How to watch video blogs

As video blogs have become more popular, companies have designed products to make video blogging easier for both the content producer (the blog's owner) and the viewer. ANT, also known as AntisnotTV, and Mefeedia are tools designed to allow you to subscribe to video feeds, arrange playlists according to your preferences, and watch the feeds as if you were watching TV. Both ANT and Mefeedia offer slightly different features and user interfaces, but both provide forums and resources to users to make the video blogging experience enjoyable. Both are available for free.

About video blogs

Video blogs, sometimes referred to as vlogs, are gaining in popularity. Video blogging has been the topic of several articles in major publications, including Forbes Magazine, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. Video blogging entails many of the same elements as regular blogs, but the add a video component. Videoblogging.info offers a lot of information on video blogging for everyone from the beginner to the pro.

Finding quality video blogs

Video blogs are springing up all over the Internet. Some of them offer interesting, stimulating content, and some of them are pure garbage. Michael Meisner offers an RSS feed that more and more video blogging aficionados are coming to rely on. You can subscribe to Michael Meisner's RSS feed if you use a video blog aggregator like ANT or Web-based interface like Mefeedia. Other places you can see a list of recently updated video blogs is Videoblogging.info and Vidblogs.com.

Setting up a video blog

Assuming you have a video camera and are already familiar with digital editing of, say, your home movies, setting up a video blog involves four primary steps. First, you need to sign up for services with a blog host. Blogger.com is one of the most popular, it's free, and it offers video blogging support. Second, you need to sign up for image hosting services with a host such as Flickr.com. Third, you need to upload your video the an Internet archive. Finally, you need to create an RSS feed with enclosures (in other words, the video). For more information on this process, visit Videoblogging.info. This forum offers tons of resources on how to set up a video blog.

Video blogs and citizen journalism

Citizen journalism is when everyday people take news reporting into their own hands. Text blogs have been a boon to citizen journalism, as seen in the host of citizen journalism blogs out of news hot spots like Iraq. Now, video blogs are coming into their own. Most recently, people in the areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster began video blogging to share details of the devastation and destruction that occurred throughout the region. You can read more about citizen journalism and video blogs at Poynter.org and Videoblogging.info.