Vlogs - Video Blogs - The Next Big Thing On the Internet

Mainstream print and broadcast media (newspapers, news magazines, trade journals, radio, TV) are rapidly losing their role as the privileged gatekeepers of news and entertainment. Most people now get their news first from the Internet. Internet based news sources such as Yahoo! News have larger readership than all but a handful of traditional print publications. Some blogs, the personal journals published on the Internet, have readership levels matching or exceeding the circulation of many traditional newspapers and trade journals. Citizen journalists not associated with traditional news outlets now often break important news stories. While websites and blogs have made it possible for virtually any individual to become a publisher of "print" stories, video blogs (also known as vlogs, v-logs, vblogs, vidblogs, video casts, vidcasts, vcasts and v-casts) - now make it easy to produce and distribute AV (audio/video) files on the Internet. Video Blogs of Tsunami The 2004 Indian ocean tsunami brought the power of vlogs into focus. Video bloggers posted compelling amateur video of the disaster soon after the tsunami struck Phuket and Patong in Thailand, Penang in Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. Most of the amateur video producers were tourists. Unable to get their production crews to the sites of the damage, mainstream television networks and local TV stations, filched the v-bloggers' video segments off the Internet and aired them repeatedly, validating the value of amateur video and portending future uses of amateur video news reports and commentary. Many video blogs approach the production values of commercial TV. Low cost production tools make vlogs affordable for most individuals. The tools provide v-bloggers with teleprompters so that they can read prepared scripts just like news readers on commercial TV stations. The software also permits timed insertion of prepared graphics. Some inexpensive software even has "green screen" capabilities, allowing v-bloggers to insert a picture of a location in the background and appear to be broadcasting from that location - in front of a corporate headquarters, for example. By utilizing the standard production values of commercial TV, a vlog production can be indistinguishable from mainstream media, thereby gaining instant credibility. The proliferation of 3G cell phones with built-in digital video camera gives millions of people the first basic necessity for vlogs - the ability to instantly capture a live event and, if necessary, to pretty much do it surreptitiously. One can certainly envision a future with amateur "bloggerazzi" carrying digital cell phone cameras or inconspicuous webcams. Current Video Blogs As you would expect, many current video blogs focus on children, as proud parents show off their achievements. Exhibitionists are posting sexually explicit Paris Hilton-type videos. But, the video blogosphere is mostly attracting individuals who fancy themselves the new Andy Rooney (commentator), or John Stewart (comic), or Jay Leno (show host), or Steven Spielberg (movie producer/director), or Roger Ebert (movie critic), or Rush Limbaugh (conservative political pundit), or Jim Cramer (financial pundit), or David Horowitz (product critic), or Michael Moore (corporate critic), or Ralph Nader (activist), - or some combination of those folks. Most video bloggers seek to position themselves as a "guru" of their niche - a position from which they can accrue influence, power and possibly riches. Some have already achieved cult status. One of the more popular daily video blogs is the slickly-produced Rocketboom (DrudgeReport. Golson has subsequently removed most videos because he couldn't afford to pay for the bandwidth required to deliver video clips. In Boston, Steve Garfield practices citizen journalism by producing videos (http://www.buzzmachine.com/), a former TV critic for TV Guide and People, creator of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday Editor of the NY Daily News, and a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner, blogs and vlogs about media. (See his v-log about Fast Food at Channel 9, a v-blog set up by Microsoft, enables the company and its employees to better communicate with software developers by providing them with interviews and product demonstrations. The site attracts 900,000 viewers per month. The comic OurMedia.org, an open source citizen journalist project and http://www.tropisms.org and