How to cite a text, voice or video message
Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B18 / R18.10.2 · Internet & electronic
Example
Statement by Cain Marko, video call between Victor Creed, Raven Darkholme & Erik Lehnsherr et al., Zoom (Jan. 30, 2024) (on file with the author).
More examples
Each of these is checked against the rules on every change to the tool.
- Message from Peter Parker to Otto Octavius, WhatsApp (May 24, 2024, at 18:44 ET) (on file with the University of Pennsylvania Law Review).
- Message from Otto Octavius to the Sinister Six (group consisting of William Baker, Maxwell Dillon & Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff et al.), Signal (Oct. 10, 2024, at 06:44 ET) (on file with author).
What the citation needs
Required
- Platform — The service the material was posted on.
- Date — The date the rule for this source calls for, with the month abbreviated per T12 (“Nov. 24, 1978”).
- On file with — Where a reader can get an unpublished or hard-to-find source: what follows “on file with” — “author”, or the library or journal holding it (R17.1).
When they apply
- Kind — Which form of this source you are citing. The fields that matter change with it.
- Sender (text) — Who sent it.
- Recipient (text) — Who received it.
- Group name (text) — The group name, as it appears on the source.
- Group members — The group members, as it appears on the source.
- Speaker (call) — The speaker, as it appears on the source.
- Participants (call) — The participants, as it appears on the source.
- Time stamp — The point in a recording or post you are citing.
- Time — The time, where the source is dated to it.
In a brief and in a law review
The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.
Court documents (Bluepages)
Statement by Cain Marko, video call between Victor Creed, Raven Darkholme & Erik Lehnsherr et al., Zoom (Jan. 30, 2024) (on file with the author).
Law review footnotes (Whitepages)
Statement by Cain Marko, video call between Victor Creed, Raven Darkholme & Erik Lehnsherr et al., Zoom (Jan. 30, 2024) (on file with the author).
The words are the same in both; only the typeface changes.
Common mistakes
Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.
Wrong
Message from Peter Parker to Otto Octavius, WhatsApp (May 24, 2024, at 18:44 ET).
Why
Year of publication is required (R15.4(a)).
Year is required (R15.4(a)).
Right
Message from Peter Parker to Otto Octavius, WhatsApp (May 24, 2024, at 18:44 ET) (on file with the University of Pennsylvania Law Review).
Governing rules
B18 / R18.10.2
- 18 — the internet, electronic media & other nonprint resources.
- 18.10.2 — communication services.
Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.
Related source types
Internet & electronic: