Video Bloggers Archives

It's amazing how unused to receiving criticism reporters can be. Since writing about the future of journalism in Chicago this week here on Chicagosphere (and my Chicago Carless and Huffington Post Chicago bylines), I've been inundated with comments from reporters telling me that I don't have the right to share my opinion or voice dissent when it comes to reporters...because I'm not a journalist myself. (For example, see Kane County journalist Dan Campana's comments here.) In today's video post I ask my audience, do you think you should believe everything you read just because a reporter writes it?

Yesterday afternoon, Alderman Helen Shiller posted a lengthy response on the 46th Ward website regarding the widely viewed August 13th Uptown riot video and the firestorm of controversy surrounding it. Given the gravity of the situation for Uptown residents, it's a response worthy of a line-by-line analysis by a communications strategist. Being one, myself (how useful is that?), that's exactly what I've done. Read on to learn why I think Shiller's response doesn't fit the crime.

Each week on his Beyond the Pedway video blog, freelence web developer Tim Jahn interviews the leaders of creative Chicago companies to learn what makes them tick--and why they call the Windy City home.

When mediabistro reported the firing of Scotty Iseri last week, it seemed like a golden era of Windy City videoblogging hijinks might be coming to a close. Last June after seven years as a freelance foley artist (that's sound designer to you and me), Iseri launched Scotty Got an Office Job (SGAOJ), a hysterically sneaky video blog lampooning the absurdity of corporate-cubicle culture recorded from inside his workplace (with lots of nifty post-production thrown in). 

The greatest thing to happen to my personal blog this year was the inspiration I got from my hit-and-run ex to purchase a Flip Mino camcorder. The sub-$200, super-sub-compact wonder fits in my pocket with room to spare for my iPhone and takes an hour of digital video.

Some say video blogging, or vlogging (God, please never give me reason to use that uber-cute diminutive in a sentence again), is yet another excuse for bloggers to syndicate boredom across the Internet. True, anything can be done badly. Especially blogging.

Wise bloggers, however, use their webcams and mini-camcorders as an extension of their own personalities--the same way they use their blogs--to cut to the chase and let the world know what's important to them, and why. Some use humor, others use pathos. But when they do it right, video bloggers leave you knowing a little more about their worldviews, and happier for having been taken on the journey.