WORLD IN FILM

There has been much scholarly work analysing the historical world in film specifically, with, once again, a large focus often being placed upon examining the accuracy and biases present within representations of the past within cinema. One such example of this comes in Niemi’s work History in the Media (2006), which uses a substantial filmography and bibliography to assess more than 350 historical films and television programs, spanning across genres, each depicting a historical setting, events and characters. Through his sample, Niemi concludes that within cinema, a compelling narrative is most often prioritised over accuracy and thus, he urges viewers to question how and why history is framed and represented within the media they consume (Niemi 2006).

As for how the medieval world is represented on film specifically, Sturges et al. state that the most prevalent scholarly debates here often include the question of whether a film must directly invoke a medieval setting to be considered medievalist (2012). They posit that the genre of medievalist films could include not only those set within the Middle Ages, but also films set within alternative time periods as well, thus broadening our interpretation of the term to reflect modern concerns and aesthetics (Sturges 2012). This idea is reflected by Aberth (2003), who similarly to Niemi, critiques the accuracy of medieval films, whilst also highlighting how they often project the anxieties and societal ideas of modernity back onto the past. Within this study, it is important to review whether this trend is also true of representations of the Middle Ages across the digital, user-created medium of YouTube.

Moreover, according to Aberth, the Middle Ages are ‘perhaps one of the most difficult eras of history for modern audiences, as well as their cinematic entertainers, to imagine’ (2003, p. 7) and therefore, to properly engage with such media, one must actively engage with a way of looking at the world which often seems alien from our modern perspectives. Nevertheless, Aberth believes that the very best medievalist films demonstrate an ability to answer these challenges rather than ignore them, by truly ‘drawing viewers into another world in order to better understand and appreciate’ (2003, p. 8) their differences. However, he states that to do this accurately and effectively, it takes a ‘high degree of imagination and empathy with the past’ (p. 8) and so, is not consistently achieved across cinema.

As for how we may further re-think anachronisms within medievalist films, Rouse identifies three prevalent categories of cinematic ‘cliché’, which ‘serve modern day agendas’ (2014, p. 57). These categories are defined by Rouse as the use of the Middle Ages as a ‘lost ideal’, a ‘barbaric past’ and as ‘the site of timeless romantic values’ within cinematic depictions (p. 57). For each of these supposed categories, there are multiple scholars who provide supporting case studies of their use within cinema.

Firstly, the ‘lost ideal’ can be seen within Sobchack’s The Persistence of History (1996), which investigates how film has shifted traditional historical thought. In chapter seven, she analyses how Andrei Tarkvovsky’s medieval epic Andrei Rublev was the ‘first Soviet film to challenge the sterile strictures of Socialist Realism and official history’ (1996, p. 127). Thus, by using the Middle Ages as a lost ideal to highlight and contrast against contemporary issues within his film, Tarkovsky reflects Rouse’s (2014, p. 57) ideas surrounding this ‘lost ideal’ categorisation of medievalist cinema.

Moreover, as for cinematic representations of the Middle Ages as the ‘barbaric past’, Haydock highlights the fetishisation of the ‘alterity of the Middle Ages as a temporal other’, which ‘compulsively retools imagined continuities to fit the rapidly changing priorities of the contemporary world’ (2008, p. 5). Here, he points to Monty Python and the Holy Grail to act as a prime example of ‘the idiocy of the imaginary Middle Ages’ (2008, p. 12). The film acts as a whistle-stop tour of all things stereotypically medieval, with King Arthur wearing a crusader’s tunic, witnessing a ‘nascent Peasant’s Revolt and later, the Black Death’ (p. 11). Thus, the characters simultaneously live within the sixth, twelfth and fourteenth centuries, with the film acting as an ‘embodiment of the contradictions inherent in the popular understanding’ (p. 11) of medieval life. Although the film quite evidently plays on the absurdity of its contents, it showcases a period we now see as laughable, and acts as a prime example of Rouse’s ‘barbaric past’ categorisation (2014, p. 57), filled with ignorant, superstitious characters and raving mobs calling for the burning of witches.

As for Rouse’s last categorisation, the Middle Ages ‘as the site of timeless romantic values’ (2014, p, 57), Lemke’s (2014) thoughts on Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula demonstrate a good example of this tendency within cinema. She highlights how Coppola’s Dracula adapts the medieval setting of the story to the needs and attitudes of today, whereas Stoker’s original use of the Middle Ages is one of a ‘bygone epoch’ (Lemke 2014, p. 45). Moreover, Coppola’s use of Elisabeta’s hope for eternal love ‘reflects the common stereotype that the concept of true love is an invention of the Middle Ages’ (p, 44). According to Lemke therefore, this idea is still popular today and is often depicted in a manner which seemingly ‘eradicates the difference between the Middle Ages and the present’ (p. 44).

Thus, as has been shown, there is a scholarly consensus surrounding Rouse’s categorisations of prevalent medieval cinematic clichés, showing how prevalent popular anachronisms have become within cinematic depictions of the period. However, it is important to note that Rouse also states that one should be careful to dismiss such anachronisms as ‘mere errors betraying a lack of historical accuracy’, as they play a crucial role in ‘not only appropriating, but also in reorienting the past’ (2014, p. 57). Rouse believes this is even true of films which seemingly reproduce uncritical use of medieval stereotypes, because anachronisms, ‘whether intentionally employed or not’, usually produce a desire to verify or falsify ‘initial suspicions of historical accuracy’ (2014, p. 75). Thus, when anachronisms are used intentionally within medievalist films, audiences may be inclined to challenge their view of the Middle Ages (Rouse 2014), making their inclusion a highly nuanced and multifaceted affair. Therefore, with Rouse’s thoughts in mind, the role of anachronisms within YouTube’s representations of the medieval period will play a significant role in this study’s analysis.

TRADITIONAL HISTORICAL EDUCATION

I will now review the literature surrounding historical education’s importance within schools and digital media, as the educational value of digital historical content is fundamental to this study’s focus. Elliott’s difficulties with the representations of medieval peasantry discussed previously, also speak to wider issues surrounding recurring blind spots in history education. Jonker believes that there are ways to tackle such issues, basing these reflections on the idea that academic history and history education should be treated as one in the same (2012, p. 95). This mirrors similar arguments for the incorporation of academic history, which as a field, has the tendency to isolate itself from more popular forms of history communication (Jonker 2012, p. 96).

To Jonker, both academic history and history education aim to ‘distance themselves from “easy” forms of history’ which lack critical analysis (2012, p. 95). Kelly agrees, believing that history education within schools must begin with the ‘fundamental question of why we teach history’ at all (2018, p. 207). Citing a survey of teachers and parents, the most typical answers to this question often revolve around helping students become better citizens or crucially, to help children ‘become more critical consumers of information about the world they live in’ (Kelly 2018, p. 207). Likewise, Rodwell adds that history education should aim to help students understand varied viewpoints within history (2013, p. 134), citing a Groce and Groce study (2005, p. 101), which showed that when these aims were met, students exhibited higher tolerance for others and an improved ability to critique their own society. This is crucial for building tolerance, as Verschaffel and Wils point out that ‘neither history nor education is a politically neutral phenomenon’ (2012, p. 1).

Framing history within an entirely objective manner is an unrealistic expectation for educators, meaning that the skills of questioning and critical evaluation are pivotal components for a fruitful education. Consequently, there appears to be a scholarly consensus that the true value of history education comes from its ability to inflame critical thinking and analytical behaviour. Therefore, historically educational media should strive to include these nuanced discussions to be of genuine value and thus, this will be a key area of focus within this research’s analysis of YouTube history channels, by critically examining their work in this regard.

PUBLIC HISTORY AND MODERN ‘EDUTAINMENT’

Verschaffel and Wils later claim that Jonker’s call for ‘reflexive presentism’ (Jonker 2012, p. 95), a plea to integrate these unavoidable moral and political biases within historical education, is an idea that aligns with modern calls for the ‘pluriformity’ of historical media and education (Versachaffel and Wils 2012, p. 4). This pluriformity calls for the diversification of history communication, taking advantage of modern media to expand the reach of ‘public history’, the historical method outside of academia (Kelley 1978, p. 16).

Korte and Paletschek believe that history has been able to find a new ‘popular outlet’ on television and online streaming services, claiming that today, more people than ever before are able to garner historical education through ‘edutainment’ rather than formal education within a classroom (2017, p. 191). This idea of ‘edutainment’ perfectly encapsulates the appeal of history channels on YouTube, which can integrate education within entertaining and engaging formats to appeal to a general audience.

Since little scholarly theory exists surrounding YouTube’s place within historical education, we must look to scholarship surrounding similar media, namely documentary filmmaking, to garner an understanding of how visual storytelling is used to entice audiences towards historically educational content. Thus, Gerard’s five characteristics of creative nonfiction on screen (1998) is important to acknowledge. He states that to be successful, nonfiction documentary writing must; show deep knowledge on its subject, be relatively timeless in nature, tell an engrossing story with character’s plot and scenes, have a reflective, finishing thought from the author, and lastly, show adept skill in writing (Gerard 1998). These areas will be important to review when looking at this study’s sample of historical YouTube channels, to see if they, likewise, follow Gerard’s tenants.

Used as a vintage case study, Taves’ analysis of the History Channel contains conclusions supporting this, as he believes that it clearly appealed to a ‘traditionally amateur history enthusiast’ with flashy visuals and an emphasis on the narrative storytelling of iconic historical figures and recognisable events (Taves 2000, p. 8). However, since the time of this analysis, modern scholarship has shown how many historical educators today are rejecting these simplistic and narrowly focused retellings of history, shifting their perspectives away from history as simply the workings of a few ‘great men’ (Zumhof and Johnson 2020, p. 22).

In the late 2000s, Driver believed that film had yet to demonstrate its ‘full potential for teaching history’ (2007, p. 159), as its accessibility provides the perfect starting point for the pursuit of historical knowledge. Moreover, Bernard believed that nonfiction storytelling can be used to ‘compel viewers to consider and even care about topics and subjects they might previously have overlooked’ (2011, p. 1). Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s these were merely promising predictions of the future, but today, the expansion of the Middle Ages within pop culture, alongside the boom in user-generated content on social media, has made education surrounding the Middle Ages more popular than ever (Elliott 2017, p. 13). Therefore, ‘history for the public, about the public and by the public’ (Cole 1994, p. 11) is now more applicable than ever, given the rise in inclusion of ordinary people within historical communication (Zumhof and Johnson 2020, p. 24). Thus, this research aims to examine how non-professional, history enthusiasts create content which is comparable to professional outlets on YouTube.

YOUTUBE AS A TOOL FOR COMMUNICATION

Writing in 2009 Gehl argued that YouTube is ‘an archive awaiting curators’ as it promised to democratise media (2009, pp. 43-5) and allow amateur creators to take centre stage. However, scholars such as Kim (2012, p. 53) argue that the platform has since developed away from user-generated content, with the dominance of institutionalised professional content on the platform imitating old media. Despite this shift, YouTube has undoubtedly allowed many independent creators to garner a following, with most research into YouTube’s impact on user-generated content being qualitative in nature and as Hussain et al. (2018, p. 1093) point out, focusing on ‘user preferences and engagement’.

The research of this study aims to focus on the production side of YouTube, in the hopes of learning more of how creators of historical content entice engagement from audiences whilst remaining entertaining and educationally fulfilling. Quantitative data suggests that this is a harder challenge than one may initially suspect, as a 2019 survey into whether US users have favourite YouTube channels they watch regularly, a surprising 42% answered ‘No’ (Statista 2019). This reveals that nearly half of a creator’s potential audience are not regular viewers and instead, come across their content incidentally, highlighting how crucial the use of flashy thumbnails and alluring titles are for creators to attract a user who may discover them when idly browsing.

Another study in 2022 showed that viewer engagement remains steady up to two minutes into a YouTube video, with a sharp decline in retention every minute beyond this (Tubics 2022). This also highlights the challenge posed to creators of historical content, who must balance historical rigour with a video duration that keeps their audiences’ attention for its entirety. This balancing act could potentially negatively impact a video's representation of the Middle Ages. Thus, this is a key area this research hopes to illuminate further through interviewing some of the YouTube creators whose work I will be analysing, to examine their first-hand insight and thoughts regarding this balancing act of pedagogical integrity with entertainment value.

YOUTUBE AS AN EDUCATION SOURCE

Most scholarship surrounding YouTube’s ability as a source for education has been focused on its scientific communication, however much of the theory surrounding such work can be useful in discussions of historical communication as well. While video production has shifted from professional to user-generated content (Welbourne and Grant 2016, p. 707), Kohler and Dietrich claim that YouTube’s educational videos are not only an effective way to enhance a user’s knowledge on a subject, but that such videos are now becoming a large part of a modern student’s learning processes (2021, p. 1).

Moreover, a study conducted in Germany found that between the years 2016 to 2019, there was an 8% increase in the use of educational videos by twelve-to-nineteen-year-olds, demonstrating the rising demand for online videos as a supportive tool within the educational process (Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest 2016; 2019). The advantage that online videos have within education lies ‘within their versatility’ (León and Bourk 2018, p. 1), as they can adopt a multitude of styles, formats and genres, with few boundaries to creative freedom. However, another study found that when viewers were asked to rank their favourite educational YouTube channels, unlike science channels, the structural and productional elements of a historical channel appeared to be irrelevant to the participants’ rankings (Tadbier and Abdulhadi 2021, p. 3077). Therefore, this suggests that historical YouTube channels have greater impetus to diversify their content, encouraging them to find different and unique avenues in presenting history.

According to Barrington, when students imagine what a digital narrative looks and sounds like, they turn to YouTube’ (2012, p. 19). Thus, the common characteristics that make up YouTube videos, most notably; the use of redaction, the creative flexibility of animation, a focus on camera techniques, the interest in video blogs and a strong emphasis on novelty and humour, come together to shape an idea of the Middle Ages which is ‘more in tune with their experience’ (2012, p. 19). Moreover, these characteristics provide the ‘temporalities, in-jokes and cultural repertoires’ (p. 19) which students are more likely to respond to and actively engage with.

Lastly, it is important to acknowledge and review the work of two previous dissertations who analysed history education on YouTube through a different lens. In 2022, Nikolav reviewed YouTube history’s effectiveness as a tool for teaching history to secondary school students, concluding similarly to previous scholars, that in-depth and comprehensive history channels could be used to ‘fulfil a great supporting role as educational tools’ (2022, p. 51), because of their high production value and varied topic focus. However, he warns that some channels do show ‘a level of academic unreliability’ (2022, p. 51). Although such examples could potentially have use as a catalyst for conversations surrounding the importance of reliability and credible sourcing, use of these videos within the classroom without examination beforehand could be problematic for education.

Alternatively, Kandala makes the case for YouTube’s ability to make history accessible to wide audiences. They claim that it has allowed history to become another popular aspect of media for people to consume (Kandala 2019, p. 2) and thus, accessibility is the key to producing historical content that would increase public interest. Moreover, they conclude that YouTube provides the greatest online opportunity for accessibility, because of its ‘design, reach, lack of restrictions’ and ‘facilitation of community-building’ (2019, p. 7). Thus, more needs to be done by both academic historians and enthusiasts to strengthen the online historical community to best take advantage of said features (2019, p. 32). This research aims to review the state of medieval history education since Kandala’s findings and discover how and whether this online community fosters positive educational content, being produced by both professional historians and enthusiasts alike.

CONCLUSION

This literature review provides a theoretical overview of debates surrounding Middle Age depictions in modern media, where questions have been raised over contemporary representations’ adherence to stereotypes and modern illusions of authenticity, which skew the public’s perception of the realities of the period. Furthermore, there appears to be scholarly consensus for the necessity of a nuanced historical education, as it provides students with crucial critical thinking skills and a tolerance for other cultures. Moreover, many aspects of contemporary culture, traditions and societal norms have their roots placed firmly within the medieval period. Thus, understanding the cultural continuity gestating from this time, be it how people lived, worked and interacted, can shed light on the origins of modern practices and values, whilst also fostering a sense of cultural heritage.

As the world moves into the digital age, research has found that online ‘edutainment’ has become an exciting new avenue for said historical education to potentially flourish, as year on year, educational video content is increasing in popularity. With YouTube at the forefront of this revolution, the need for accurate and nuanced representations of the medieval period are necessary to foster, given the questions raised surrounding inaccurate depictions within other media. Thus, the gap in academic research focused upon medieval representations on YouTube justifies the need for further analysis in this field.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

How do YouTube history content creators balance entertainment and educational objectives when depicting daily life in the Middle Ages, and what techniques do they use to make these portrayals engaging and informative?

How do YouTube creators navigate the structural and production elements of their YouTube videos surrounding the Middle Ages to increase viewer engagement?

In what ways do YouTube portrayals of medieval life challenge or reinforce prevailing myths and stereotypes about the period?

What do YouTube creators’ portrayals of medieval social class, gender, and marginalised communities reveal about evolving representations of the Middle Ages in the digital age?

METHODOLOGY:

This research uses a combination of different methods to garner a well-rounded, qualitative exploration of the topic. The study will be underpinned throughout by discourse analysis, namely, critical discourse analysis - CDA. In his work, Djik discusses the main dimensions of discourse analysis, that being; language use, the communication of beliefs and interactions within social situations (Dijk 1997), all of which are crucial for this study's focus. CDA more specifically however, will allow for a more systematic evaluation of the language and visuals used within historical YouTube videos (Hansen 2019). This is because CDA’s ability to reveal how meaning is created through language use and grammatical features (Berger 2020b, p. 196), allowed for deep analysis of the ways that these linguistic devices are used by YouTube creators to represent the Middle Ages within their content.

As was discussed in the literature review, our collective understanding of the reality of everyday life in the Middle Ages is constructed through discourse within our media and culture (Alvestad and Houghton 2021, p. 1). More specifically, it is constructed through the ways our texts, images and rhetoric shape public perception (Phillips and Hardy 2002, p. 3), and so through the use of CDA, this research’s aim was to analyse YouTube’s role within this social reality.

Along with CDA’s linguistic analysis, this study was supported by semiotic analysis to allow for the visual aspects of YouTube content to be explored. Being a similar qualitative method to discourse analysis, semiotics focuses on the understanding and deciphering of messages and symbols specifically (Culler 1986, p. 86). Within this study, semiotics allowed for in‑depth analysis of these specific features within each YouTube video. Furthermore, as Berger (2020a, pp. 70–71) points out, semiotics can help uncover messages and interpretations of said messages that creators were often unaware they were producing.

The last method used in this research was semi‑structured interviews with two of the YouTubers whose content was the basis of this research’s CDA and semiotic analysis. All YouTube creators whose work this study analyses were contacted to see if they would be interested in a discussion surrounding their content and historical education. The two interviews that were carried out were crucial in gaining insight and understanding of the creators' individual perspectives on their representations of the Middle Ages, and allowed for an analysis of the motivations behind said representations, which discourse analysis and semiotics alone could not provide (Berger 2020a; 2020b). The interviewees were of varying backgrounds and content styles, so that each conversation could shed light on any untapped ideas that would be fruitful to the research’s discussion (Deacon 2021, pp. 80–81). Moreover, it is important to note that the discussion points used from these interviews act as a supportive device to this study, rather than a direct focus within this research. This is because when their insight was fully explored as a point of comparison alongside this research’s own analysis, insightful conclusions which verify or challenge this study’s analysis were likely to arise.

HOW EACH METHOD WILL BE USED

In terms of the specific application of each of these methods, I will now outline what key facets of YouTube content will be analysed to help answer the research questions of this study. Each of these facets will be considered in relation to the categories of everyday life within the Middle Ages discussed on page 25, as well as the individual context of each video examined. Regarding said individual contexts, as each video will vary in length, content and production style, it was important to look at some consistent features across all videos, alongside the analysis of each video’s own unique elements, using the tools discussed below. These consistent features consist of; the thumbnail, the video title, the first line spoken and finally, the last line spoken. By having these consistent areas of analysis for each, this will help to keep a fair and harmonious basis for the qualitative analysis of this study.

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Voice and Perspective: It is crucial for this study to critically examine who is narrating / presenting each video. Their position, be it a historian, reenactor or enthusiast, will affect and influence their portrayal of this period and thus, needs to be analysed. To this end, this study will analyse the language and terminology used within each video, considering if and how the medieval world, modern biases or anachronisms are framed within each piece of content’s narrative. Moreover, how each uses suspense, humour, or dramatic elements to keep viewers engaged is also important to consider.

Representation and Power Dynamics: This study will use CDA to analyse if and how men and women are represented within each video, and whether the language choices used reinforce or challenge our understanding of both contemporary and/or medieval gender roles. Furthermore, this study will examine if and how depictions of different social classes, such as the nobility and peasantry, are represented and characterised within each video. This study will also examine whether and how marginalised groups such as religious minorities, the poor or queer people are included and highlighted within the narrative of each video.

Intertextuality: This study will examine if and how each video references other historical texts, media and/or modern pop culture, analysing how this affects the educational value and engaging nature of the narrative being constructed.

Ideological Underpinnings: This study will analyse occurrences of explicit and implicit moral lessons found within each video and whether these align with the values of their creator.

SEMIOTICS

Visual Symbols: This study will analyse some of the key visual elements found across its sample. This will include how a video’s thumbnail, title, and font choices provoke engagement in the medieval topic it centres upon. This study explores how such elements curate a recognisable ‘medieval mood’, visually signaling historical provenance while navigating platform dynamics such as algorithmic visibility.

Medieval Iconography: This study will examine if and how medieval iconography is used to help form representations of the period and as a means of visually anchoring content within popular conceptions of medieval life. Moreover, this study will analyse how set locations in medieval buildings such as castles, cathedrals and homes are employed to evoke legitimacy and an immersive historical atmosphere.

Creator Branding: Where relevant, this study explores how consistent thumbnail aesthetics (e.g. use of branded banners, stylistic motifs, or recurring icon layouts) serve as semiotic cues tied to creator identity. These branding strategies will be assessed for their role in establishing trust and recognisability within digital historical spaces.

Textual Elements: This study examines how textual elements such as titles, captions, and thumbnail typography are used as visual rhetorical devices to reinforce the emotional and thematic tone of each video.

DEFINING KEY TERMS

The next area that must be discussed is how this study will define its terms and measure the parameters of its focus. Firstly, within this study, the terms Middle Ages and medieval period will refer to the period of European history between the years 500–1500. This study does not cover YouTube videos which are centred on any other historical period, unless a video’s subject matter includes relevant crossover discussions which were key to life in the Middle Ages. For example, a video centred on how European people of the past navigated and traversed thick forests could be applicable to any period before the modern age, where this would have been a relevant dilemma and so, would be an eligible source for analysis within this study.

Secondly, it is important to define what this study means by the term everyday life, to avoid any ambiguity as to what this project intends to analyse. Thus, to standardise what is meant by this term, this study will choose its sample from videos which cover any of the six distinct categories below. When compiled together, these categories constitute the scope of what can be considered everyday life in the Middle Ages within this study.

The categories are as follows:

Basic needs: Sleeping, Eating, Drinking, Using the bathroom, etc.

Personal care: Bathing, Grooming, Dressing, etc.

Work / Tasks: Vocational duties, Cleaning, Cooking, etc.

Social interactions: Spending time with family and friends, socialising within communities, social hierarchies, etc.

Transportation: Travelling across long distances, Walking, Horse-riding, Sailing, etc.

Leisure activities: Entertainment, Sports etc.

I will consider a video which centres on any one of the six categories above to be relevant to the analysis of this study. Moreover, a video may fall into more than one of these categories, but must relate to at least one to be included in the analysis. It is also important to clarify that this study includes videos on the everyday lives of a wide range of classes within the medieval social hierarchy. This is once again to provide a well-rounded view of not only the lives of everyone within the period, but also a well-rounded sample which reflects popular viewing habits of medieval YouTube content. Thus, as will be shown within the next two sections, no distinction was made between the lives of the peasantry, clergy or aristocracy within the sample selection process.

THE POPULATION SELECTION PROCESS

I will now outline the specific structure and form this research employs, along with necessary justifications for these strategic choices. This research consists of qualitative analysis of the highest viewed videos uploaded by five different historical YouTube channels, which surround relevant topics of everyday life within the Middle Ages. The overall sample for this study will consist of twenty-three individual videos.

Because of the specific nature of this research’s aims, simply analysing the most subscribed historical channels on YouTube would have led to a sample which was far too broad in its topic focus. Therefore, an alternative approach was necessary for this study. Each one of the channels below was selected for a variety of reasons. Crucially however, together they make up an eclectic sample of popular historical channels, all with different areas of interest and presentation styles used within their content. Thus, each channel has been chosen to act as a broad representation of a different facet of historical YouTube channels and therefore provide a diverse selection of content to analyse.

The YouTube channels which were analysed within this study are:

- Modern History TV

- History Hit

- Premodernist

- MedievalMadness

- Lindybeige

Here, it is important to note that both Lindybeige and Premodernist were the creators interviewed for this study. I will now briefly highlight each channel to clarify what aspect of the historical YouTube community they will be representing for this research.

Modern History TV: Presented by Jason Kingsley OBE, this is a YouTube channel that focuses almost exclusively on the medieval period. Within his videos, Kingsley uses live action reenactments and practical experiments to explore the lived experience of those in the medieval world. Moreover, he often tests historical theories and explores popular myths and misconceptions of the period, whilst also presenting more obscure facts about the Middle Ages to the viewer. For the purposes of this study, Modern History TV represents historical channels that provide live action, hands-on content to engage people within the period.

History Hit: A channel that provides a plethora of historical content, covering various topics and periods throughout human history. The channel offers a diverse range of content, featuring documentaries, podcasts and interviews. Often presented in a style akin to more traditional broadcast media, the channel is frequently hosted by notable professional historians, such as Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb or Mary Beard. Within this study, all videos selected for analysis were hosted by renowned medievalist Dr Eleanor Janega. For the purposes of this research, History Hit represents historical channels which can be considered digital adaptations of more traditional television formats, employing expert academics within a high production setting.

Premodernist: A channel run and presented by a former academic and historian, who covers a wide range of historical topics within his videos. The channel often produces philosophical discussions as well as creative thought experiments to engage people within the medieval period and beyond. The channel clearly aims to share educational content, as its simple presentation style of sit-down lectures creates a conversational and approachable tone. For the purposes of this research, Premodernist represents the academic presence on YouTube, with a lower budget and unadorned production style that allows for more scholarly and nuanced discussions.

MedievalMadness: A channel created and operated by a history enthusiast, which explores more obscure and puzzling aspects of the Middle Ages. Frequently focusing on very specific and often overlooked aspects of life in the medieval period, this channel covers the lives of serfs, monks and nobility. As for its presentation, each video uses appropriate images and video clips accompanied by a voiceover to relay its information. For the purposes of this research, MedievalMadness represents amateur historian and enthusiast content that lacks the higher end budget of other channels, whilst still tapping into subject matter with wide audience appeal.

Lindybeige: A channel run by history enthusiast Nikolas Lloyd, it offers a diverse range of content related to ancient and medieval history. Although this channel primarily focuses on warfare, weapons and military tactics, Lindybeige frequently creates highly opinionated content on a diverse array of historical topics and debates, including daily life within the medieval period. Active since 2007, Lindybeige is an example of one of YouTube’s early historical channels which was able to grow a large following. For the purposes of this research, this channel represents opinion-driven, amateur historian and enthusiast content, presented within a variety of styles and formats.

THE SAMPLE SELECTION PROCESS

I will now outline how I determined which of the YouTube creators’ videos were to act as this study’s sample, as most of the channels discussed have dozens, if not hundreds, of videos that one could reasonably analyse within a study such as this. Thus, a number of necessary rules were used to narrow down the selection process and find a usable sample.

The overarching rule and starting place in my search was to make sure each video was selected primarily because of its place as one of the most viewed videos relating to everyday life in the Middle Ages on its respective channel. Therefore, each video was selected by looking at each channel’s most viewed content, finding the highest relevant video and working down from there, until five for each were chosen. However, to provide a sample which contained adequate examples for each of this study’s categories, four subsequent rules were necessary to impose.

Each video had to contain one of the terms medieval, Middle Ages or dark ages in its title, or prominently within the description section or its contents. This helped keep videos relevant to the Middle Ages and the focus of this research.

Each video had to fall into at least one of the categories of everyday life laid out above. This helped to exclude videos that, although centred on the medieval period, did not discuss everyday life as has been defined. For example, videos centred on war, weaponry, armour and torture devices were excluded because of their unsuitability to the categories.

When a channel did not have a total of five videos relating to the Middle Ages, I would analyse the total amount of videos that channel had on the subject (e.g. two or three of them). This ensured that more eclectic history channels containing very popular and formative YouTube videos about the Middle Ages could be included within this study’s analysis.

Where a channel had more than two videos that centred on the same category, I analysed the two highest viewed videos which fell into said category and replaced the subsequent videos with others that fell into separate categories. This ensured that channels with numerous videos on the Middle Ages could cover as many categories as possible and thus make up a well-rounded sample of videos on everyday life in the medieval period.

Using these rules, a sample of twenty-three videos was selected. These will make up the entirety of this study’s sample of YouTube videos for analysis. A full list of all twenty-three videos can be found in the bibliography on page 75.

Before proceeding with the analysis, it is also important to reiterate the scope of said sample. This research does not encompass the entirety of each YouTube channel’s content but concentrates exclusively upon their most viewed videos that depict everyday life in the Middle Ages, as defined earlier. Therefore, any analysis derived from this study’s sample must be understood within the context of its defined scope. While the selected videos provide valuable insight into dominant representational patterns, it is acknowledged that additional unexamined videos from a YouTube channel's output may address certain representational critiques or absences identified within this study. The aim of this study is not to provide a comprehensive overview of each channel’s content, but rather to critically examine the representations that emerge from their most widely viewed videos on the subject.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

In terms of the ethical implications of this research, there are a few areas to consider. Firstly, this research has undergone the appropriate ethical review by a supervisory team and has been approved by the ethics review board. Moreover, all content used from YouTube creators within this study falls under the UK government’s exceptions to copyright guidance (GOV.UK 2021). Nevertheless, I was conscious to present the statements made by creators within interviews and YouTube videos accurately and without misrepresentation, by providing adequate justification for analysis and context wherever necessary.

I offered each interviewee the option of anonymity if they so wished and ensured that they were all informed of the nature of my research, and what specifically this study intends to analyse before any interview was conducted. This was done by providing each with a copy of a Participant Consent Form and a detailed information sheet. Each conversation was recorded; however each participant was informed and gave consent to this beforehand, and the recordings were swiftly deleted once they had been adequately transcribed for this study.

Moreover, it is vital to the validity of this study to avoid any inadvertent distortion of historical fact, therefore if there was any suspicion of misinformation or falsehoods presented in any material analysed, it was cross-checked thoroughly against credible scholars and primary sources. Moreover, it is important to note that due to restrictions of time, the methods and findings this research uses and produces are strictly qualitative in nature and focus on the production side of these representations of the Middle Ages, as I believe these are the most important and culturally enlightening aspects of these new discussions. However, more research should be done into quantitative and statistical analysis of YouTube’s engagement with the medieval period, as well as further studies into audience receptions of the representations of everyday life in the Middle Ages.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION:

CHAPTER 1: EDUCATION MEETS ENTERTAINMENT - THE EDUTAINMENT SPECTRUM

Edutainment, a portmanteau of education and entertainment used by Korte and Paletschek (2017, p. 191), refers to the hybridised mode of communication adopted by historical YouTube creators, to make pedagogically sound content more engaging and accessible. The sample analysed in this study reveals a nuanced spectrum of edutainment, as each creator balances academic rigour and entertainment strategies differently, shaped by their background, expertise, and creative intent. Thus, this chapter will explore how each creator navigates this spectrum, focusing on how each blends levity with learning within their content.

AT THE ACADEMIC END

History Hit and Premodernist can each be categorised as academic educators on YouTube, as both are channels led by academics engaged in the practice of public history. This is reflected within their tone and delivery, as Dr Janega’s presentation is predominantly measured and authoritative, due to her academic expertise and the scripted nature of her History Hit videos, which position the viewer as the passive learner and Janega as the sole educator. The production value of these videos, which are often filmed in historically significant locations, such as Denny Abbey (History Hit 2022c) or Hedingham Castle (History Hit 2023), visually reinforce this air of credibility, by providing an authentic backdrop for each discussion.

Figure 1: Janega exploring Hedingham Castle (History Hit 2023)

Moreover, while humour is used sparingly within History Hit’s videos, it appears in subtle and strategic manners. For example, Janega employs an ironic understatement to provide levity within the line:

‘Bailey's also have other features that sort of help when you're attempting to violently subjugate a bunch of people’ (2023, 03:07–03.12).

This creates a tonal mismatch to critique the violent function of castle architecture, highlighting how History Hit aims to teach the viewer about the oppressive nature of the past by sheltering it within dry humour.

Similarly, Premodernist also adopts an air of authority due to his academic credentials. Within his videos however, he incorporates a time-travel hook to provide an engaging through-line for his lecture-style videos. For example, he states that he is going to give ‘some advice on what to look out for’ (Premodernist 2023a, 00:11) as the viewer has made the ‘interesting choice’ (00:05) to make the journey back to the Middle Ages.

This discursive framing device invites the viewer to use empathetic imagination, giving his educational content a narrative undertone that can foster active learning, as viewers wonder how they themselves would navigate a given historical situation. However, within my interview with Premodernist, when asked whether entertainment or education was more important for him to achieve, he responded:

‘The ultimate goal is education, I will sacrifice entertainment for education.’

This statement underscores his pedagogical priorities and reinforces his placement at the educationally focused end of the edutainment spectrum.

Figure 2: Premodernist’s lecture-style format (Premodernist 2023a)

BRIDGING THE GAP

Modern History TV however, sits somewhere in the middle of the edutainment spectrum, as his content is highly educational, whilst also being more performative and experimental than that of the more academic channels. His prevalent use of period-accurate costumes, hands-on demonstrations and experiments attempt to immerse the viewer within the period. Moreover, his tone is friendly and approachable, deriving his authority from lived experience and practical knowledge, rather than the academic credentials of those discussed previously. For example, Kingsley uses the ‘deep frost’ (Modern History TV 2019a, 00:26) within his grounds to conduct an experiment, wearing period-accurate medieval garb to see how it holds up against the cold. Thus, this setting and context exemplifies what Gerard (1998) identifies as essential to compelling nonfiction storytelling, demonstrating a cohesive blend of character, setting, and reflective commentary. Kingsley’s approach therefore fulfills these criteria through an immersive reenactment rooted in a pedagogical experience. Moreover, during such experiments, there is a transparency surrounding speculation, as he commonly uses phrases such as ‘I do wonder’ or ‘I reckon’ (Modern History TV 2019a, 02:38) as a softening device that invites shared reflection rather than an authoritative tone. Thus, these features of Kingsley’s content place him firmly in the centre of the edutainment spectrum, balancing historical rigour with a uniquely performative format.

Figure 3: Kingsley out in the frost (Modern History TV 2019a)

ENTERTAINMENT-LED STORYTELLING

As Welbourne and Grant’s (2016) study found, channel and video popularity on YouTube largely hinges upon audience interaction rather than simply production value alone and thus, historical creators can succeed by cultivating engagement through personality-driven aesthetics and sensationalised retellings. At the entertainment-focused end of the edutainment spectrum, enthusiast creators, Lindybeige and MedievalMadness, often use humour and stylised storytelling to engage audiences. Lindybeige’s content is characterised by theatrical monologues, frequent deviations in topic focus and an energetic and eccentric delivery. During our interview, he remarked that he initially had ambitions to become a movie director, instead finding himself as the ‘YouTubes Swords Guy’ after an early video went viral. Moreover, when asked about how he viewed himself as an educator or entertainer he stated; ‘I don’t feel that it's a choice I have to make. I feel, happily, that I’m able to be both.’

Figure 4: Lindybeige passionately discusses medieval tennis (Lindybeige 2021)

This perspective highlights his belief that historical education and entertainment are not mutually exclusive and how his content is primarily driven by personal enthusiasm more than pedagogical intent. For example, when introducing his lecture-style video on medieval transport, he begins with the line, ‘If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you for a bit about medieval transport’ (Lindybeige 2020, 00:01), establishing a conversational tone and positioning himself as an entertaining enthusiast on the topic, rather than a formal educator. Thus, this framing is in line with Bernard’s (2011, p. 1) assertion that effective nonfiction can compel audiences to ‘care about subjects they might previously have overlooked,’ as Lindybeige attempts to turn obscure facets of medieval daily life into entertaining and emotionally resonant content.

Alternatively, MedievalMadness adopts a more compact approach to historical storytelling. His videos feature a voice-over documentary style paired with curated images and dramatic medieval music, positioning the viewer similarly to History Hit, as a passive observer. However, unlike History Hit, his videos frequently emphasise the brutality, misery and otherness of the period, thus prioritising emotional impact and spectacle over nuanced academic introspection. For example, he describes the Middle Ages as a ‘particularly pungent time’ (MedievalMadness 2022, 03:27) and emphasises how peasants fought and died to ‘see which incompetent was going to sit on the throne next’ (2023, 07:26), which demonstrates a focus on the more sensationalised aspects of the period to provide an entertaining, narratively appealing image of the Middle Ages. Therefore, MedievalMadness exemplifies the entertainment-focused end of the edutainment spectrum, where historical insight is embedded within a highly stylised mode of storytelling, which prioritises engagement and accessibility.

Figure 5: MedievalMadness’ title drop (MedievalMadnes 2021a)

In summary, this chapter has shown how each creator analysed can be placed differently upon the spectrum of edutainment, as each balances educational value with entertainment strategies in unique ways. From academically grounded channels such as History Hit and Premodernist, to more performative and entertainment-driven creators like Lindybeige and MedievalMadness, each demonstrates diverse methods through which historical content is communicated within YouTube. Therefore, rather than existing in opposition, education and entertainment mutually reinforce one another within historical YouTube content, to provide viewers with engaging and accessible videos surrounding the Middle Ages.

CHAPTER 2: CREATING A MEDIEVAL MOOD – VISUAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN DIGITAL SPACES

As discussed within the literature review, YouTube is a platform which allows any user to publish video content (Gehl 2009), however, obtaining meaningful engagement amid its vast array of videos requires strategic navigation. Since creators benefit financially from metrics such as retention, view counts, and audience interaction, it is important to analyse how their content's visual engagement strategies affect their representations of the Middle Ages. For creators navigating the edutainment spectrum, as well as the highly competitive digital media landscape, the viewer’s initial impressions are crucial, as a historical video must entice viewers within seconds, while simultaneously laying the groundwork for pedagogical intent. This makes the elements of first contact, that being the video title, thumbnail and its overall textual and visual presentation style, instrumental in enticing said viewers. Thus, this chapter focuses on these elements to examine how YouTube creators cultivate a medieval mood, focusing on their visual motifs, tonal framing, and algorithm-aware presentation.

THE YOUTUBE GAME

Within my interviews with Lindybeige and Premodernist, both demonstrated clear awareness of the engagement strategies incentivised by YouTube as a platform and reflected on how they navigated its unique challenges. Premodernist offered particularly valuable insight into the creator mindset when operating within YouTube’s genre conventions. He explained that he consciously tailors the visual presentation of his videos to suit the platform, having taught himself principles of audio, lighting, colour theory, and story structure, which are elements that he noted were ‘not something a lecturer needs to think about in the classroom.’ He also reflected on the ‘meta’ practice he adopts of leaving in verbal flubs to evoke authenticity, describing it as ‘kind of a contradiction in terms’, which demonstrates a self-awareness of this semiotic cue’s use as a tool for relatability and trustworthiness. Premodernist also highlighted YouTube’s global reach as one of its greatest pedagogical strengths, observing that where a lecture might reach thirty students, a video containing the same educational value has the potential to reach millions, thus praising the platform's ability to make public history more accessible.

Likewise, Lindybeige reflected on the creative freedom YouTube gave him in contrast to the rigid conventions of traditional television, noting the restrictive nature of broadcast formats where ‘each episode would have to be an exact length for their slot.’ However, despite this broader appreciation for the platform’s democratising potential, which aligns with Gehl’s assertions discussed in the literature review (2009, pp. 43-5), he also expressed a more skeptical view of YouTube’s algorithmic influence. He remarked that ‘YouTube held a gun to everyone's head and said ‘You're making shorts now!’” and claimed that he ‘could have made an awful lot more money’ if he had ‘played YouTube’s game.’ These sharp, emotive critiques reveal the tension between creator autonomy and platform-driven monetisation, where creators are monetarily incentivised towards shorter form, accessible content, over longer, more nuanced historical discussions. Despite the fact that this study’s sample somewhat contradicts Lindybeige’s critiques here, revealing that longer form content is still highly prevalent within the historical space, the push to shorter form content which he highlighted still has large ramifications on the pedagogical nature of historical content on the platform. Lindybeige’s framing suggests that creators often face a trade off between greater financial success and pursuing pedagogical depth, which risks jeopardising educational intent for an algorithmic advantage.

With all this in mind, it is worth examining the recurring strategies found across the sample in relation to video titles and thumbnails, which both act as the first point of contact to entice the viewer to explore further.

TITLE DESIGN

Notably, the sample of all creators, excluding Lindybeige, included at least one video title posed as a question. Some key examples include:

[Your document lists examples here — preserved exactly as-is.]

These interrogative statements help to build the initial emotional ‘hook’, as discussed by Premodernist in our discussion, who remarked that he ‘pays a lot of attention to the title’ to achieve said hook. Posing questions to audiences creates unanswered curiosity surrounding the Middle Ages that demands a resolution, which then invites further exploration and positions the viewer as an active investigator. Moreover, interrogatives also align with common search patterns found across digital platforms, as users frequently input questions into search engines when searching for information. Therefore, this common question-based framing of video titles can increase search visibility and algorithmic traction, enhancing the likelihood of discovery and boosting engagement metrics.

Figure 6: Title (Modern History TV 2020)

Figure 7: Title (Premodernist 2022)

Figure 8: Title (History Hit 2022b)

Furthermore, MedievalMadness employs a widely-used YouTube strategy by numbering and listing items in one of their titles, which promises viewers a structured, easily accessible and consumable experience, reinforcing YouTube’s traditional role within broader digital media consumption. This technique can be seen here:

Figure 9: Title (MedievalMadness 2021a)

Although this algorithmically astute technique is common across the wider platform, this was the only example of its use anywhere within this sample. Therefore, as the most popular videos of these large historical channels avoid this tactic, this suggests that channels seeking to balance education and entertainment within the edutainment spectrum often rely on alternative title strategies. Such strategies include interrogatives as discussed earlier, which better preserve the creator’s pedagogical integrity, whilst inflaming a viewers curiosity for more comprehensive, longer form discussion.

Another recurring theme across the sample regarding title typography, was the strategic capitalisation of key, punchy words, designed to draw the viewers eye to the most important or emotionally charged terms. This technique signals the thematic or rhetorical focus of the content and can be seen in the following examples.

Figure 10: Title (Modern History TV 2021)

Figure 11: Title (Lindybeige 2021)

Figure 12: Title (MedievalMadness 2021c)

Each of these examples employs the technique of capitalisation applied in distinct ways, to achieve a shared rhetorical goal of guiding the viewer’s focus. Modern History TV’s capitalisation of ‘SLAVES’ (2021) creates a sense of rhetorical tension by drawing the eye to the most morally and historically weighty word, subtly prompting the viewer to question whether medieval peasants lived under conditions comparable to slavery. This primes the viewer for a video that uncovers uncomfortable truths, thus enticing them to explore further. Lindybeige’s capitalisation of the term ‘MEDIEVAL TENNIS’ (2021), is far more direct in its framing, as this highlights the video’s central theme and thus, aims to intrigue viewers who are unfamiliar with the existence of such a sport. Lastly, MedievalMadness’ capitalisation of ‘ACTUALLY’ (2021c) signals that this video will challenge false assumptions on the topic. Thus, this visual technique implies that prevailing narratives on the topic are flawed and that through this video, viewers are being offered a true account of historical reality, positioning it as corrective of past misinformation. Overall, these stylistic choices in titles lay the groundwork for how thumbnails visually amplify medieval life and viewer expectations.

THUMBNAIL DESIGN

The creative freedom highlighted by León and Bourk (2018) can be seen throughout the thumbnail designs on display in this sample, as creators vary typographic and iconographic choices to signal tone and historical mood in a variety of different manners. Firstly however, several consistent themes emerged across the majority of creators’ content within the sample. These include bold, capitalised lettering superimposed onto relevant imagery, which visually reinforces the video’s title and draws the viewer’s initial focus. This interplay between textual and visual elements prevents visual fatigue, thus enabling the viewer's eye to alternate between linguistic and pictorial elements and sustain viewer attention long enough to encourage potential clicks. Furthermore, there was frequent inclusion of the term ‘medieval’ within thumbnail text, which serves a dual function, as not only does this instantly establish the historical context, but also capitalises on the term’s high search volume across history-related content to enhance engagement. These consistent techniques will be visualised alongside the following analyses of each creator’s thumbnail styles.

Both History Hit and MedievalMadness consistently employ identifiable layouts, textual configurations and iconography, allowing their videos to be instantly recognisable when surfaced on a users’ homepages. History Hits thumbnails appear to feature a tripartite structure, including a background image that visually references the video topic, such as a medieval couple in bed (2022b) or glasses of ale atop a barrel (2022d), alongside a foreground image of Janega performing an activity related to the theme, which visually embeds the presenter within the historical narrative. The final textual layer employs a uniform turquoise colour scheme in line with the channel’s branding, alongside bold, capitalised text, which appears clean, credible and authoritative to establish viewers trust in the reliability of the educational contents of the video.

Figure 13: Thumbnail (History Hit 2022b)

Figure 14: Thumbnail (History Hit 2022d)

MedievalMadness likewise employs a consistent lettering font that appears to be a highly legible, modern derivation of medieval blackletter script, which effectively balances visual authenticity with accessibility. Moreover, his thumbnails regularly feature medieval gothic style figures set against a light brown, parchment-like background, further reinforcing the channel’s historical aesthetic and creating a medieval mood. Lastly, he has developed a distinctive blue banner adorned with a central white fleur-de-lis style motif, which serves as a visual signature, prominently positioned in the top-left corner of thumbnails and echoed across the channel’s profile and banner design. The recurring use of said symbol within MedievalMadness’ channel functions as a semiotic anchor, evoking medieval legitimacy while cultivating brand recognition among viewers.

Figure 15: Thumbnail (MedievalMadness 2021a)

Figure 16: Thumbnail (MedievalMadness 2021c)

Modern History TV employs a similarly capitalised medieval-style font across his thumbnails, often within provocative taglines distinct from the main video titles, such as for example, ‘I BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS’ (2019a) or ‘WERE PEASANTS SLAVES?’ (2021). These captions function as rhetorical hooks, designed to spark curiosity and highlight the sensational or unfamiliar aspects of medieval life. In addition, Kingsley himself is frequently featured within the thumbnail imagery, often dressed in period-appropriate attire or positioned alongside medieval figures. This visual strategy, reminiscent of Janega’s appearances within History Hit thumbnails, reinforces thematic immersion by embedding the creator within the reconstructed medieval environment.

Figure 17: Thumbnail (Modern History TV 2019a)

Figure 18: Thumbnail (Modern History TV 2021)

In contrast, Lindybeige and Premodernist exhibit either an inconsistent approach to thumbnail design or disregard its significance altogether. Within Lindybeige’s earlier videos in the sample, such as his medieval rope-making video (2015), he relies solely on unedited screen captures, such as for instance, a close-up of a rope-maker’s hands at work. However, in more recent uploads, such as his video on medieval transport (Lindybeige 2020), Lindybeige adopts a noticeably higher production value, incorporating overlaid medieval-style fonts and imagery similar to that of Modern History TV and MedievalMadness. This variability in styles reflects his broader content strategy discussed in Chapter 1, which highlighted interview quotes of Lindybeige describing YouTube as a flexible medium that permits him to code-switch between educational and entertainment modes. In this instance, such switching is evident in his oscillation between low and high-production thumbnail styles depending on the video's individual purpose and context.

Figure 19: Thumbnail (Lindybeige 2015)

Figure 20: Thumbnail (Lindybeige 2020)

Lastly, Premodernist adopts a deliberately minimalist approach to thumbnail design. For example, he uses the same manuscript-style illustration of a medieval knight in chainmail armor reclining against a patterned backdrop, for both his original Time-Travel video (2023a) and its subsequent Q&A follow-up (2023b). Thus, this singular image, repeated across content, comes to visually represent the entirety of life in the Middle Ages across Premodernist's sample. Such a simplistic approach reflects the sentiments of Premodernist’s comments within our interview, where he noted paying ‘not so much attention to the thumbnail,’ emphasizing his prioritisation of titles and other elements over visual previews. However, this could be a potential oversight as within this sample, as well as across YouTube more broadly, it appears that other creators prioritise thumbnails to allow them to play a critical role in drawing audience attention. Their visual immediacy often acts as the gateway to engagement, underscoring their strategic importance in digital storytelling.

Figure 21: Thumbnail (Premodernist 2023a)

Figure 22: Thumbnail (Premodernist 2023b)

In summary, this chapter has demonstrated how visual elements of first contact, such as video titles and thumbnails, employ aesthetic decisions that are not purely creative, but that are shaped by digital imperatives such as retention, searchability, and emotional resonance with their historical subject matter. Using techniques such as question-based titles, manipulating title typography through strategic capitalisation or using recognisably medieval thumbnail motifs, creators evoke a distinctive medieval mood, whilst balancing their educational merit against algorithmic visibility. Moreover, the notable variations in thumbnail consistency and design within the sample reflect a creators individual context and intentions, from cultivating a marketable brand with consistent iconography, to demonstrating a resistance against the digital norms of thumbnail conventions altogether. Regardless of said intent, these design choices prime viewers’ interpretive frameworks of the Middle Ages and contribute to the narrative construction of medieval life online. With this analysis of surface presentation established, the attention of this research will now pivot from surface presentation, to examining the rhetorical and ideological dimensions embedded within the sample’s videos themselves.

CHAPTER 3: THREADS OF CONTINUITY - LINKING PAST AND PRESENT

Reinforcing links between modern life and that of the medieval plays a fundamental part in historical edutainment, as it allows creators to contextualise the Middle Ages for modern audiences. By providing audiences with such links, be it highlighting similarities or differences to today’s present, media can transform social history from something distant, abstract or ethereal, into something more alive, resonant and tangible. Thus, this chapter will explore how the lexical tools used by each YouTube channel aid in linking the medieval past to the present in order to engage their audiences and challenge prevalent myths and modern biases towards the period.

THE PAST AS OTHER

Firstly, there are many examples of creators accentuating the stark differences between the past and present, discursively framing the aspects of the past which heighten its alterity. Such cases align with Kobrin’s (1998, p. 362) assertion that the Middle Ages can serve as a lens through which to imagine alternative norms to the present. History Hit, for example, challenges modern assumptions surrounding medieval attitudes towards sex, stating that they ‘would really offend our own sensibilities’ (2022b, 28:56), thus subverting the common understanding that medieval people were prudish and sexually repressive. Alternatively, Lindybeige often focuses less on social attitudes and instead on the logistical differences between medieval life and today. For instance, when discussing transport, his declarative statement ‘rivers were enormously more important back then’ (Lindybeige 2020, 0:37) highlights the differences between modern and medieval infrastructure. These examples illustrate how the creators often employ discursive strategies of differentiation to, as Aberth would argue (2003, p. 8), present viewers with another world to allow for a better understanding of our own.

POP CULTURE HOOKS

Moreover, across this study’s sample, a variation of this recurring practice emerged, specifically, the use of modern popular culture as a comparison point for the medieval past. This recurring strategy aligns with Elliott’s (2017) argument that neomedievalism has become deeply embedded within contemporary media representations of the Middle Ages, such as in films and video games. The YouTube creators frequently use external pop cultural reference points to help draw on people’s familiarity of the period. For example, MedievalMadness asks the question of how medieval people entertained themselves in an era before ‘double glazing, God of War Ragnarok and Netflix’ (2022, 00:17), exemplifying a deliberately casual and humorous tone to draw upon their viewers’ familiarity with contemporary luxuries, like action-adventure video games and streaming services. These pop cultural signifiers also accentuate modernity's temporal differences with medieval life. However, there are other ways in which popular culture is manipulated within historical YouTube content, with Lindybeige drawing upon modern viewers’ understanding of Rolls-Royce cars as a symbol of ostentatious wealth and prestige, to accentuate the level to which medieval coaches were by comparison, ‘showing off on a different scale’ (2020, 29:10). This framing invites the viewer to understand medieval material culture through a modern comparison point, creating a clearer picture for viewers by anchoring the unfamiliar to something familiar.

Figure 23: Lindybeige discusses medieval coaches (Lindybeige 2020)

In addition, Modern History TV often references popular culture not only to draw parallels, but also to challenge anachronisms and dispel falsehoods surrounding the period. For example, Kingsley states that ‘when we see on film or TV a roaring fire with a pot over it, it is in fact completely wrong' (Modern History TV 2018, 03:58-04:03), using the visual tropes of film and television to allow his video to act as a corrective device for said anachronism.

EVERYDAY PARALLELS

It is important to point out however, that although less commonly found within this study’s sample, there are multiple examples of creators instead pointing to the behavioral similarities between people of modernity and the Middle Ages within their videos. Modern History TV was the biggest proponent of this practice, with such examples spanning across the majority of Kingsley’s five videos. For instance, when demonstrating how travellers would often change the manner they wore their hoods depending on the weather, leading to the evolution of the chaperone hat as a medieval fashion trends, Kingsley remarks that: ‘If you think about people wearing baseball caps backwards and think that's some kind of crazy modern invention, well remember 15th century medieval people got their first’ (Modern History TV 2019a, 05:29-05:47).

This statement is similar to how Kingsley compares modern AGAs to the cooking pits of the medieval peasantry (Modern History TV 2018, 04:20). In both cases, he subverts audience expectations of the period by subtly challenging chronological snobbery against medieval people. This is because both cases use wry humour as a form of discursive positioning, as by referring to backwards baseball caps as a ‘crazy modern invention’, this challenges the belief that people of the Middle Ages were inherently less expressive or concerned with life’s more trivial matters, such as style or fashion. This technique mirrors Rouse’s (2014) idea that intentional anachronisms can be used to provoke viewers to reflect critically on historical continuity, allowing them to reconsider the medieval not as a bygone era, but instead as a foundational aspect of modern times.

Figure 24: Kingsley demonstrates the chaperone hat (Modern History TV 2019a)

Moreover, in other videos, Kingsley asserts that ‘nothing much has changed’ (Modern History TV 2021, 02:27) when explaining the buying and selling of tenancies via landlords in the Middle Ages. Similarly, History Hit parallels this casual, conversational phrasing in Janega’s discussions on medieval British brewing practices, stating that ‘beer hasn’t really changed that much over the years’ (2022d, 18:08). Premodernist also echoes this tone to emphasise the culinary similarities between the Middle Ages and today, pointing out that traditional cooking methods have preserved many medieval customs formed through the necessity of their age (Premodernist 2022, 08:00). Thus, this disarming language bridges the gap between the past and present, and shows that for these three channels, moral reflections on timeless human behaviours, such as the recurrence of fashion trends and dietary habits, play a substantial part in their attempts to persuade the viewer to empathise with and humanise the period.

ECHOES OF THE PAST

However, another recurring theme throughout this study’s sample was the emphasis on tracing the institutional and linguistic continuities from the medieval world to the present. For instance, in his video charting the progression of real tennis, Lindybeige, whilst walking through a modern-day court, remarks that ‘this sport of kings goes right back to the medieval period’ (2021, 00:40). Similarly Modern History TV, when outlining the importance of notched sticks within medieval monetary transactions, notes that the short piece was named ‘the foil or a counterfoil, which are terms still used in banking today’ (2020, 02:41), highlighting the linguistic legacy of medieval practices. Moreover, History Hit echoes this approach, when explaining how a medieval drinking custom involving pegs to regulate alcohol consumption, gave rise to the modern phrase to ‘take them down a peg or two’ (2022d, 13:31), reinforcing the imprint medieval culture has on contemporary lexis and practices.

Figure 25: Lindybeige shows off a medieval tennis court (Lindybeige 2021)

However, there was a lack of examples within the samples of Lindybeige’s and MedievalMadness’ content which framed medieval behaviour as similar to modern practices. A statement from my interview with Lindybeige may explain such a discrepancy, as when asked what in particular interested him about the Middle Ages, he responded:

‘The only way you can really appreciate how you live now, is to understand that this is not how people used to live.’

This strong assertion reveals both Lindybeige’s personal fascination with historical differences between the Middle Ages and modernity, and also his belief in the pedagogical merits of focusing on said differences. This would explain why emphasising the similarities between consistent human behaviours across both periods plays a minimal role within his medieval content. In regards to MedievalMadness, the absence of such comparisons appears more strategic. As evidenced elsewhere within this study’s analysis, this channel primarily prioritises upholding a level of mystique and otherness within its representations of medieval life, to make it seem more alien and thus, more intriguing to modern audiences. With this in mind, a lack of emphasis on similarities with the modern world is a deliberate narrative choice taken by the creator.

Overall, the use of the Middle Ages as a tool of comparison for modern times, in manners thematically reminiscent of Hedley Bull’s work The Anarchical Society (1977), shows how neomedievalist political and cultural theories have translated to YouTube’s digital realm. As this chapter has shown, successful application of such reframing has multiple benefits for both producers and audiences alike. One such benefit is that the newfound resonance with daily life in the Middle Ages can often act as a spark for engagement, with viewers more likely to actively engage with the medieval past once they can see how it connects to their own lives. Moreover, it also aids in revealing the roots of foundational modern institutions and societal norms, such as legal frameworks, cultural attitudes and social hierarchies, leading to better informed citizens today. Lastly, by linking past and present within historical media, this humanises the inhabitants of the past. As much of the myths and modern biases discussed in the previous chapter showed, historically educational media must make an active effort to present people of the past not just as caricatures of a bygone age, but as people with their own concerns, attitudes and everyday challenges, and thus through comparison with our current world, media can forge a human connection that can be especially powerful in public history education.

CHAPTER 4: WHOSE MIDDLE AGES? - REPRESENTATION, POWER AND PERSPECTIVE

Over the last few decades, as was discussed in the literature review, there has been a growing re-evaluation of the notion of a singular, objective historical narrative (Elliott 2009). As Elliott highlights the limitations of ‘monolithic history’ (2009, p. 2), there have been growing calls for a more inclusive approach that allows for underrepresented perspectives and marginalised communities within historical media. This study's sample reveals that many YouTube historical spaces have been at the forefront of such approaches, contesting and reimagining traditional dominant narratives. Thus, this chapter will be divided into subsections examining how social class, gender, and marginalised identities are represented within YouTube portrayals of the Middle Ages, identifying which aspects are expanded upon or remain underexplored within digital medieval narratives. Moreover, it will examine how the platform functions not only as a space for historical edutainment, but also as a site where the medieval past is reframed to resonate with contemporary concerns, much like the role Aberth (2003) attributes to traditional cinema.

A PEASANT’S LOT

The first area that must be addressed is the representation of social classes, because, as was shown in the literature review, there is a scholarly consensus that the peasantry have been underrepresented within traditional media depictions of the Middle Ages. However, of the videos analysed within this study, roughly 48% of them either directly focused on peasant life in the Middle Ages, or involved sizable sections discussing the rural peasantry. This shows that Elliott’s idea that peasants remain the ‘most elusive’ social group to represent on film (2009, p. 209), does not fully translate to the digital age, as YouTube has contributed to a steady growth in digital media focusing on the peasantry and working class experiences more broadly.

Nevertheless, Huizinga’s early concerns about the ideological underpinnings of modern reconstructions of medieval class structures (1922, p. 124), remain important to examine, particularly given this newly found popularity of peasant focused content. History Hit demonstrates one of the more transparent ideological framings of marginalised groups within the sample. In one video, for example, a particular emphasis is placed upon the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which is portrayed as a righteous uprising of subjugated people against an oppressive feudal hierarchy (History Hit 2022c). Wat Tyler’s historic demands are framed sympathetically, with Janega rearticulating his assertions of peasants being seen as ‘more than just an implement to till your land’ (History Hit 2022c, 19:28). This framing not only humanises the peasantry, but also positions the revolt as a symbol of broader social resistance that can resonate with modern audiences. The video further reinforces this perspective by calling for greater recognition of those ‘whose stories we don’t hear from’ (History Hit 2022c, 23:54), highlighting the historical neglect of working-class memories. This is exemplified by the observation that there was no formal monument to commemorate those who died in the Peasants Revolt, until the erection of a memorial in Smithfield Market in 2015 (History Hit 2022c, 21:20).

Figure 26: Janega showcases the memorial at Smithfield (History Hit 2022c)

Modern History TV, Lindybeige and Premodernist’s content suggests a shared alignment with History Hits sentiments which show that the peasant class is undergoing a deserved re-evaluation in contemporary media. However, their portrayals of the peasantry are less overtly politicised, with their content instead emphasising the ingenuity of their rural skills, their collective resilience in the face of societal and environmental adversity, as well as reevaluating aspects of peasant life often dismissed as unpleasant or primitive. For example, when re-creating a period accurate peasant meal, consisting of fresh salmon, homemade bread and pea pottage, Kingsley concludes that ‘peasant food is very very tasty and very very filling. It's absolutely delightful!’ (Modern History TV 2018, 08:14). His enthusiastic tone subverts the common assumption that a peasant’s diet was bland, unpleasant or nutritionally insufficient.

Figure 27: Kingsley enjoys a hearty peasant’s meal (Modern History TV 2018)

Similarly, Lindybeige visits multiple modern craftsmen to explore the complexities of medieval glass-working (2019) and rope-making (2015), emphasising the expertise required to carry out these highly skilled tasks. He also highlights the forests of medieval Britain, explaining how they were not untamed and wild, but highly cultivated, with the peasant class ‘gardening the woods for all sorts of wild plants’ (Lindybeige 2016, 03:54). This reframes the peasantry of medieval Britain as resourceful stewards of the land, who were adept at maintaining and utilizing their surroundings. Premodernist also supports these sentiments, primarily through his use of humanising language and by dispelling disparaging myths surrounding the people of the medieval period, as discussed in Chapter 3. Thus, together these three creators contribute to a broader re-evaluation of the peasant class, not through overt ideological messaging, as with History Hit, but by highlighting their skills and lived experiences.

Lastly, another interesting recurrence across this study’s sample is the emphasis placed upon the proportion of the medieval population who were either peasants or living within rural communities. History Hit reinforces that approximately 80% of the English population fell into this category in two separate videos (2022a, 08:37; 2022c, 00:52); Modern History TV places the figure of people living in rural communities at 90% (2021, 01:25), whilst MedievalMadness claims that 85% of the population were serfs (2023, 04:02). Despite the minor discrepancies between these statistics, the repeated reinforcement of this demographic reality conceptually reframes the medieval default. This counters centuries of historical storytelling which disproportionately focused upon knights and nobility and foregrounds the rural peasantry as the demographic norm. In doing so, they not only justify their content’s focus on ordinary individuals, but also create a vivid contrast through which they can critically compare the lives of the elite.

A LORD’S PRIVILEGE

In contrast to the empathetic reframing of the peasantry observed across this study’s sample, representations of the medieval ruling class are notably less favourable. Over recent decades, the dominant framing of elite figures throughout history has undergone a marked transformation, aligning with Zumhof and Johnson’s claims that modern times have seen a rejection of simplistic historical narratives solely focused upon the lives and deeds of the elite (2020, p. 22). This shift is reflected within this sample, with consistent patterns across the channels depicting the elite as exploitative, megalomaniacal and obsessed with maintaining their status and prestige.

For example, despite Kingsley highlighting the benefits and wholesomeness of peasant food, as was discussed earlier, MedievalMadness offers a stark contrast by portraying elite consumption as lavish and performatively opulent. When describing a noble feast, he states that, ‘the table would be laden with meats such as venison or peacock in rich cream sauces, followed by sugary desserts and fine wine’ (MedievalMadness 2023, 09:16-09:36), foregrounding the decadence and exotic nature of upper-class dining. In doing so, he highlights how the elite diet prioritised exoticism and rarity, thus functioning less as nutritional sustenance and more as a visual symbol of status. By emphasising their culinary excess, featuring exotic ingredients unfamiliar to modern viewers, MedievalMadness otherises the elite and thus, implicitly aligns viewer sympathies with the peasant class, whose diet of salmon and bread more closely mirrors that of contemporary western consumption. Moreover, a similar sentiment is reflected in Lindybeige’s Rolls-Royce analogy discussed in Chapter 3, where he frames elite transportation in carriages as performative excess, which again, encourages the viewer to interpret the ruling class as a self-obsessed other. Thus, these creators frame elite status not only as a historical reality, but as something that can be used as a lens through which power and privilege can be easily signified to modern audiences.

Figure 28: MedievalMadness visualises a noble feast (MedievalMadness 2021b)

Beyond symbols of opulence and status, History Hit also foregrounds elite symbols of power and oppression within their content. Within one video, Janega visits the former castle residence of the affluent Devere family, where she outlines how the entire castle's architecture was intentionally designed to convey dominance and authority. She highlights how military personnel were stationed as a subliminal threat to incoming visitors, as ‘the Deveres want you to see their military power right away... They want you to understand that they have a great deal of power’ (History Hit 2023, 10:19-10:30). This line frames the castle not simply as a defensive structure, but as a communicative tool used to broadcast hierarchical dominance. Therefore, this commentary recontextualises the castle from a romanticised symbol of the period, to an ideological structure that reinforces an oppressive feudal regime, transforming the viewer’s understanding of such buildings in the process.

Furthermore, both History Hit and Premodernist expose the systematic inequalities of the period by highlighting elite customs that accentuate class disparity. For instance, Janega points to the practice of knightly ransom, explaining that elite knights would often be captured rather than killed during battle, due to their monetary value to opposing nobles (History Hit 2023, 13:42). She characterises this dynamic as ‘rich guy tag' (History Hit 2023, 13:57), using a satirical analogy to reframe the practice as a trivial game amongst the wealthy. Thus, by likening the practice to a childish playground activity, Janega subverts the romanticised expectations of chivalric honour, instead highlighting how warfare functioned as an economic enterprise for the nobility, which contrasts with the fatal realities faced by the common soldier. Therefore, this ironic tone invites the viewer to reassess the absurdity and morality of medieval warfare, with its elite privileges laid bare.

Figure 29: Janega shows the Deveres’ sentinel stations (History Hit 2023)

Premodernist reinforces this sentiment in a far more straightforward manner, as he presents the medieval worldview of class hierarchy, whilst foregrounding the societal expectations and legal stratifications which reinforced said hierarchy. For instance, he states that the lack of equality within the Middle Ages ‘was considered normal and good’ and that within the confines of the period, it was also ‘considered how it should be’ (Premodernist 2023b, 44:42). Thus, this statement encourages the viewer to rethink how embedded inequality was within medieval society, rather than approaching the topic within the boundaries of their own moral worldview. When a contemporary audience projects its moral viewpoints back onto the past, as was discussed in the literature review, this can lead to some problematic assumptions (Elliott 2009, p. 215) and so by emphasising how pervasive the social hierarchy was within medieval thought, Premodernist attempts to expand the viewer's perspective of the period and thus, prioritises the educational merit of his content.

Overall, these representations demonstrate a shift away from romanticised narratives centred upon elite honour and importance, and towards a more critical and reflective viewpoint. This is achieved through highlighting elements such as culinary extravagance, architectural symbolism and the trivialisation of warfare, with the creators of this sample revealing how noble privilege operated through performative assertions of status.

A WOMAN’S WORTH

Representations surrounding gender is an area which revealed some of the most significant disparities across the channels within this sample. Notably, the majority of content addressing the medieval female experience focused overwhelmingly upon the lives of lower-class women, with limited coverage given to elite female roles. This trend reflects the broader popularity of modern media which centres upon the lives of ordinary people, as discussed earlier in the chapter. It is also explained by most discussions of women within this sample often appearing as subsections within broader topics, rather than as the primary focus of the video. This structural pattern also demonstrates the historic creative bias towards masculine-coded subjects within medieval media and its prevalence within digital spaces. Moreover, this dominance of male-oriented conversations is reinforced by the fact that the topic of gender, and women’s roles more broadly, is almost entirely absent from the samples of Lindybeige and Modern History TV. While the videos analysed from both channels make occasional passing references to women’s lives, these are rarely explored in depth. One example of this can be found in Modern History TV, as when discussing The Domesday Book, a medieval manuscript recording the results of a 1086 survey, Kingsley states that ‘it misses out some very big categories, including women, children and the clergy’ (2021, 00:56). Here, Kingsley acknowledges the historical marginalisation of women within medieval records, however this point is not developed further, reflecting a broader tendency within these channels’ sample to under-represent gender as a category of analysis.

Alternatively, MedievalMadness makes multiple references to women's experiences across his videos, however his approach towards the topic prioritises simplification and spectacle over nuance. For example, he employs a colloquial yet pointed rhetorical device in the line, ‘if you were unlucky enough to be a woman, then you would know all about hardship’ (MedievalMadness 2023, 01:21). While this statement encourages the viewer to reflect on the gendered suffering of the period by foregrounding the lived experience of women’s oppression, its generalised framing, combined with its placement within a video titled Why You Wouldn't Last 24 Hours in The Dark Ages (2023), undermines its critical potential. The video's primary aim is to reinforce a negative perception of life within the Middle Ages and so, this comment functions more as a dramatic flourish within a broader narrative of medieval brutality, rather than as a gateway to more nuanced discussions of gender. This tendency to highlight female experiences without sustained engagement is a recurring feature across this study’s sample of MedievalMadness’ content, where accessibility and engagement are prioritised.

However, the more academic-oriented channels, Premodernist and History Hit, demonstrate a greater engagement with the topic of gender within their videos. In Premodernist’s Q and A video (2023b), which responds to viewer feedback on his popular time-travel lecture (2023a), he addresses viewer questions concerning how the experience of travelling back to the Middle Ages might differ for women, which was not addressed in the original video. Firstly, he acknowledges that he was ‘a little surprised’ (Premodernist 2023b, 00:56) by the question, having assumed that his advice would be understood as applicable to both men and women, thus revealing a presumption of a shared cultural frame with his audience. However, Premodernist subsequently engages with the medieval female experience in a focused and reflective manner, whilst also subverting the common expectation for media to accentuate the differences between genders. This exchange exemplifies a degree of academic nuance and fosters a more interactive discussion between creator and viewer, which deepens the pedagogical value of the video.

History Hit, particularly through Dr Janega’s expertise in medieval gender and sexuality, has multiple videos within the sample featuring the female experience extensively and demonstrating a distinctive approach to representing medieval women. While all channels in the sample highlight systemic oppression when portraying women in the Middle Ages, Janega shifts the perspective from one observing structural constraints, to one exploring how individual women navigated and responded to them. Thus, women’s agency is foregrounded within History Hit’s videos, examining the strategies they employed to improve their circumstances within a highly restrictive social framework. For example, Janega challenges modern assumptions about medieval sex work, noting that it was not universally stigmatised or vilified, but ‘a medieval institution that is really out in the open’ (History Hit 2022b, 03:27). Moreover, although framed as one of the only few options women had to financial autonomy, she describes it as ‘one way into a really lucrative career’ (History Hit 2022b, 05:33), reframing it as a pragmatic choice, humanising and empathising with medieval women as individuals.

Thus, while Janega emphasises the patriarchal and restrictive nature of the period, she furthers the discussion by examining how women actively navigated these constraints and sought to improve their circumstances, rather than reducing their experience to one of passive victimhood. This is evidently seen in the line: ‘As a woman when you wanted money you'd have to marry it, which is sex work that’s one man at a time, more than anything else!’ (History Hit 2023, 05:57-06:10). This provocative statement invites the viewer to reconsider the boundaries between medieval marriage and the stigmatised labour of sex work, by blurring the lines between them. It also reframes marriage as a transactional practice which women could also manipulate, rather than one completely controlled by men. Therefore, given such examples, History Hit’s sample demonstrates the most detailed and nuanced depictions of female life in the Middle Ages, because as Rodwell (2013) emphasises, effective history education should always attempt to foreground varied perspectives. However, with all this in mind, more work needs to be done within digital historical spaces to further elevate discussions surrounding gender in the medieval age.

Figure 30: Janega discusses medieval sex work in York (History Hit 2022b)

A VOICE LOST

Despite the increased focus on the working-class and the beginnings of more nuanced discussions surrounding the female experience in medieval YouTube content, representations of religious minorities, queer individuals, and people of colour remain notably scarce across this study’s sample. While History Hit and Premodernist highlight some aspects of these communities, their coverage is often peripheral. Thus, this section will examine the few instances where such figures are represented and consider how their depiction, or absence, reflects deeper silences within both historical records and contemporary media narratives.

Firstly, in the case of religious minorities, there is a distinct lack of coverage within Lindybeige, Modern History TV and MedievalMadness’ samples, reflecting a focus on dominant communities, be that in population size or social and economic power. However, both History Hit and Premodernist directly address the persecution of Jews during the period, as both channels stress the cultural isolation structurally imposed upon the Jewish community. Premodernist frames their enforced cultural segregation, stating:

‘Typically the Jews kind of kept to themselves and largely it was because they had to. Because they were forced to by the Christians’ (Premodernist 2023a, 42:29-42:37).

This alludes to the power of the Christian majority in medieval society and challenges the stereotype that religious minorities were insular by choice or nature. Janega supports this sentiment by pointing out that Jews were legally and economically restricted to the role of moneylending, as Christians were unable to perform the role themselves. However, she adds further context to this issue, emphasising the violent ramifications of said segregation, pointing to how this set the stage for resentment to build up against the Jewish community, leading to ‘multiple pogroms against Jews’ (History Hit 2022a, 25:53). Janega’s tone is direct and unambiguous in its condemnation here, making the moral message against religious discrimination clear and accessible to the viewer.

Moreover, besides the marginalised Jewish community, Premodernist also explores Christian misunderstandings of Islam, noting that many medieval Europeans viewed Muslims as ‘simply another version of pagan’ (2023a, 43:03). This reductive framing of medieval Christian perspectives reflects a broader dynamic of ideological othering which Premodernist’s content highlights, as a pattern where dominant groups construct religious difference to reinforce their own legitimacy.

Regarding racial representation more broadly, Premodernist again provides the sample’s only substantial engagement with said topic. He challenges the presumption that post-colonial ideas of race and racism existed within the medieval period, in a similar fashion to how he tackles modern ideas of social hierarchies discussed previously. This can be seen in his statement that:

‘There were ideas about races. People in Europe knew that there were people in other parts of the world that looked different from them. They knew that people in Africa had black skin’ (Premodernist 2023a, 33:20-33:50).

Although this statement acknowledges medieval Europe’s global awareness, it also subtly implies a universal geographical separation of different races. Therefore, this may unintentionally reinforce the myth that whiteness was universal within medieval Europe, despite recent evidence, such as Redfern and Hefner’s (2019) recent bioarchaeological discoveries pointing to the contrary. Thus, this example acts as a missed opportunity to challenge modern assumptions of racial homogeneity within the period.

Finally, as for queer representation within the sample, there was only one notable occurrence, again via History Hit, reflecting the channel's proclivity towards highlighting the medieval experiences of marginalised communities. In a video centred on medieval sexuality (History Hit 2022b), Janega discusses the story of Eleanor Reichner, a trans sex-worker living in London. She presents her story as one without moral panic, subverting the viewer’s potential expectations that transgender people would have either been non-existent or persecuted within the period. She finishes the section by affirming queer presence in medieval society with the line:

‘Her story is proof that what we would call queer people now existed in medieval London just as much as they do today’ (History Hit 2022b, 22:39-23:23).

By emphasising the temporal continuity between queer lives in the Middle Ages and today, this reinforces the idea that queer existence is not a contemporary affair, but one that has been ongoing throughout history, despite the historical lack of visibility only beginning to be rectified. Thus, both Premodernist and History Hit offer important perspectives on marginalised experiences within the Middle Ages, however they lack an overall sustained focus. Moreover, the lack of marginalised representation within the other channel’s samples highlights a need for more content from and about diverse identities within the medieval period. This would help to foster a more inclusive historical narrative within digital spaces and provide a deeper, more nuanced representation of everyday life within the period.

In summary, this chapter has explored how YouTube creators are reshaping medieval narratives by foregrounding different representations and voices. This is achieved through a greater emphasis placed upon the peasantry, a critical view of the elite’s oppressive power structure, a re-evaluation of gendered experiences, and finally, by offering glimpses into marginalised communities. Such reframing of historically absent perspectives aligns with Kelly’s (2018) call to use history to foster critical thought regarding imbedded social narratives. While the academic-oriented channels demonstrate a more sustained critical engagement, others such as MedievalMadness or Lindybeige offer selective or simplified representations shaped by entertainment value. This reflects the greater variety of perspectives being offered through the digital age, where different creators with unique backgrounds or areas of interest can now contribute to the media landscape and overall perceptions of the period. Thus, these portrayals reflect a growing shift away from monolithic histories and towards a more reflexive storytelling landscape. However, notable absences in race, religion, queerness and other marginalised groups across the sample reveal that digital media still echoes certain gaps in representation found within more traditional media. Greater attention to these communities is needed if YouTube’s historical content is to realise the inclusive potential identified by Groce and Groce (2005), whose research highlights the power of reframing to foster greater tolerance and self-reflection.

CONCLUSION:

This study set out to critically examine how YouTube creators represent everyday life in the Middle Ages, with a particular focus upon the ways said creators balance educational intent with entertainment value within their content. Drawing on qualitative analysis of twenty-three videos across five popular historical channels, this study explored how creators navigate digital platform dynamics, whilst employing visual signifiers and rhetorical strategies to engage audiences within the medieval period. Furthermore, pivotal to this research’s evaluation were its four guiding questions, including how creators blend pedagogy with performance, how structural and aesthetic elements shape viewer engagement, how certain portrayals challenge or reinforce popular myths surrounding the period, and lastly, how issues of class, gender and marginalised communities are addressed and characterised within digital historical spaces.

The study of these concepts holds significant relevance in our modern age, where digital media increasingly shapes public understanding of the past, with YouTube in particular emerging as a primary site of cultural memory and informal education. Within its historical spaces, creators who typically reside outside of traditional academic institutions curate historical narratives for mass audiences. Thus, understanding and examining how medieval life is reframed or reimagined within said spaces is essential for assessing the pedagogical and ideological implications of public history within the digital age.

KEY FINDINGS FROM ANALYSIS

Within the four chapters of this study’s analysis, several key findings emerged regarding how YouTube creators represent medieval life within their content. In the first chapter, this study positioned each creator along a spectrum of edutainment, with each blending educational intent and entertainment value in varying proportions. At the more academic focused end, channels such as History Hit and Premodernist prioritise academic rigour and nuanced analytical discussion surrounding the period. By contrast, the more entertainment-led channels, such as Lindybeige or MedievalMadness, foreground storytelling and inflaming the viewer’s imagination, using entertainment as a gateway to historical insight. Positioned somewhere in between these poles, Modern History TV combines immersive, visually rich reenactments with substantial educational commentary.

Despite each channel’s differing approach to edutainment, establishing authority on the topic remains a crucial component in persuading viewers to trust a creator’s insight. Therefore, this study demonstrates that, regardless of where a creator sits on the edutainment spectrum, authority can be constructed through a variety of means. For some, it is rooted in academic credentials and formal expertise, whilst for others, it is manifested through lived experience, stylised delivery and the immersive environments they are able to create. Therefore, edutainment is best understood not as a binary between education and entertainment, but as a flexible spectrum. Rather than representing a compromise between education or entertainment, the blend of pedagogical depth with an engaging presentation is a strategic choice, which creators adapt to suit their audience, their creative goals and the digital medium of YouTube itself.

The second chapter examined how visual and lexical elements of first contact, namely thumbnails and titles, are deployed to make an immediate impression and captivate potential viewers, whilst signaling a distinctly medieval tone. Across the sample, several recurring strategies emerged, including the use of medieval-style fonts and iconography, interrogatives and strategic deployment of textual capitalisation. While the use of medieval iconography and stylised titles are clearly used to effectively establish a historical mood, the latter two rhetorical hooks are more broadly employed by users across the entire platform, reflecting YouTube’s algorithmic preference for ‘clickbait’ content. This demonstrates how historically educational content has adapted its engagement strategies in ways that mirror wider entertainment-oriented digital media, as historical creators fight for visibility and relevance within the broader digital ecosystem.

While channels such as MedievalMadness, Modern History TV and History Hit invested in producing thumbnails with a consistent and professional aesthetic to foster brand recognition and appeal to viewer expectations, other channels such as Lindybeige and Premodernist adopted a more minimalist approach, relying primarily on their video titles to spark curiosity and drive engagement. As these channels are largely run by individual creators with limited financial resources, unlike the other channels previously mentioned, the cost and labour associated with high-production thumbnail design likely influences their stylistic choices. Therefore, without access to professional designers or the time to develop such skills independently, achieving the same level of visual polish becomes more difficult. Regardless of these disparities, platform constraints, as highlighted in my conversations with both Lindybeige and Premodernist, play a significant role in shaping both the aesthetic and lexical decisions made by creators when representing everyday life in the Middle Ages.

The third chapter explored how creators strategically link the medieval past to the present through the use of pop culture references, humour and parallels with modern everyday life. Moreover, it showed how these connections are often used to challenge modern biases and myths surrounding the period, fostering a sense of empathy and relatability with those who lived in the Middle Ages. Creators such as Modern History TV and Premodernist are prime examples of this, frequently highlighting behavioural, institutional or linguistic continuities and similarities between the Middle Ages and modernity to reframe medieval people not as distant caricatures, but as relatably human individuals who feel strikingly familiar to ourselves. Alternatively, however, channels such as MedievalMadness and Lindybeige tend to emphasise the difference and alterity of the period, so that they can use its perceived strangeness to provoke curiosity and spark the imagination.

When considered together, the interplay between these differing approaches emphasising similarity and difference not only humanises the medieval world, but also invites viewers to reflect on their own cultural frameworks and assumptions. Therefore, this chapter shows that YouTube historical creators function not just as educators and entertainers, but as cultural interpreters, who in the search for engagement curate an image of life in the Middle Ages which is tailored to a modern audience with modern sensibilities. In this way, the act of linking past and present can be seen as a powerful pedagogical tool used by historical creators, as it transforms historical storytelling into a reflective mirror, shaping public memory through its digital medium.

Lastly, chapter four examined the representation of social class, gendered expectations, and marginalised communities within YouTube’s historical spaces. It was found that the user-generated landscape of YouTube is actively reshaping traditional medieval narratives, by foregrounding many underrepresented voices and questioning medieval power structures. By helping to ignite a renewed focus upon the peasantry, critically reframing the traditionally lionised ruling class, as well as including discussions surrounding gender and marginalised identities, YouTube creators have contributed to the ongoing modern shift away from monolithic historical storytelling.

However, this shift was not equally distributed amongst the sample, as the more academic-oriented channels, like History Hit or Premodernist, demonstrated a more sustained engagement with these themes, whilst entertainment-driven creators like Lindybeige and MedievalMadness engaged less with underrepresented communities, often in favour of a more selective and stylised representation of the period. Therefore, while this diversity in approaches reflects the democratising nature of digital media, where creators with varied backgrounds, priorities and interests collectively contribute to a greater public history, the notable absences in racial, religious and queer representation across much of the sample reveals that digital spaces still echo certain omissions found in more traditional media. Consequently, as shown by the progress and limitations of YouTube when fostering inclusive, well-rounded medieval storytelling, this chapter highlights how digital history is not passive, but performative and deeply political. Thus, there is a continued need for a greater variety of voices and perspectives focused on medieval life, in order to foster a deeper empathy and more critical engagement with the past.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS

With the findings of this study established, I will now review how they contribute to and advance the existing academic debates outlined in the literature review. Firstly, as scholars such as Eco (1986), Fitzpatrick (2019) and Kobrin (1998) have been arguing for decades, a neomedievalist approach to historical analysis enables the reinterpretation of medieval culture as a lens through which to critique and reflect upon contemporary norms. This study demonstrates that YouTube creators, whether intentionally or intuitively, have adopted these neomedievalist principles, by employing strategies such as satirical humour, pop cultural references and everyday parallels, to render medieval life in a manner which is relatable and to challenge modern myths and assumptions. These rhetorical choices not only humanise the medieval world and its inhabitants, but also invite viewers to reconsider their own cultural frameworks. Moreover, I would argue that in today’s digital media landscape, where YouTube sits as an entertainment powerhouse, their historical creators have emerged as a primary site of neomedievalist discourse, which is reorienting the medieval past and provoking reflection upon the present.

Furthermore, scholars such as Alvestad and Houghton (2021) and Fixler (2008) have highlighted how audiences can often conflate the emotive feeling of historical authenticity with the factual rigour of accuracy, resulting in problematic representations that perpetuate misleading or sensationalised stereotypes. This study has shown that, much like traditional media formats such as film and television, individual YouTube creators navigate this tension in varied ways, with some leaning into the spectacle of an ‘authentic’ medieval experience shaped by modern expectations, whilst others prioritise nuance and strive to uncover the complexities of the period. However, I would argue that YouTube’s edutainment model complicates the conventional binary of authenticity versus accuracy, instead offering a spectrum of digital historical storytelling that calls for new evaluative frameworks to be developed.

In addition, the works of other scholars such as Elliott (2009) and Redfern and Hefner (2019) have demonstrated the peasant class, women and marginalised groups are historically underrepresented within depictions of everyday life in the Middle Ages. This study highlights how YouTube is beginning to address some of these representational blind spots, most effectively in its portrayals of peasant life and gendered experiences. However, the sample analysed reveals that contemporary representations of race, religion and queerness in the medieval period still fall short of reflecting the historical reality. Therefore, I would call for increased academic engagement with digital historical media, to help amplify the need for underrepresented voices and foster more inclusive narratives.

As for this study’s implications for wider public history, scholars such as Korte and Paletschek (2017), Bernard (2011) and Cole (1994) have noted a growing shift away from academic exclusivity towards a more participatory, media-driven landscape. This study’s edutainment spectrum demonstrates how YouTube creators are at the forefront of said shift, blending entertainment with pedagogy, often without formal academic training, whilst still being able to shape public understanding of medieval life. Therefore, YouTube creators should be positioned as influential cultural intermediaries, who bridge the gap between academic knowledge and wider public curiosity. Thus, I would argue that it is necessary for future scholarly discourse surrounding public history to include YouTube creators, as their work plays a vital role in how historical narratives are constructed within the digital age.

Finally, while scholars such as Kohler and Dietrich (2021) and Kandala (2019) have concluded that YouTube is increasingly used as an educational platform, they also highlight a lack of critical academic scrutiny regarding its historical educational content. With this in mind, this study offers a detailed and adaptable framework for the future evaluation of other historical YouTube material, through the combining of critical discourse analysis, semiotics and creator interviews. Therefore, I propose that future studies should build upon this study’s methodology to support further interdisciplinary inquiry into digital historical education.

SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

While this study contributes to the scholarly debates outlined above, it is also important to reflect upon and acknowledge its limitations and propose directions for future research that could support a more holistic academic exploration of the topic. Firstly, as this study focused on the most viewed content from a select number of channels, future research should expand the sample size to capture a broader and more representative picture of the wider YouTube medievalist space. Additionally, given this study’s emphasis on the production side of YouTube content, further investigation into audience reception would be valuable in understanding how said content influences public perceptions of everyday life in the Middle Ages. For instance, potential content analysis of YouTube comment sections, combined with surveys of historical content consumers, could yield insightful data surrounding viewer engagement and interpretation of these representations.

Moreover, there is also potential scope for further in-depth research on aspects already partially explored within this study. For example, while this research identified limitations in the representation of marginalised communities, it did not fully resolve or exhaustively examine the issue. Further research focused specifically on racial, religious, and queer representation in medieval YouTube content could foster greater awareness of how inclusive historical narratives can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the period, and allow diverse audiences today to see themselves reflected within European medieval history. Another promising avenue for further research lies in the semiotic and visual construction of medieval life within the videos themselves. This study focused on visual elements of first contact, such as titles and thumbnails, however a future study dedicated to in-video visual representations, including costumes, props, set design, and iconography, would lead to some interesting results and complement this study’s critical discourse analysis of language and rhetorical devices.

Lastly, a comparative platform analysis examining representations of everyday life in the Middle Ages across alternative digital platforms, such as TikTok or Instagram, could reveal how different media environments, particularly those which foreground shorter-form and highly sensationalised content, construct and communicate medieval life in contrast to YouTube. Future research in this area could highlight how platform-specific affordances, such as different algorithms, audience interaction features and visual editing tools, shape the ways in which creators craft their narratives and navigate the perceived authenticity surrounding the medieval period.

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