How to Video Blog
A lazy student’s perspective

Rhys Woolf 10423451

The idea of this series of video blogs is to ultimately document what occurs behind the scenes in relation to creating, filming and editing a video blog project for iGeneration. It follows the step by step process of coming up with an idea, undergoing the required research and finally putting together a credible and significant project in time for submission. In essence it is a voyeuristic look at the challenges and procedures taken by an average communication studies student in order to complete a difficult multimedia assignment.

Much like Web sites, blogs have become ubiquitous virtually overnight. As most blogs are interactive and invite feedback from readers, the blogging dichotomy has emerged as a viable alternative news medium. The growing impact of bloggers ultimately comes in their antagonistic approach to correcting or supplementing reports given in the mainstream media. Many blogs provide a unique and unconventional perspective on the local and national news.

The wall street journal recorded that “the number of Americans reading blogs jumped 58% in 2004 to an estimated 32 million people…with about 11 million looking to political blogs for news surrounding the presidential campaign.”

Personal Information in Blogging

It is sometimes astounding to discover the availability of personal information on the internet. Personal data are being made available in online databases, which are accessible to search engines even without our knowledge or consent. It has become the common trend to ‘Google’ your own name to discover what about you the internet has exposed. The inevitable question to consider is whether this information should be so widely available, not just for internet surfers, but also for bloggers.

Most of the information that has become available on search engines once only existed in a public or pseudo-public format, such as phone book or court records. It has now become digitalised and readily available for any blogger wishing to ascertain information. On one hand it is easy to see the benefits in having this information more accessible, especially for media investigations that may further the public interest. Converting information into a more convenient forum seems acceptable.

Blogging and Regulation

The freedom of blogging seems to be endless, whereby internet regulation is explicitly different from the regulatable physical world. The internet defies regulation for several key reasons. Firstly, its distribution and resilience of bloggers and web site designers makes it difficult to control. Packet switching technology for instance; a communications paradigm in which packets (units of information carriage) are routed between nodes over data links shared with other traffic means that information over the web is very hard to contain the flow of information.

Another reason is the constitution of internet technology. The digital technology can be transmitted through cyberspace and stored on a recipient’s hard drive forever. “The information superhighway is about the global movement of weightless bits at the speed of light.”

The general idea of video blogging involves amateurish exploration of relevant or topical themes. The blogs are usually unprepared with low production quality. Whilst this is not necessarily an important factor when attempting to convey truth or theory, it can impact heavily on how the information is conveyed and thus interpreted by the audience. In terms of the script writing procedure, poor preparation increases the likelihood of misinterpretation, as factors such as word slips, mannerisms and misinformation tends to understate the importance of what is being said.

In understanding the cause of this audience misinterpretation one must consider the general video blog audience and the central characteristics that determine their susceptibility. Clive Seale in his work “Health and Media” believes that the audience may seek “promoting information as a part of rational risk profiling at fateful moments.” He also believes that “the audience seeks emotional stimulation through dramatized contrasts that have an entertaining effect.” In essence, the audience is open to the idea of being manipulated by the situations represented by video bloggers. According to Seale’s theory, video bloggers would have the power to mislead audiences by way of unscripted and unprepared explorations of their specific theories.

How to Video blog
A behind the scenes look at the intricacies and difficulties behind creating a video blog project.

Outline:
The idea of this series of video blogs is to ultimately document what occurs behind the scenes in relation to creating, filming and editing a video blog project for iGeneration. It follows the step by step process of coming up with an idea, undergoing the required research and finally putting together a credible and significant project in time for submission. In essence it is a voyeuristic look at the challenges and procedures taken by an average communication studies student in order to complete a difficult multimedia assignment.