The Curious Case of Blogging vs. Vlogging
Disclaimer: Realising there's a very thin hypocrisy line upon which I'm treading - by all means, call me out for any comments you believe come across as such.
While perusing the infinite expanse of youtube, I stumbled across a video by Jenna Marbles, y'know that Blonde lady with an overtly hardball New York accent who seems to only use the right side of her mouth to speak? Well if you don't know who she is, she's a vlogger. That being a 'video logger' who exercises somewhat the same practice as I am now in that they talk about subjects and topics with an audience that doesn't exist yet, then posts this media up on the internet for the audience to flock to them.
Now when I say "stumbled across" this video, I'm not using the meaning of the phrase exactly. It's more like stumbling across an island rather than a rock. This video, entitled Things I Don't Have Time For, has nearly 2 and a half million views. It really makes one muse upon the attraction of such a video. Frankly, *rant warning* I could not give a flying fuck about things that someone else doesn't have time for. This person, who has nothing noteworthy achieved in any other field or strand in life, switches on a camera and talks about personal gripes and opinions with an unseen audience, then puts this up on youtube and receives millions of views, and this is her full-time job *rant subsided*.
However a blogger couldn't do this. Imagine if this was my blog:
Things I like
Baby Ducks
New Car Smell....mmmm
Opening a can of coke
Wearing funny hats
Being the last to clap in a crowd (BTW, look at all the happy multi-cultural people!)
Not a single person would bother returning to your blog if it looked like this, which is essentially what Jenna Marbles does only through a different medium. And this different medium, holds the answer to my pondering.
You see, with writing for an audience, there must be a captivating title with an intriguing context which the writer probes and analyses in order to make conjectures or to formulate an educated opinion backed up by facts and reason. A blog is no different (on a side-note, how meta is this blog?). Anyways! This medium creates a barrier, or opportunity depending on how one views it, in that the writing must sound and read a certain way to hold an audience whilst also sticking to the context which initially attracted the reader.
Video logs work differently. A weak context can be easily substituted by a person's looks, accent, charisma and personality which tend to saturate the content and subject matter. Furthermore, seemingly 'likeable' people can be more persuasive in their rhetoric and therefore captivate their audience in what some might view as a primitive manner. However, There are clearly more layers to this topic which I could not possibly cover or even begin to understand and deviate from person to person.
This isn't a ripping on vloggers by the way. I'm sure some put a lot of work into making the quality of their content as good as possible. On a final note, fuck Jenna Marbles. Thanks for reading folks!
Now when I say "stumbled across" this video, I'm not using the meaning of the phrase exactly. It's more like stumbling across an island rather than a rock. This video, entitled Things I Don't Have Time For, has nearly 2 and a half million views. It really makes one muse upon the attraction of such a video. Frankly, *rant warning* I could not give a flying fuck about things that someone else doesn't have time for. This person, who has nothing noteworthy achieved in any other field or strand in life, switches on a camera and talks about personal gripes and opinions with an unseen audience, then puts this up on youtube and receives millions of views, and this is her full-time job *rant subsided*.
However a blogger couldn't do this. Imagine if this was my blog:
Things I like
Baby Ducks
New Car Smell....mmmm
Opening a can of coke
Wearing funny hats
Being the last to clap in a crowd (BTW, look at all the happy multi-cultural people!)
Not a single person would bother returning to your blog if it looked like this, which is essentially what Jenna Marbles does only through a different medium. And this different medium, holds the answer to my pondering.
You see, with writing for an audience, there must be a captivating title with an intriguing context which the writer probes and analyses in order to make conjectures or to formulate an educated opinion backed up by facts and reason. A blog is no different (on a side-note, how meta is this blog?). Anyways! This medium creates a barrier, or opportunity depending on how one views it, in that the writing must sound and read a certain way to hold an audience whilst also sticking to the context which initially attracted the reader.
Video logs work differently. A weak context can be easily substituted by a person's looks, accent, charisma and personality which tend to saturate the content and subject matter. Furthermore, seemingly 'likeable' people can be more persuasive in their rhetoric and therefore captivate their audience in what some might view as a primitive manner. However, There are clearly more layers to this topic which I could not possibly cover or even begin to understand and deviate from person to person.
This isn't a ripping on vloggers by the way. I'm sure some put a lot of work into making the quality of their content as good as possible. On a final note, fuck Jenna Marbles. Thanks for reading folks!
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