The Vlog

"The film of tomorrow appears to me as even more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel, like a confession,or a diary. The young filmmakers will express themselves in the first person and will relate what has happened to them... and it will be enjoyable because it will be true, and new...The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure. The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it, and the number of spectators will be proportional to the number of friends the director has.The film of tomorrow will be an act of love.”
(François Truffaut, published in Arts magazine, May 1957, Source: Miami New Times)

Vlogs or video blogging had a surge in popularity in 2005 in conjunction with Apple releasing its video-playing iPods. Vlogging is essentially the practice of blogging using video in the space of text. A typical vlog entry consists of an embedded video or video link with supporting text, metadata and possibly images. Like blogs, vlogs are also diverse and range from how-to tutorials, to candid musings about one's day.

Due to it being so cheap to produce a vlog, anyone can potentially do it, provided they have the equipment. News vlog, Rocketboom was able to produce its daily vlog for a mere $20 a day, and with this budget still managed to have 30,000 daily views. Rocketboom was watched by a large audience, but generally vlogging is not about reaching the masses. Instead, the relationship between the viewer and the vlogger is of the greatest importance.

Despite this, Vlogging was not embraced enthusiastically by much of the blogging community, as according to Rob Hyndman, "blogging should not be made into TV" (2006). Many predicted that the growing popularity of vlogging would mean a decrease in worthwhile online content and a reversion to the passive consumption of media.

However, vloggers argue that through vlogging one "can form real friendships...that would never take place among bloggers"(Robert Robbins, 2008). How precicely this community is created is the question, when linking, an integral part of blogging and its community, is not possible.