The rapid expansion of vlogs

This particular entry was inspired by yet another article from the New York Times. This time from yesterdays paper. The piece entitled TV Stardom on $20 a Day, continues the discussion on the rapidly growing culture surrounding video-blogs (vlogs) and some of the numerous implications for the increasingly frustrated and oversaturated viewers market. As the author suggests, "the rapid expansion in the number of vlogs and Web sites offering video podcasts strongly suggests how bored viewers are getting with standard commercial TV: a growing number of them are willing to seek out alternatives online, or just create one themselves."
As the author correctly asserts, the implications and possibilities abound. "In the right hands, vlogs can become microdocumentaries of surprising beauty, wit and intelligence." Moreover, because of the ease and speed with which high-quality content can be produced and distributed additional questions of authority, agency, etc. seem to pop-up as quickly as each new vlog entry.

For instance, the Minneapolis correspondent for Rocketboom, Chuck Olsen, has a section entitled Minnesota Stories (which is definitely worth a look) and maintains a video diary Secret Vlog Injection, which recently featured a video discussing "copyright issues and the philosophical difference between the world-views of the vloggers and traditional media companies."