Academia and privacy

Question

I am an academic at a large university. I have been asked to produce some videos to be used in an online component of a departmental service course. This is a course I am currently teaching, and the videos are meant to be used in future iterations of the course (which I will probably not be teaching) to reduce the number of weekly lecture hours.

I don't have a strong opinion either way about whether this plan is good for the course, but I do not want to appear in the videos for reasons of personal privacy. I am a very private person, and I have always tried to keep a light online footprint with minimal social media activity. The idea of hundreds or thousands of students whom I don't know watching videos of me for years to come makes me very uncomfortable.

It has been pointed out to me that the university already records lectures, and that the videos that I'm now being asked to make are if anything better since they will help me produce them in a recording studio and I can do multiple takes. This is a fair point, though I am also not so happy with the current lecture recordings (it may be technically possible to opt out but is not practically possible since students would complain). But I still think the videos I'm now being asked to record are more invasive of my privacy. The lecture recordings only capture audio and the projector/document camera, and are only accessible by the students in the course I teach. The videos I'm being asked to produce will show my face and be uploaded to the university youtube channel, and remain as a central component of a large course for years.

I realize that it's always been the case that certain careers require being recorded (politician, actor, professional athlete, news anchor, journalist), but I didn't think of academia as being one of them. To what extent are academics public figures / performers that should be required to make recordings of themselves?

Am I being unreasonable by refusing to appear in these videos?

Answer 1

The answer to this question is extremely simple and clear-cut. No, you are not being unreasonable. You don’t want to appear on YouTube, so don’t - this is not a job requirement for a professor (or for a graduate student) anywhere. You don’t owe anyone any explanations. Do not let yourself be guilt-tripped or manipulated into giving up more of your privacy than you feel comfortable doing. And do not get drawn into a debate about the nuances of precisely which careers require agreeing to be a public figure and which don’t - this just opens the door for other people to try to manipulate you with irrelevant sophistry.

Just say no.

Answer 2

This answer will be complex and may take more than one edit.

First, you have a moral right to refuse. Whether you also have a contractural right or not you haven't said.

Second, if you make these recordings for future use, you first need to work out the compensation for doing them. Ideally you should receive a royalty for each showing and it might also involve the size of the audience. If they offer nothing, they you are just being exploited. I assume that you will hold no copyrights on the produced materials, so you need to protect yourself with a contract. If the content is at least partly yours and not created entirely by other people, then I would insist on royalties, not just a one time payment. The contract might even have an expiration date after which it needs to be renegotiated.

Third, examine why you don't want to do this. If it is just that you are "uncomfortable" then I recommend that you find a way to become more comfortable. But if you have a principled objection then be sure that you can express it so that others can understand. I would, personally, support such an objection, but my opinion on the matter might be overridden.

Note that by overcoming it, I don't necessarily mean that you should force yourself to do it. But if it is fear or over-shyness that makes you reticent to do this, your career would probably be enhanced by coming to a more neutral stance. Otherwise you can be driven by feelings that aren't necessarily in your best interest. If you can take-it-or-leave-it then you can examine the reasons more explicitly.

Such videos can, in principle be very valuable. But since they are being monetized, you have a right to share in that system. You could, of course, choose to donate your efforts, as anyone could, but I don't believe that it should be required of you.

(I may want to update this as I think a bit more about the issue.)

Answer 3

First of all, I think it's a terrible idea to make people participate in recorded lectures against their will - it won't come out as good, and you may well not have them.

The answer to your question really depends on the kind of relationship you have with your colleagues, and the kind of relationship you want to have in the future. Do you have any clout in the department? If you say no, what repercussions will you face? Are you willing to face them?

If you refuse you may be perceived as not being a team player, which may or may not hurt your prospects in the department. If yours is a teaching position, it may well be argued to be part of your responsibilities. If you are a research faculty, then perhaps you have more of a case. If this is a key to you getting a promotion/being the face of the school for some initiative, it may be a good idea to forgo your privacy policy in favor of a career boost.

If you really don't want to do it, you can purposefully do a terrible job during the recording. After one day of awful takes (and the subsequent waste of money paid to the studio), I'm sure that no one would consider taking you on for this role! Plus, I can't really see how anyone would fault you for this, you had already said that you didn't want to do it, perhaps pushing you to do it made you do it really terribly...