Vlogging Vs Blogging

As a blogger and video blogger, choosing and comparing both of these subjects for my moving on assignment seemed both logical and interesting. I have never really concentrated on the differences between the two, nor the differences of "YouTube" or "Tumblr".

My aim is to be able to truly establish the differences between video blogging and traditional online blogging, I hope to do this by not only looking at the clear physical differences, but to also dig deeper into the linguistics and features of the online hobby.

 

 

 

 

"Vlogs" or "Vlogging" means video blogging; by blending the two words together it has become a frequent word in online jargon. It is the same for addressing someone who partakes in video blogging; they get assigned the title "vlogger".

 

I researched the linguistic features that make up the back bone of blogging. I.e. register, dramaturgical features, jargon, tenses. I also looked at how the blogger may present themselves by the way they write or talk. I started off my research by looking at these features on Wikipedia, not only did the page provide me with a little bit of information but I also utilised the "see also" section, where it helped gather new ideas on the different aspects of Blogging.

 

Although Vlogging and blogging takes 2 different forms, there is no real significant difference in the register as they are both formal (One-way participation and certain lexis to do with the subject). Likewise with tenses, after watching several Vlogs and reading blog entries I realised that on average the speaker will usually be talking about a past event, a current event and a future event and will be using a past simple and present simple tense i.e. "I have recently taken up jogging."

 

David Crystal's blog (http://www.davidcrystal.com/David_Crystal/internet.htm) also helped provide me with plenty of articles, outlining the fad and how powerful language on the internet can be. For example, in his article "A linguistic revolution?" he discusses the "cocktail party of messages" in reality you cannot talk to 30 people and pay attention to them individually, vice versa, but online, you can interact with more people at one time. To then combine the two, i.e. Spoken blogging; means that the impact could be twice as powerful. The words may sink in more than those typed up in Helvetica font on your cousins Tumblr page.

 

Not only that, but Vlogging can be a performance. I'm still yet to meet one Vlogger who acts the same in real life, as they do in their videos. This can be explained by Goffman's dramaturgical model. According to Goffman, we all put on a performance or a "mask", this gives people an impression of our social behaviour which we want them to see, i.e. on stage face. An example of this would be my good friend Jason.

 

He is a Vlogger, when I met him he was shy and quiet, I then saw his Vlogs, where he was eccentric, used lots of hand gestures and had strong body language. I find that when I'm reading his blog entries, I don't gain the same amount of energy, although you can add colloquialism and lots of exclamation marks, the effect isn't quite there.

 

Not only that but I find there is a growing community of Vloggers, not only has it escalated to collaborations from either side of the world, the YouTube community has its own lexicon of words i.e. "down bar", "doobly doo" and "subs"

 

Vlogging is a growing hobby of teenagers my age, and I think that if other generations are to look at what we do as "vloggers"and bloggers and to immediately associate them as the same, it would be like comparing a screenwriter with an actor, it's hard enough when we all get labelled the kids who "spend far too much time on the internet and will get square eyes"

by Emily Parsons