Comparing the Blogosphere and Vlogosphere

Although blogging and vlogging do quintessentially the same thing in recording a user’s thoughts, the way that each respective community sustains itself is notably different.

Due to the linking being impossible from within a video to another video, the web-like structure of the blogging community does not apply to the same extent to the vlogosphere. However, as viewing a vlog is far more personal than reading a blog entry because one gets to physically see the producer in action, the audience can feel closer to a vlogger. The only problem is maintaining the conversations that may sprout from a video as this is far more difficult than if they were to have been raised in a blog.

Vlogging has been described as a passive medium in comparison to blogging, due to its similarities with television. However, vlogging will always have an audience because “sometimes passively consuming media is all a person wants” (Pavlik et al. 2005). The act of vlogging however, can hardly be described as a passive activity, as the videos have to be physically created.

In the online environment, there will always be a space for both vlogging and blogging because the two different practices provide different things. The blogosphere is more generally used as a source of information, whereas products of the vlogosphere can provide limitless entertainment.

Due to the restrictions of its format however, the vlogging community is forced to interact primarily through comments on individual videos or by video responding to one another. As vlogging by nature, is not as fast and accessible a practice as blogging in terms of finding content or creating it, the on-going conversation amongst vloggers, if it occurs, is stilted and difficult to follow.

Although vlogs are the “film of tomorrow” according to , the community centred on vlogging, due to the limitations of the format, are not encouraged to interact and discuss to the extent that blogging with its potential innumerable links allows.