More is less

This may seem ironic having spent all my working life in broadcasting but I have really mixed feelings about the current rush towards audio-blogging and video-blogging.

To me they are both, in many cases, much less efficient than text. With text I can scan, I can jump sections, I can glance away for seconds without interrupting the flow of meaning and so on and so on. With audio I have to go at its pace. I have to wait for some tedious podcaster to witter for ten minutes before he gets to the point - without even being sure sometimes that he is going to have a point! With video I have to stop what I am doing and look at it.

A case in point is David Weinberger's video announcing his intention to video blog Supernova. To be fair to David I know he is just playing around with the medium but it does show up the issues.

In order to know what was in the video I had to start watching it - unlike text where I could scan and get an idea of the content before deciding to invest time in it. Despite David's obvious visual charm I have to say I stopped watching after a minute and just listened to the audio as I went back to surfing other blogs. Even doing this I still had to give the audio more attention than I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything and ended up half surfing , half listening.

At the end of the day the video was simply imparting factual information that I could have got better from text - including the hyperlink that David had to hold up scribbled on a bit of paper and speak two or three times in case I missed it!

Audio and video can seem sexy and fun, and there is little doubt that the web is an amazingly powerful way to distribute video and audio content and will change the media world for ever, but it is more a case of using the most effective tools for each job and I guess that is something we are all learning.

Comments

[Steve Garfield]

Dave's video can be improved by putting it into a blog post.

That way he can link to the URL that he mentioned in the video.

http://supernova2005.news.com <-- not working

Putting the video in a blog post would also give you the power of blogs, which his stand alone example does not.

You'd get comments, RSS, metadata. I'm sure you know all this.

Also, for those that like to read text posts, Dave could choose to add approriate links that support the video, links to people he interviews the their sites.

He might post a transcript of the video.

So let me know when the "video blog' really goes online...

[Euan]

This is indeed a small world Steve.

Just before writing this post I had followed the links from the socialsoftwarewebblog to The Broadcast Machine - hence my comment about the web as a powerful distribution method for stories - whether text audio or video.

There is clearly a lot of additional "info" that video affords in terms of facial expressions, setting, even style of dress - and I guess that's my point. In the right place in the right combination with other info it can add value. In the wrong place and in isolation it can datract from the message.

[Julian]

Another example of the scenery being better on radio? Or perhaps more about different modalities suiting different tasks - for example if you have to be away from the "device" that is delivering your message then nothing beats audio (think about listening to the morning news whilst you get ready for work)

[Bernie Goldbach]

I think you get more return for your time invested when you stick with 30-second videoblog trailers and ensure there's a textual dimension to whatever you produce for video.

[Piers]

V much agree - I suppose in a way the audio/visual stuff supports the text, rather than the other way round.

[Piers]

... though I don't know how this fits in ;)

[Euan]

Yeah saw that Piers - bonkers!