Vlogalism (vlog journalism) will play a very important role in our lives. No doubt about that. But as for being a true risk to mainstream journalism, that sounds like hyperbole to me. Not in politically open societies anyway. In politically repressed societies, well, that’s a different story. Possibly.
Vlogalism’s power will come from the fact that “news crews” will be literally everywhere in the world at all times.
The famous “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” video clip of University of Florida student Andrew Myer at a John Kerry speech is maybe not exactly what it seems. Or, at least, the video doesn’t tell the whole story. Possibly not even half of it. Positively shocking, isn’t it?
I wonder if one day we won’t believe anything at all, even if we do it ourselves.
As TV stations are already familiar with video and the technical aspects involved, it only makes sense that they could host vlogs more easily than most. TV stations that do it first and/or best could easily get a leg up in the highly competitive world of local TV news. Local TV news is all about community. Blogs, and by extension, vlogs, could easily be about community as well.
What is a vlog? Video blogs are on the cusp of an explosion. We haven’t even begun to see what vlogs will do or what they can be.
The Myanmar goverment, dealing with the country’s most intense political unrest in the last twenty years, is closing off access to international media organizations, but local video bloggers are taking up the slack.