Gamer Culture, Gaming Videos, Technology
Has Video Killed the Weblog Star?
The web has undergone a steady evolution of hosted multimedia outlets. As technology permitted, each trend would explode and spread like wildfire across the world. First came free hosting, followed by written blogs, then podcasts, and now the latest sensation: video blogs. But what do these video blogs mean for online journalism?
Leave LittleBigPlanet aloooooone!!!
With the means of self-expression through multimedia becoming more accessible to the public, anyone can produce their own video. But that’s almost the problem… Anyone can do it. As we’ve seen from American Idol auditions, just because someone can do something, doesn’t mean that they necessarily should. With video now entering the arena, the internet has the potential to becoming a new form of television with thousands of channels, but nothing good on.
What makes the phenomenon additionally troublesome is how hard it is to find quality amidst all the quantity. Finding a show that truly captures us can be a grueling, time-consuming task. We usually have to endure ten giggling teenage goofballs or asinine social misfits before we discover a single video produced by a competent person of talent. To add to our peril, if a certain show or genre of video is popular, there’s often a swarm of copycats surrounding it, making it difficult to decipher the echo from the voice.
I don't care what you're reviewing; you're cute as a button!
Fortunately for writers like myself, the written word will always persevere, mostly due to its fast-paced nature. Written articles can be published and consumed within minutes, while videos and even podcasts take hours (sometimes days) to record and properly edit before they’re ready for their audience.
Much like what came and passed with blogs and podcasts, time is on the side of us writers. Once the video fad cools down, the herd will begin to thin. After years of Live Drama, and social networks like MySpace and Facebook, I’m finally finding some truly excellent blogs on the web. Many that are maintained by professional journalists that blog on the side with their own interesting views. Others by those with just a strong passion for topics that get me jazzed as well.
As the next inevitable internet fad comes along to lead the fickle masses away like a digital pied piper, only the faithful shall remain to rule over their respective mediums. Such, I pray, will become the fate of the rock stars of YouTube and the like.
