Blogs, Vlogs, and Video Essays

Introduction

• A blog is an online journal that is regularly updated. Blogs are often devoted to writing or “posting” about a particular topic. Unlike private journals, blogs encourage readers to interact through written feedback, and bloggers often provide links to similar or useful sites. In this way bloggers help create an online community, or social network, of people who connect and share information and opinions about a topic.
• There are many sites available that allow you to create blog space for free. Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress are among the most popular, and creating blog space on these sites is as easy as creating an account, pointing and clicking on style options, and then posting your text and images.

• A video blog or video log, usually shortened to vlog, is a form of blog for which the medium is video, and is a form of web television. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take or cut into multiple parts. Vlog category is popular on the video-sharing platform YouTube.
• Much like photo essays and traditional essays, video essays tell a story or make a point. The difference is that video essays use video to present the information.

Blogs

Dos and Don’ts

• Do keep blog entries short and don’t include too many ideas at once. Don’t take too long getting to your point.

• Do write clearly and concisely. Remember that your reader may be reading your post quickly, so by writing clear, short paragraphs your reader can easily grasp the point you’re making.

• Do use keywords (terms or ideas) which relate to your topic. Keywords will help both search engines and individual users find your blog more easily, which will increase your readership.

• Don’t use jargon or terms your readers might not understand.

Audience and Voice

Who will be your target audience for your blog? Who will be likely to read it? Who do you hope will read it? Keeping your audience in mind will help you be more effective from the very beginning.

The same idea applies with voice. A friendly, conversational style is what usually works and it’s your personality or voice, along with interesting content that is going to hook the reader. Your voice will identify you and your blog: Do you want to be funny? Ironic? Edgy? Snappy? Passionate? Find a tone that is natural to you.

Getting and Keeping Your Reader’s Attention

Make sure your opening is lively and hooks your reader so he or she wants to read on.

Using effective headlines for your posts will bring attention to your blog. Make them descriptive and clear. Give your headlines some thought; keep them short, include keywords, if possible, and design them to grab the reader’s attention.

What is going to make your reader return to your blog? Have something interesting, funny and / or substantial to say. Write about experiences and memories, interesting articles, websites and books, and consider interviewing interesting people.

Readers are most likely to respond to your blog, especially initially, if you ask their opinions.

A Web of Information

Link to other sites to establish a web of information and people with similar interensts, but don’t just provide links. Have something interesting to say so the links you provide establish you as a person in a network. Let your voice add to the online conversation about your topic.

Be sure to give credit where credit is due. Don’t pass off someone else’s idea or information as your own.

Wait 24 Hours

If you’re writing about a topic that makes you especially emotional (angry, frustrated, sad, etc.), or if you have written a post that is especially personal and revealing, wait 24 hours before you post it to make sure you really do want to post that particular entry.

Proofread

Be sure to make time to edit and proofread your entries before you post. Don’t post any writing that is poorly written, hard to follow, or has spelling or grammar errors.

Announce Updates

Remember to announce to your readers how often you will update your blog, and make it realistic depending on your lifestyle and schedule.

Vlogs

In recent years Vlogging has evolved into a giant community on social media where people can release any information that they want. Vlogs are a unique way for people to help people in so many aspects of their lives. Written Blogs can’t provide a visual design in the ways Vlogs can deliver deeper context through imagery.

Video logs (vlogs) also often take advantage of web syndication to allow for the distribution of video over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for automatic aggregation and playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

YouTube

Vlogging saw a strong increase in popularity beginning in 2005. The most popular video sharing site, YouTube, was founded in February 2005. The site’s co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first YouTube vlog clip Me at the zoo on his channel “jawed” in April 2005. The ordinary “everydayness” and “dry aesthetics” of Me at the zoo set the tone for the type of amateur vlogging content that would become typical of YouTube, especially among YouTubers. By July 2006, YouTube had become the fifth most popular web destination, with 100 million videos viewed daily and 65,000 new uploads per day. The Yahoo! Videoblogging Group also saw its membership increase dramatically by August 2005.

Many open source content management systems have enabled the inclusion of video content, allowing bloggers to host and administer their own video blogging sites. In addition, the convergence of mobile phones with digital cameras allows publishing of video content to the Web almost as it is recorded. Radio and television stations may use video blogging as a way to help interact more with listeners and viewers.[citation needed]

Youtube has become a popular platform in order for people to express their emotions to create a giant social community. It has created a place to bring strangers together to reassure each other of their own experiences for any time and place. The emotional exchange and support that Vloggers seek due to a sizeable amount of friendly comments makes making bereavement Vlogs a united and common act.

VidCon

Hosted in Los Angeles, California, VidCon is an annual convention that allows YouTube content creators and viewers to come together in order to share content ideas and business contacts. The first VidCon event was held on July 10 and 11, 2010, and has now become the largest in-person gathering of Internet creators, viewers, and representatives. This convention realizes that the ways in which society entertains, educates, shares, and communicates are being revolutionized, and chooses to highlight this fact via panels, meet and greets, and talks given to audiences at the convention.

Video Essays

When you make a video essay, you can use video, pictures, text, music, and / or narration to create a video essay that is powerful and effective. If you think about, many music videos are actually video essays, so chances are, you know a lot more about video essays than you might think. And, because the creation of videos for YouTube has become so popular, many professors are assigning video essays as an alternative to traditional essays. The sample video essay linked at the right will give you a good idea about how videos and essay come together to create an argument in a video essay. Just click on the image to visit the link.

The process for creating a video essay isn’t that different from creating a traditional essay—at least in the beginning. However, you’ll be working with a lot more technology as you put a video essay together. Still, thanks to some excellent video editors, creating a video essay isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

The following steps will help you get going with your project:

• Develop a topic. Using traditional prewriting, work to narrow your topic into something specific. If you’re telling a story, think about good elements of narrative. If you’re making an argument in your video essay, think about the elements of effective argument. Once you have your topic and angle, you’re ready for the next step.
• Create an outline and a basic script for your video.
• Collect your images. You can use still images and / or video you film yourself, but you’ll need to plan for more pictures or footage than you’ll need in order to have plenty of good content to work with.
• Collect your voice files and / or music. Free Creative Commons music can be found at the Creative Commons Legal Music For Videos site.
• Upload your files into your video editing software and begin the process of creating your video essay. Windows Movie Maker and iMovie for Macs work well, and you can find other options for free movie-editing software on the web.
• Share your video essay. You can share your video essay with the world on your web page or on YouTube.

Summary

Key terms include:

• Blog: an online posting, often informal, that is regularly updated. Blogs are normally dedicated to one topic.
• Vlog: a form of blog for which uses video instead of text.
• Video essay is an essay told (or read aloud) in video form.

Sources:

“Blog Considerations.” By Excelsior Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from: https://owl.excelsior.edu/online-writing-and-presentations/blogs/blogs-considerations/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Blogs.” By Excelsior Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from: https://owl.excelsior.edu/online-writing-and-presentations/blogs/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Video Essays.” By Excelsior Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from: https://owl.excelsior.edu/online-writing-and-presentations/multi-modal-writing/multi-modal-writing-video-essays/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Vlog.” By Wikipediam.org. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipediam.org/wiki/Vlog Licensed under: CC-BY