So, in looking for video blogs that I would read on a regular basis, I have had mixed results. Rocketboom is a satirical news daily that is entertaining and mildly informative. It reminds me of a high school teacher's "News of the Weird" portion of current events. I like the accent of the anchor, Joanne, and I like the option to click into links that tell more about the stories that are zipping past. My browser opens the link in a new tab, allowing me to continue hearing the audio portion of the newscast, while potentially getting more in depth information on a topic that strikes my fancy.
Another vlog I found that I'd like to go back to is called Chasing Windmills. I added this to my subscription list and then I realized that this is no longer being published as of like 8 months ago. This was a common problem. I would look for vlogs logged in directories and they would be interesting, but after su
bscribing I would realize that they weren't active anymore. A second problem being when the links no longer have video files in them, so that you can't even go back and watch the old posts. Anyway, Chasing Windmills was sort of an artsy weekly drama, filmed by people that appeared to know what they were doing, and including characters that reappeared and developed over time. Another point of interest, was that the locale was the Minneapolis area, so many familiar places show up like the Walker Art Center, etc. Also notable is that the creators of Chasing Windmills used Blogger as their platform.The audience for both series is probably a 20 to 30 something age group, likely urban in either location or background. The Chasing Windmills group used classic cinema technique, whereas the Rocketboom posts were a combination of traditional news clips of anchor slash news, with addition of sound effects, humor, and a much quicker rate of frame changeover.
1 comment:
Petra, excellent analysis of the difference between these two vlogs. The Rocketboom builds a lot on the genre of the Daily Show/Saturday Night Live new parody through the use of dead-pan irony and language parody. While a lot of it can be humorous and entertaining, it's also very derivative--I'm always wanting to know what they actually believe about these events--what's their own opinion/ideas about the world.
While both vlogs are geared for the younger audience, the Chasing vlog is quite different--operating with a different agenda, with a more local focus. It's often the case that these vlogs just come and go because people get tired doing them or they move on to something else. I'm amazed that the Minnesota Stories keeps churning out daily material, although some of it is borrowed or based on contributions.
All of this is important in terms of having students conduct some rhetorical/critical analysis of different vlogs as preparation for creating their own blogs or vlogs.
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