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.

My initial aims for this project were essentially double sided. On the one hand I wanted to create a tongue in cheek representation of the procedures involved in creating a typical Communication Studies assignment. I took the angle of a lazy student, often strapped for inspiration and whose sloth and ignorance are what accounts for his poor performances. This student takes every available means to cut corners and discount the proper and expected way of doing things. On the other hand I wanted to take a credible stance on the ethics and professionalism involved with computer bloggers. I wanted to show that frequent internet users like this student are capable are producing fallible and inaccurate accounts of the real, and exposing it on a massive scale. This is where the video and written dichotomy plays off one another, whereby the video blogs are the humorous and flippant representations of blogging, and the written expose the dangers and importance of proper blogging etiquette.

Blogging made it to the attention of the media when the media was not providing adequate coverage of news worthy events that bloggers were actively expressing their views about. J. R. Okin gives an example in 2002 of pro-Palestinian activists attacking a group of Hillel students at San Francisco State University. The national press provided no coverage, and the local press barely mentioned the attack. But after a few days of growing blogger entries related to the event, newspapers began to run images and accounts of the story.

Blogs are inherently personal in nature. The vast majority represent the best and simplest form of free expression. They do not necessarily have to amuse or interest anyone other than the person writing it. However, as blogging catches on and information is more involved and open to the public, so too will you see a sudden problem of blogging etiquette and professionalism, with internet users who are unbridled by any moral constraints post improper or false information. The initial purpose of these blog episodes were ultimately to expose the potential threat involved with amateurish blogging.

In traditional communities, some actions are widely regarded as improper and unethical. However, in online communities, the virtual expectations of the same actions are not seen or regarded in the same clarity. “Since virtual behavior is distinct from ordinary acts, they require further analysis and exploration in order to determine their moral place in our online universe.” The essential goal of this video blog was to explore the moral nature of virtual reality environments, and to emphasize how laziness and inaccuracy are often the creators of misrepresentation.

A problem explicitly raised in the blogs is the issue of freedom and liberty in the online world. Computer networks have transcended the limits of geography that bound our physical world. Over the past few decades there has been an acceleration of the growth and interconnection of national and international public network systems. It has in the sense become a community involving large or private companies, governments or just the individual. In an online forum, everyone is created equal and each one of us is able to build a range of information services and forums for our own individual expression and association. Are these freedoms however beneficial to how we are allowed to act in an online community? Just like the lazy student in the video blog is able to expose anything he wants, so too is a blogger with some potentially embarrassing, upsetting or even dangerous information. Regulation is obviously the answer; however it comes with some implications. Because the internet is a borderless global technology, it is impossible for any nation to enforce their specific restrictions on a particular autonomy. The online world must work towards a global harmonization and a common interest in internet regulation. Until this is achieved bloggers seem to have unending freedoms and opportunities.

There is an inherent question of responsibility involved with blogging and the information they choose to expose in their material. John C. Dvorak in his work, Online! The Book explores his ideas of personal responsibility in the blogging world, and how credibility is an important function of personal voice. He states:

"If you are basing your blog entries on another blog entry, say so. Link to the original author in your entry. You would want to know whether someone else was talking about you, so it’s only polite to offer the same courtesy in return. Information travels quickly on the Internet, and someone who is reading is likely to know it is not your own work. Your credibility depends on your honesty."

Credibility and professionalism is not beyond the calling of blogging and there are ways for bloggers to sustain themselves in a realm of integrity. Misinterpretation can be dangerous, and can promote ignorance, intolerance and violence. By understanding how to carefully structure blogs, and also being aware of those who do not, we as a technologically advanced public are better clued to understand the online world.
The combination of these key themes are all interrelated both in the video blog and the written blog, whereby issues of internet censorship, regulation and citizen journalism are all exposed as potential threats to our personal freedoms. The issue of personal information in blogging is thus an important factor that was raised.

Apart from the expected technical difficulties involved with the video blogs (i.e. being unable to compress the video to the appropriate size, due to size restrictions) the problems were more centered on providing a suitable binary for the humorous side and the reflective side. However, with closer analysis I realized that the humorous side itself plays merit to the point I am trying to prove. That being, a lazy oafish student such as the character played in the video blog is just as a part of an online community as anyone else. Someone as ignorant, uninformed and susceptible as the character is surely a vessel for misinterpretation if he is put in front of a computer. I thus hoped to portray the necessity for both internet regulations in terms of what is allowed to be published on the internet, as well as a severe examination on the society that breeds incoherent people such as the character I represented. Only if we develop as a culture in terms of our own independent artistic qualities and inspirations, as well as having a proper education to back it up are we then equipped to post and read information on the internet. This ultimatum keeps the idea of freedom of speech, but provides it with a much healthier backbone.
In the future I would like to explore the elements and functions of our society that manages to breed misrepresentation and fallacy. Starting with our education, and leading into proper management of internet material will surely give a clearer idea of the root of the problem with participatory culture. By cutting the problem off at the source, it will make internet content far more reliable and resourceful in the future.

"Social, Ethical and Policy Implications of Information Technology" Linda L. Brennan
"Inventing the Internet" Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999. Janet Abbate
"Online! The Book" John C. Dvorak
"Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace" Richard A. Spinello. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2006
"CyberRights" Michael Godwin. New York: Random House, 1998
"Health and Media" Clive Seale. Blackwell Publishing, 2004