Lights, camera, action!

THE simple act of writing a diary online, describing one’s thoughts and opinions, has evolved over the years to something more complex, fascinating and fulfilling. The bloggers of today are not content with simply making an account on Blogger and typing in a random entry every now and then. They want to do something more.

And this is where video blogging (or vlogging) comes in. The content of a video blog is essentially video clips which have been shot by the blogger in question. These clips can either be personal and completely random or they can follow a particular theme; for instance, education, environment or politics, decided again by the vlogger.

Vlogging is simple enough once you get the hang of it. All you really need is a digital camera with which you can shoot the video. Once it is shot, you can transfer it to your PC via your USB and after editing, upload it on one of the many websites which allow video hosting for free. And then, all that is required is a blog in which you can post the link of the video. Your readers can easily follow the link and get the video streamed to their PCs. For additional functionality, you can add an RSS feed so that all those who regularly come to your vlog can subscribe to it.

Vlogging is a fairly recent phenomenon if the dates and events associated with it are anything to go by. It was only in November 2000 when a blogger, Adrian Miles, and Australia-based teacher, introduced vlogging. You can go through his entry at http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/vog_archive/000082.html. Hs vlog can be accessed at http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vlog/.

The very first vlog, however, didn’t come until 2004 when Steven Garfield, a Boston-based blogger, launched the first ever video blog at http://stevegarfield.blogs.com/videoblog/. It is Garfield who is considered to be the father of video blogging. To date, his vlog has a wide assortment of video clips featuring interviews, seminars and much more.

Vlogging has now caught on with the rest of the world, with vloggers being a strong virtual community in their own right. A Vlogger Conference was held in January 2005 which brought together all video bloggers and podcasters on one platform to discuss the potential of this new and very exciting form of communication.

In May 2005, the present hub of video blogging was born. That was the month in which a preview of YouTube (www.youtube.com) went online. In the following months, YouTube become a raging success. People not only used it to video blog, but they also uploaded many different programmes from the mainstream media to share with their friends, something that resulted in copyright lawsuits for the YouTube management. However, YouTube is still surviving and a popular choice for those who want to upload their video clips or watch them at ease.

As the situation with vlogging now stands, video blogging is not just a fascinating way to interact with the rest of the world, it is highly effective too. It is basically doing away with the power that people in the mainstream media have to choose what information should be disclosed to the people and what should be withheld.

With video blogging, this power lays in hands of the public. An average person going about his business on a routine day can shoot whatever he deems would be interesting, informative and entertaining to his audience and put the video up for the entire world to watch at its leisure. There is the accountability factor too. One can also shoot all those things going on in the society which shouldn’t be and use the videos as evidence. At its best, this alternative medium is actually empowering people.

But the question remains, is this trend popular in Pakistan?

“Regrettably, there are no video bloggers in Pakistan, as per my knowledge,” says S.A.J. Shirazi, a prolific blogger. “I sometimes see videos posted on Adil Najam’s blog or Asad Raza’s blog – both are expatriates. Adil Najam cross-posted a video on my blog in his August 14 post as well. But that does not mean that they are necessarily video bloggers.”

This indicates that, unfortunately, the rate at which video blogging is diffusing in Pakistan is rather slow. There can be a variety of reasons for that, the major one being, of course, that many people simply aren’t familiar with the term video blogging and its advantages. In a country like ours, where internet literacy is already low and out of that only a handful of people have chosen to blog actively, the fact that video blogging hasn’t caught on doesn’t really come across as a surprise.

Even so, it is a pity, especially when one considers the potential for video blogging in the Pakistani context. We are living in a world where Pakistan constantly comes under fire in mainstream media for various reasons. Video blogging can actually be a very good way of dispelling some of the myths about Pakistan that people from other countries believe to be true. The advantage of video blogging is that the videos don’t really have to be about celebrities or “cool” hangout places. The videos can feature the daily lives of ordinary people going about their routine work, random people talking in public buses as if they have known each other for years, shopkeepers haggling with fussy females or the whole city preparing for some festive occasion. They would all be ordinary videos but they would give off a very strong message that ours is a country just like any other. People here actually have a life and they don’t go around wearing bullet-proof vests and brandishing weapons at those who don’t agree with them.

Another benefit is that many people who come online can’t really read the extensive text on webpages or blogs without getting a severe headache. A blogger who is simply writing has to consider keeping his entry short and to the point. In contrast, a video blogger has the advantage of letting his audience see what he has to say.

In the light of the above reasons, vlogging does seem like a promising addition to the world of blogging in Pakistan. All one requires is some time and effort. For those who want to disseminate information which would never find a place on the airwaves, here is a fast and convenient way to reach out to a large number of people.