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Caroline Bast

Lacee Nisbett

EN 102

3/1/19

Research Scope

Since the early 2000s, a new way of journalism and voicing opinions has come into play

that has definitely been proven as popular. Blogging and Vlogging, or video blogging, has

recently allowed so many people to come out of their comfort zones and show the world who

they really are. There are no rules; meaning there does not have to be a specific topic that these

influencers and bloggers talk about. Over the years, technology has definitely become much

more advanced allowing people to go above and beyond in the way they record and edit videos,

or the way someone designs their blog in order to get someone’s attention. Throughout this

relatively new form of journalism, the genres are to talk about or the type of blogger an

influencer could be considered, is endless. However, a major thing that also comes with blogging

and vlogging, is the bias and controversy. Not everyone has the same opinions, so when a viewer

or a reader comes across something that they might not agree with, their opinions may also be

voiced. As easy as it is to watch and read something, it is also just as easy to talk poorly about

the things they don’t agree with and start unnecessary controversy and allow others to form

wrong opinions about influencers that they might genuinely like. So, even through the massive

amounts of hate and people doubting this online journalism, how to bloggers and vloggers

continue to have a positive impact on today’s social media world? For this research, I will focus
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on the different genres and styles of blogging and vlogging and get a better understanding of the

educational aspect of online and social journalism.

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Annotated Bibliography

Condruz, M. (2017). ​Blogging, Vlogging - From Entertainment to Education​. 13th ed. Bucharest,

Romania, pp.369-376.

In this informative paper, Monica Condruz does an exceptional job of explaining the

major differences of blogging and vlogging and how they can both be used for

entertainment and educational reasons. The educational aspect may be the more focused

on topic in this paper, however, it is mentioned that both blogs and vlogs have practical

skills that influence the purpose of learning. In the first part of this paper, the focus is on

blogging while the second portion is focused on vlogging. Condruz gives an in depth

explanation of educational blogs and also gives a positive reminder that there is not a

specific type of person who is allowed to vlog, as “people of all ages and from all over

the world make their voice heard and build impressive communities around online video

content,” (369). While influencers may make vlogs or blogs for entertainment, over the

years and once following these videos and posts became more popular, teachers began to

be able to use both for educational purposes. While blogging and vlogging has their

advantages and disadvantages, they also have the characteristics to make the quality of

learning much better for students all around the world.

This paper can definitely be used towards a potential thesis in my paper as it has prime

examples of how these two medias have the opportunities to improve education

everywhere as students are able to connect with these influencers since their names have

become so familiar due to how much technology has improved.

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Boylan, Stephen. “Year of the Vlog.” ​Gay Community News,​ no. 311, Nov. 2015, pp.

24–25. ​EBSCOhost​,

libdata.lib.ua.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qth

&AN=110583792&site=eds-live&scope=site.

In Stephen Boylan’s article, “Year of the Vlog”, he takes a stance on the gay and bisexual

vloggers out on youtube. While this article strictly focuses on vlogs and YouTube, it still

appeals to the thought that people trust what these influencers say because although not

every single video is serious and they are giving a straight opinion on one topic in each

video, when it comes to the serious topics, viewers trust their favorite influencers,

because like mentioned in the article, YouTubers aren’t “[celebrities] behind bodyguards

and velvet ropes,” (25). Instead, they are just like normal people. Boylan focuses on a

vulnerable part of every person, sexuality, but approaches it in a way that makes the

readers understand that if all of the mentioned YouTubers mentioned in this article can

voice who they are through a camera and a little bit of editing, then no one should feel

like this social media platform, YouTube, is a place of full acceptance where there are no

limitations on who someone can be.

Although I don’t know much about the LGBT community, which is what this article

primarily focuses on, I do think this piece would be very beneficial in my research paper

because it has such a positive take on expressing yourself through social media and not

being afraid to do it. Often, people hide behind screens without any fear or guilt in the

words they type. However, Boylan further proved how much of a positive influence
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vlogging has on today’s society and how there are much more happy and accepting

people than those who like to put people down.

Cunningham, Stuart, and David Craig. “Being ‘Really Real’ on YouTube: Authenticity,

Community and Brand Culture in Social Media Entertainment.” ​Media International

Australia (8/1/07-Current)​, vol. 164, no. 1, Aug. 2017, pp. 71–81. ​EBSCOhost,​

doi:10.1177/1329878X17709098.

In this article, Cunningham and Craig stress the point of authenticity on YouTube. In

order for a video content influencer to gain a following and have an impact of their

viewers, they need to be real and should not be afraid to show who they really are.

Otherwise, their following would be looking up to someone who is different than who

they really say. While this article doesn’t seem like the authors have a full understanding

of social media entertainment, as they describe some of it as “self-absorbed vlogging and

beauty tips, addictive gameplay and sophomoric stunt comedy, (72), they do mention

how the social norms that we have today shape the creators into who they are and how

they display their content. Authenticity is the most important thing when it comes to

showing the true colors of a person online for billions of people to see.

Being authentic only benefits creators in the sense that being themselves allows them to

create better videos as well as confidence about who they really are. This fits into my

research paper because if a creator wasn’t themselves, blogging and vlogging would not
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be such a positive environment if every creator was putting on a mask to hide who they

really are.
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Research Synthesis

Although in my research I kind of focused on the articles that contained positive

information about blogging and vlogging, There are definitely aspects in each piece that I could

use to counteract some of the positive claims in order to make it less biased. I think it would be

beneficial if I used all three of the sources in this annotated bibliography because while they all

generally cover the same topic, the specifics within each article allows me to expand on the

smaller points. For example, in Stephen Boylan’s article, I mentioned in my short summary that I

am not an expert on the LGBT community. However, the main points all tie back to my major

research question. I definitely think I am finding answers to my research question and I would

say I am currently in a good place with it. I am excited to work on my final paper and allow my

audience to look into the depth of vlogging and blogging at the same time that I am learning so

much more stuff that I didn’t know before. My current argument on my topic is that social media

entertainment, meaning blogging and vlogging, has made such a positive impact on people all

around the world and have allowed people to become much more comfortable with themselves

and their actions after seeing how many influencers and creators there are that have given

themselves a name on the internet and seeing how happy they are.