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New craze hits internet
19/12/2005 10:38 - (SA)
Washington - From the internet counter-culture which spawned blogs and podcasts comes the newest thing in new media: vlogging.
In short video diaries and homemade reality shows, vloggers are using the power of cheap online technology to invite strangers into their lives.
Topics range from in-depth discussions on the meaning of the universe to crude and jerky snapshots of everyday life.
In new vlogs uploaded this week, you could take a spin through teeming Mumbai in an auto-rickshaw, drop in on the life of young Filipina vlogger Karen Avila or watch a woman simply tending a kettle in her New York apartment.
Vlogs are an offshoot of "blogs", or weblogs - diaries posted on the internet which sparked a new wave of "citizen journalism" - and their audio equivalent, podcasting.
Vlogging's time has come thanks to a new generation of cheap cameras, editing programs and simple software - plus fast broadband connections needed to download content.
It draws on the utopian dreams of pioneers who envisage a network of citizen journalists across the globe, liberated from the "we know what's best for you" patronage of established media firms.
Giant leap for vlogging
"People are interested in seeing more of real people - they are kind of getting sick of the very flashy content and want something more down to earth," said Amanda Congdon, co-writer and anchor of Rocketboom, a wildly successful New York-based vlog.
The vlogging craze hints at the coming convergence of the internet and television, and the soon-to-dawn day when programs will be offered a la carte as web downloads rather than when a media firm chooses to broadcast them.
It comes as established media companies - newspapers as well as broadcast giants - are starting to post podcasts, videocasts and video news reports alongside written content.
Apple's unveiling in October of its new video iPod was a giant leap for vlogging - as short, basic downloads are ideal for the device's small screen.
Some vloggers glimpsed the true potential of the medium after last December's Asian tsunami disaster, when home videos, many made by tourists, were all over mainstream television stations and many were uploaded to the web.
"They had their moment in the tsunami coverage, when the BBC and other (established media) opened their websites to them," said Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington.
Amateur video reporters were also out in force when Hurricane Katrina smashed the US Gulf Coast with a murderous flood surge on August 29.
No reliable estimate is available on how many people are vlogging, but one vlog map program shows sites blossoming in the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Australia. Some are also cropping up in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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